Write In Your Sleep

There is something beyond our mind which abides in silence within our mind. It is the supreme mystery beyond thought. Let one's mind rest on that and not rest on anything else.

-Maitvi Upanishad


I suggest we can write without use of a pen during our sleeping hours, provided we can tune in to a greater reality.

I first became familiar with Random Access Memory (RAM) and Rapid Eye movement memory (REM) when I managed a string of mattress stores and attended sleep shop seminars and conventions.

The study of sleep is a fascinating science, leading to a better understanding of how we can maintain better health through better sleep and to take it a step furhter, we can obtain a higher level of meditation and at the end of the day, we become better writers (even if we use hackneyed phrases as I just did).

Psychiatrist, psychologist and a wide variety of professionals were consulted over many arduous hours of experimentation to arrive at worthy results I am about to share with you, without hooking you up to machines to monitor your brain waves and vital signs. Assuming your mind is at least as stable as my own (probably better), I think you, too, will have favorable results.

Of course, the seminars were designed to allow mattress manufacturers to make commercial claims and manipulate a body of research to sell beds, however, I will provide you the jist of the research pertinent to good sleep, improved meditation techniques and better writing.

1) Acquisition-refers to the introduction of new information into the brain.
2) Consolidation-represents the process by which a memory becomes stable.
3) Recall-refers to the ability to access the information (whether
conciously or unconciously) after it has been stored.

Almost anything you are struggling with in your writing can be often resolved during sleep, provided the problem is known to you. For example, if you can identify the problem in your concious mind, you will be open to the process of Acquisition, step one above.

Here's how it works. Before calling it a night, write out the challenge, longhand. Maybe there is a problem with the story you are currently working on. Maybe the story is not paced properly. Is it moving too fast or too slow? Perhaps, a piece of dialog isn't working out. Maybe you aren't sure you should keep a particular scene or eliminate it.

Write it down.

Don't try to figure it out - that's the job of the unconcious mind.
Have a hot cup of tea. Read aloud what you have written and take a deep breath. Now, forget what you have written.

Pick up a favorite novel and read yourself asleep, but remember this: Don't move when you wake up. Sy it aloud, "I will not move when I wake up in the morning. I will remember the solution from my dream."

I am not ashamed of this exercise. On the other hand, of course, my family is accustom to my behavior and would be concerned if I were not running a high temperature and talking to myself. If your family members are equally understanding, then try this exercise.

Where were we? Oh, Write down the solution as soon as you get it.

It's that simple.

I alluded earlier to the two forms of sleep, REM and RAM. This research dates back to Homer. People often wake around midnight before succumbing to the second sleep. In The Haunted Mind, Nathaniel Hawthorne referred this sleep as "The Watch." He commented on this middle of the night conciousness as follows:

If you could choose an hour of wakefulness out of the whole night, it would be this. Since your sober bed time, at eleven, you have had rest enough to take the pressure off yesterday's fatigue...you have found an intermediate space, where the business of life does not intrude; where the passing moment lingers, and becomes truly present; a spot where Father Time, when he thinks nobody is watching, sits down by the wayside to take a breath.

Explore Your Dreams

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset.
-Rabindranath Tagore

A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.
-Joyce A. Meyer


A rich source of new material is within us,trying to be born. Come along with me for a moment to explore this gold mine of creativity and transcendence.

In the words of my beloved nephew, Derek Irving, "Life is constantly speaking to us."

Dreams offer a a most sincere revelation, a database of knowledge pertinent to our lives and beyond. There are hidden messages in dreams, and with just a little specific knowledge we can begin to explore a rich exciting world of the unknown.

Dreams are to the individual what myths are to civilization. A world of symbols expressing a spiritual underlying reality, not an aspect of reality, but a reality more prominent than the literal truths we so embrace.

For example, Buddhist explore the knowledge of nyo ze factors which include, influence, power, latent reality and manifest reality. (I'm not Buddhist, but I'm making a point). Now, bear with me. We have become more rational and intellectual through the developments of science but I humbly submit we have lost something in the process. We have become rich in knowledge and poor in wisdom. Science surrounds that which is manifested or understood. If you are not yet published, you are yet, a writer. Your talents are neither latent or made manifest to the world. The space between the two realites is the center of our power, governed only by the individual. Our best writing happens at this point. A deeper truth resides in the dimension we dismiss as illusion, fantasy or a distorted dream.

