Hi everyone! Blogger picked a bad time for its auto publish function to stop working, but I just posted yesterday´s post as well. Please make sure to check it out below this one.
By: Steph Damore (aka Allegory19)
You all have one right? The Best Sellers lists, literary acclaim, book tours, six-figure advances… or maybe your dream is smaller, like walking into the bookstore and seeing your novel on the shelf.
Me?
I have this dream. It’s summer time. I wake up at 6 a.m. and lie in bed for a few minutes. It doesn’t take long for my mind to wake up and the writing to start. Afraid the ideas will slip away, I get up and escape down the hall to the computer room. The house is quiet, and I can just write and write and write.
This is actually the dream that I get to live every day. I’m not published. I’ve never sold any of my work. But I’m blessed.
So what about you? What’s your writing dream?
To quote someone very wise and anonymous, "My goal as a writer is not to achieve fame and fortune, but to have entire fanfiction archives devoted to my novels."
For someone to think "she gets me."
Thanks for asking, Stephanie. Great post.
My dream is to be able to support myself and family with a writing career. I spend as much time as possible pursuing that dream, but when I do it takes time away from my family. I have a full time job, so I have to write when I can find the time. I dream about a time when I can spend my days writing, promoting, and networking.
My dream is to see my books used in public school curriculum. Some may think would ensure that no teen would ever enjoy reading them because they're perfunctory, but what can you do but dream your dreams?
…to have at least one person truly connect with one of my stories
…to continually improve and never settle into a rut
…to always have too much to write and not enough time to do it
…to teach/mentor the next generation of writers
My writing dream is to inspire at least one other person to become an author. The first collection of short stories I ever read by Haruki Murakami,"The Elephant Vanishes" is the what inspired me to write.
If one of my stories could some day have the effect Murakami's had on me I'd feel like I was truly an accomplished author.
All right. I promise that, after this, I won't write another comment for the Tues./Wed. guest posts, but I just can't resist applauding two of this morning's commenters…
Literature Crazy –
IMO, your dream is a wonderful one… I read some amazing books in public/private school – books that inspired me to be a writer. And I while I might not have been a typical student (I loved, after all, perfunctory reading assignments like THE SCARLET LETTER and THE SOUND AND THE FURY), many of the books I read then are still with me today. I think it's a terrific dream to hope you'll be able to inspire and affect young minds. Good for you!
And Lydia –
I absolutely LOVE your four-part dream. To connect with at least one reader, continually evolve as a writer, never run out of ideas (and passion), and be able to teach others… may we all be so blessed! That's better than a beach house or a Pulitzer any day. 🙂
I just wanted to say-(rather late I know)….that I loved reading all the comments. It's not often that you get to hear the dreams of adults. Thanks for sharing
My dream…to become a better writer-to be published-to teach my children to dream and make a difference
My dream is to tell stories that sing to people's souls. That way, when I die and meet St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, a lot of good karma will follow me there.
I have this dream of writing a book that gets published that opens people's eyes. I want people to read my book madly and fall in love with it so much they don't care who wrote it and don't even remember who it's by. They just devour it and it makes a difference in their lives.
I also have this egotistical dream of having my book in print but not telling my family and then strolling through a book store with them and having them say "Hey! Wait a minute! That's…. your book!"
😀
teehee.
My writing dream begins with shapimg my novel into the kind of book that leaves readers reluctant to leave the characters. After a breathless, "Wow," they have to take a moment to disconnect from the world of the novel and enter the corporeal world again.
Then said novel is accepted by an agent an published by a major publisher. This gives me the credibility to teach writing workshops and not feel like I'm ripping people off. I make enough money writing and teaching workshops to quit my day job and help with marketing the book, which is nominated for an Edgar. My husband is able to quit his job, and he and our dogs travel with me to the workshop locations.
Since I no longer have to work full time, I spend most of year writing and marketing my books. In the summer, I teach a ten-week literacy workshop for teenagers with dyslexia. (We read in the morning, publish in the afternoon, donate our published works to various community programs, and have weekly visits from well-known authors.) The kids cultivate a love of learning and an appreciation for books.
I continue to write wonderful books, and am successful enough as a writer to sustain this lifestyle for the rest of my long, healthy, happy, productive life.
Sorry for the long post. I've read that writing your dream down in detail can cause it to manifest, so I'm not taking any chances!
At a convention in 2003 I somehow got to go to dinner with China Mieville, Kim Newman and Ian Watson. It was a great experience to listen to them talk. Ian talked about his work with Stanley Kubrick, they all had various John Brunner stories, and China was such a gentleman that he ordered cutlery when he heard I had never used chopsticks.
Somehow, at one point, it came out that I had 30k words written of my first ever novel, and they all kindly asked about it. I was so embarassed I couldn't even speak!
What a missed opportunity! I have been kicking myself ever since.
My writing dream is to finish that flippin novel, and go back in time and use that fantastic opportunity to fine tune my plot and characterisation with those people, as they've written some of the best SF out there. What a missed opportunity!