So it is with all dreams. Extroverted thinking in the conscious world tells us about events, history, people and politics, but the intuitive self opens us up to universal forces that underlie our existence in time and space. Our dreams have little to do with us as we know our conscious selves, the lower self. Our dreams tend to relate to the the universal history of humanity, that interdepent connection that binds us, that intuitive intelligence that realizes we are all sisters and brothers.

Its not necessary that you or your character actually interpet the dream, but the act of pondering the dream reveals character. All that matters is what we felt in the dream. The dream is a way to color the emotion. Dreams are usually profound and larger than life. If we can tap into the feelings of the character in the dream and develop a sense( not an interpretation)of its symbols, we may discover a resourceful system that has enshrined wisdom in every time and culutre.

What lies latent in your character's subsconcious?

Devour the Scene

I absolutely love Joyce Myer. Here's a quote from her.

A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.
-Joyce A. Myer

Write wherever you are. Whether you are in a park, on a boat or at the golf course. Stop for a moment and absorb the scene. Do not try to make sense of the piece. Simply write notes, using key words to describe what you see. Later, you will recall details from the same scene to invigorate your imagination.

In a park scene for instance, you might note the following. Trees. Mostly oaks. Scattered pines. Box hedges at the far side. Children kicking soccer balls. Screams. Birds chirping. Crowded parking lot. First day of Fall.

You get the point. Scenery gives us the effect of the actual motif.

You might want to extend this exercise. For example, what kind of birds are in the park? What is the state bird...the state insect? What types of trees are indigent to your area?

Is there a pond nearby? Tell me about the ducks. Are children trying to catch them? Let's explore the smell of leaves, freshly cut grass. Let me feel moisture from the pond or hear an occasional duck flapping its wings.

Why I Love My Fellow Writers

I love writers because I love words and the potential to ride them vicariously throughout the world. I am helplessly romanticized by the sometimes clever use of written and spoken language. I love writers because we have a unique appreciation of life, not unlike all artist, but unique in our expression.

It takes time and astute attention to both the spoken and written word in order to catch that which is easily missed. We writers catch poetry as it is happening. We observe the romance of language and give a great deal of attention to the observation of human beings, of animals and of nature. Writers are in tune with life.

Like falling in love, creating a book is not something that just happens. It is the result of a latent need that perfectly unites us to the world, pulling us from an abyss of conventional living and into a world of discovery. We are in a constant state of change...moving from something to something. Every artistic discipline requires this hybrid nature, and for every discipline there is an opposing side, the side that does not believe...that does not create and does not live in the present.

The other side of romance is naturally, banal. To a romantic a flower is enchanting. To the banal the flower is a colorful plant that will fray and die. The romantic appreciates a moment in time. She loves the present moment for whatever it presents: a blooming flower. The banal is not moved by the present because his perspective is of the future: the plant will die, or of the past because it was just a bud or just a seed.

He does not smell the flowers; he smells dead pedals.

Hooray! Another Complete Manuscript

I am nearly done with two manuscripts, soon to be published. The first is 'Learn Spanish, 6 Months to Fluency," to be published by Christmas. The second manuscript is an inspirational book made of prose and poetry. Echoes of the Soul.

Completing these manuscripts has been an arduous task, yet I have learned much in the process. Thanks to Marcel Crespil,PhD. whose help has made the diligent process far more exciting. Without his help, 'Learn Spanish,' would have been extremely difficult and the work certainly would not have come to fruition so fluently.

For those of you who desire to learn Spanish, this is the book for you - not because I wrote it, but because it is a most proven method of learning. When I learned Spanish in school, the process was a difficult undergoing and frayed by the many past tense Spanish verbs. The attempt to learn the fourteen different tenses at once stagnated my ability to grasp the language with authority. Although, I understood the language for many years, I could not speak Spanish competently.

I started all over using a different learning module and became fluent in six months. You can, tool!