And I can't believe I am STILL trying to finish the same novel! Gah!
My dream is to keep writing and never lose the ability to put all my thoughts down on paper.
God, that would be the worst. Your brain still active but your body non-responsive.
My dream is to throw off the oppressive tyranny of the morning people and wake up late morning, putter, and then curl up and write until I fall asleep at the keyboard. That would be ideal.
I've got a graduated dreaming sequence. Right now, I'm dreaming of the time where I can actually write a query letter because I have a finished, polished manuscript! Ah.
Someone uses my name or book as part of a pick-up line.
Oog, I'm afraid I'm going to look terribly self-absorbed next to your dream (which I love, and also get to do, every day).
I'm being interviewed by Terry Gross about my latest book or screenplay. Loving how I sound on the radio, newfound fans flock to see the movie/buy my book and sales skyrocket. My writing continues. Husband gets to quit his day job. I get to walk my 3 dogs on my lunch hour.
Before that? Finding an agent who loves my work and sells it successfully. I don't even mean big $$, I mean gets it out there, in a fair, reasonable way.
My writing dream – definitely a room of my own. White walls, floor to ceiling book case, desk, comfy chair, laptop and a view. Ideally a sea view, but still in London so that's not very likely.
Today I fulfilled a writing dream – I sat at lunch and watched a real teenager – unrelated to me – read my book. Only an uncorrected proof, but even so…it was an amazing feeling!
My writing dream is to have my work published to the extent that my husband could quit his day job and take over the home-schooling of our sons while I write full time.
It's the little dreams. LOL!
I dream of a house actually a bungalow, with land. I have chickens and grow my own fruit and veg (I already grow a small amount).
I make bread and cheese and I have a study where I write.
I don't wan to be rich I want to be financially worry free.
My writing dream for my first novel is for it to help teenagers and also adults that are living an unsutable relationship or home to know that there is a way out and never to give up. Plus the fact that just because two people are entirely different doesn't mean that they cant fall in love. I am not worried about the money or the fame. If my book can just reach one person's life then I will be satified. Because when I was living at home, with a father who was an alcoholic, I wish there would have been a book to help me through it and let me know that just because there is an obstacle in your way doesn't mean you can't get over it and it makes you stronger in life. Also that true love really exist.
Also I would love for my screenplays, that I have written, of my books be accepted by an agent and one day be turned into movies.
Misti J.
This is my dream…
Imagine a room, about the size of a large walk-in closet. The walls and floor are covered in smooth, white bathroom tile, with a single window that has a thick tree growing in front of it. Dozens of candles gather in each corner of this room.
Imagine entering this room at the start of twilight, when the sunlight is turning blue. Close the door behind you and light every candle. Sit cross-legged in the center of the room, facing one blank wall. You watch the candlelight flicker and dance, a notebook already open in your lap, a pen in your hand. And just as the last vestiges of sunlight fade, it starts to rain…
It's a dream I first had in high school, when I decided I wanted to be a full-time writer. It's my perfect center of the universe.
I would love to be in "Taming of The Shrew" by William Shakespeare, "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, "Gone With The Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, the "Outlander" series by Diana Gabaldon, and any work by Dean Koontz. Great question.
🙂
My dream is to sell enough fiction that I can afford to live well of of the proceeds. Yes, I dream big. I want a log cabin on a lake in the mountains. I'd like a writing office with a balcony overlooking my beautiful surroundings and inspiring more and more characters, events, and settings. I make my own schedule, travel when I want, write when I want, and I'm "famous" enough that I don't have to beg agents and editors to work with me, I simply send them what I've written and they do the rest.
My dream is to be at a book signing at a NYC bookstore, piles of my book (which, of course, has a an AMAZING cover) everywhere, people lined up, excited to tell me that they love the world & people I created just as much as I do =)
Having watched, up close and personal, the writing business and the dying away of the career of an award-winning writer, I already know, up close and personal, that none of this pretty stuff actually happens.
What actually happens is: People in the book business DIE and nobody else gives a crap about your work. You labor for years and then your book doesn't sell, so you can't get another book contract. You write with stars in your eyes for ten years, only to find out that just because that one-in-a-million chance happened to *one* person on the entire planet, it's not going to happen to you and you can't make it happen to you no matter what you do. Once you finally swallow all this, you get saddled with the care of two mentally ill, handicapped relatives, thus ending any chance you ever had of writing anything at ALL.
That's the way life really is, and now I know this.
So my only dream is to wake up one morning with no dreams. No plans, no hopes, no goals, so that I don't care about any of this ever, ever again.
Period.
Sorry you've had a tough time, anon. If you've stopped enjoying it it might be a time to take a step back, but part of the reason for dreams is to take a break for the pressures of real life. But if the elusiveness of dreams are bringing you down… just remember that they're dreams, and the real pleasure in this business is enjoying the writing and the camaraderie with fellow writers, not in winning the book-equivalent of the lottery.