After reflecting on the old process which impeded my ability to speak, coupled with the input of language professors such as Dr. Crespil, we have eliminated most of the learning pitfalls common to most English speaking natives. The first ten followers of this blog who send a request via this blog or my email (barrywrites@gmail.com) will receive a free copy of Learn Spanish, complete with the book and audio CD.

Thank you for your support.

Mesmerize Your Reader with Historical References

Most of us can remember what we were doing during critical moments of time in history. Our readers will reflect on those moments as we inculcate those themes into our writing. Don't be afraid that you will lose the reader to nostalgia - you will not, provided your writing is compelling. There is a natural propensity for readers to become caught up in memory. If handled well, they will get caught up in your story.

Let's take 9-11-2001 for example. For those of us who lost someone during that most terrible catastrophe, this missive may not incite good memories. I think of Salman Hamdani each time I revisit the thought. Salman was a police cadet who lost his life trying to rescue victims at point zero.

Here's where I'm going with this line of thinking. One can set a story before, during or after 911. A good writer can transfer the emotions from this setting to some other place, thus capturing the reader in a way the reader feels what you (the writer) feel.

Here's an example.

It was a week after the twin towers fell that he joined the U.S. Marine corps. Seven years later he was a celebrated Green Beret. Now, some ten years after the fact, he was deployed just beneath the mountain, in a place he could not talk about.

He led the squad of seven very special soldiers along the east ridge. They walked, keeping their shadows against the hillside. The trail was quiet. They had not communicated verbally during the last six miles. Six miles...a piece of cake for a green beret. Neither man had yet broken a sweat and probably would not for the next four miles of the journey, a journey that would make history. He stopped,gave a hand signal and darted into the hillside.

Within 3.2 seconds none of the seven men could be seen, not by the human eye, not by thermal technology and certainly not by the camera beneath an approaching enemy helicopter overhead.

He tossed a small rock from his hiding place and repeated the exercise each ten seconds over a full minute. Six rocks later, the men presumed their positions.

They were four miles from putting an exclamation point on the history of terror as we know it.

Pen Pals, A Door to Characterization

Step outside the box to stimulate story ideas.

The advent of electronic media (email) has drastically decreased original letter writing in content and frequency. Techonology has contributed to the demise of this form of art, but this need not be so. I suggest you hone your writing skills by developing pen pal relationships.

There are several benefits to this exercise. It helps to develop characterization in many ways. For example, when communicating with someone you don't know, you are compelled to ask leading questions leading to characterization and vicarious experiences. For example, I write to several inmates (using my p.o. box address, of course). I find it interesting to discover a new world of people with a variety of different experiences. These are people I would not likely meet in my world, however, there is a tremendous mutual benefit involved. Many inmates are lonely and communicative.

I chose to write to first time offenders who were convicted for petty theft because - at the time I began - I was working on a story about a group of thieves. I honestly shared my research interest as to not take advantage of them. Obviously, I do not use their names and personal information in my writing, however, I do capitalize on their experiences. Consequently, I also correspond with their counselors which opens up a brand new window of creative opportunities. For example, a good corrections counselor became an invaluable resource to me in terms of providing background to the frame of mind of people who commit particular types of crimes. This relationship further helped me to create a profile realistic to particular criminal behavior dynamics. For example, a thief must first judge its prospective victim, criticize the victim and find fault before s/he can move forward with a plan to steal.

Here is one way a writer might develop psychological characterization of a thief, taken from a story I am writing:

He felt the lady totally ignored him. He walked by her in the grocery store. He spoke to her, twice. You'd think she would have the decency to nod her head, half-smile or in some way acknowledge him. She did not. That's why he made his play; after all, he knew where she lived. He had a plan for her.


Notice how this passive creates suspense and characterization in a single paragraph. You'll need to step outside of yourself to effectuate the psychological profile. In other words, you do not want to think like normal, law abiding citizens. Get inside the character's head. Great writers like James Patterson, Thurber, and Dickinson are masters of this technique. Read them. They tend to pull us so deeply inside the character's thoughts that it becomes frightening.

I will add more examples and ideas in future post. Until then, write.