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May 2021

How to Create a Fictional Dream

How to Create a Vivid & Continuous Fictional Dream: Part 3

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Good stories create a vivid and continuous fictional dream. It’s not easy. In this third and final post based on Gardner’s idea of  fictional dreams, let’s discuss how to make our stories vivid and free of distractions.

By detail a writer achieves vividness – John Gardner

Have you ever had vivid or lucid dreams? I have. Reading a book can feel like you’re having one. When a book does that, it’s a winner. The real challenge is to sustain the vividness from the first until the last page.

How to Create a Vivid and Continuous Fictional Dream

Vivid and Continuous Fictional DreamMake your characters real. Having vivid characters means showing who they are on all levels. Readers want to know what the characters look like, what they sound like and how they think but don’t put it out there in one big clump. Reveal character attributes slowly. Even in the very last pages, the author can show us more about a character.

Work hard to develop your characters. When you do, it sets the stage for putting the reader inside a fictional dream. Detail all there is to know about your world. Show us your characters. Show who they are, what they’re doing, where they are and why they’re doing these things.

Build Great Characters 

The best way to keep the dream going is to reveal what motivates your characters. The more believable your characters, the more vivid the dream. Here are some ways to make a vivid & continuous fictional dream

  • Give the characters dimension – no one is all good or all bad. Complex characters feel real because real people are complex. Avoid stereotypes. Unless you have a very specific reason, skip the stereotypes.
  • Present Concrete Details – Be specific and consistent about how your characters act. Show us their language. Make the reader hear them. Let them interact with other characters, their environment and through inner conflict themselves. It seems, an insurmountable list of requirements but it’s doable. Including these details helps the reader feel close to the characters in your story.
  • Push them forward – Show us what motivates the characters. Tangle the reader in the conflict and then without distractions make the story too compelling to stop reading.

Keep the Fictional Dream Vivid & Continuous with Good Descriptions

Vivid & Continuous Fictional DreamWrite descriptions to make your story more interesting. Describe everything. Some writers are great at putting readers into the setting. Yet, there are authors who bog down the story by over describing. Find a balance. Getting the details right will prevent distractions in the fictional dream. Make the reader see. 

Use the Senses

No matter the journey you share with the reader, ensure they experience it in every way. Remember to show what’s happening. In order to do that, let the reader know what’s smelled, tasted, touched and heard. When you do, you will create a fictional dream for the reader to get lost into until the very last page.

How to Create a Fictional Dream: Part 1
How to Create a Fictional Dream: Part 2

How to Create a Fictional Dream

Fiction Without Distractions: Fictional Dream – Part 2

Write fiction without distractions. One of the most important skills to master is how to tell a compelling story. When a story is well-written it’s impossible for the reader to think of anything except the next word, followed by the next sentence and then the next page. To do this well the author must learn how to create a fictional dream.

“One of the chief mistakes a writer can make is to allow or force the reader’s mind to be distracted…from the fictional dream.” – John Gardner

How to Create Fiction Without Distractions

Sticking with the 5W’s, we started in Part 1, let’s explore the when’s and the why’s of how to create the fictional dream. What maintains the dream? That’s the question to answer. The simple truth is staying in the dream means there are no distractions.

A distraction is any aspect of writing that pulls the reader out of your story. Strive to avoid them. Before we talk about how to do it, let’s look at the two types of distractions. First, you might have an authorial intrusion, intentionally created by the author. The other type of distraction is unintentional. It’s the worst type because it breaks the dream in a way that might anger your reader. Let’s take a closer look at both types to learn how to create fiction without distractions.

Authorial Intrusion

Create a Fictional Dream: Avoid Authorial IntrusionAn authorial intrusion happens when the author speaks directly to the reader. When an author speaks to the reader, they become a part of the story. When done well, it’s seamless and doesn’t really break the dream because the dream includes the relationship between the author and the reader.

Fortunately, today it’s very unlikely that a writer will interrupt the reader in this way. Although, I’m not a fan of author intrusion, there are some cases where it works.  For examples, you might read:

Notice, except for Kurt Vonnegut, these examples come from the late 19th century when authorial intrusion was a common tool used by many authors.

Example Authorial Intrusions

In Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut seems to have a causal conversation with the reader. 

As has already been said: Dwayne was a Pontiac dealer who was going insane.

Dwayne’s incipient insanity was mainly a matter of chemicals, of course. Dwayne Hoover’s body was manufacturing certain chemicals which unbalanced his mind.

Vonnegut writes as if the reader is sitting in the room with him. A more typical type of authorial intrusion is where the author refers to the reader. In books like Jane Eyre, the author might address the reader directly with statements like, Gentle reader, Dear reader or just Reader.

Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt! May your eyes never shed such stormy, scalding, heart-wrung tears as poured from mine.

Let’s take for example this excerpt from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens:

Scrooge, starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.

Whose elbow is he talking about? Well, yours, the reader’s. This is one way an author can show up in the story. In this case, there isn’t a direct reference to the reader but it’s clear the author has included himself and the reader in the act of telling the story.

Unintentional Intrusion Prevents Fiction Without Distractions

Create a Fictional Dream: Avoid author intrusionsThese days, more often than not, intrusions are unintentional. Without wanting to, the author breaks the reader out of the story. This is worst than authorial intrusion because the writer doesn’t realize their mistake. In a way, they break the trance that story telling seeks to create and possibly cause discomfort to the reader.

Sometimes, distractions happen in first person POV when the writer shifts POV by popping into the head of another character. At other times, the problem occurs when the author billows down on the reader as if they speak as a god in the heavens. 

Avoids Intrusions: Create A Fictional Dream Without Distractions

Example: First Person POV intrusion

I went for a long walk but felt chilly as I traveled down the sunny street. The days were growing longer. Summer would bring a needed break from school. I didn’t really care. Time was the enemy and I willingly marched towards my death.

“Good morning Jane,” I said pulling my coat tighter around my neck.

Jane eyed Frank, knowing he marched toward his own death, she didn’t want to upset him.

Intrusion Explained:

      • The first person POV is Frank’s not Jane’s.
      • How does Jane know what Frank thought as he walked along the street?

Example Narrative intrusion

I went for a long walk but felt chilly as I traveled down the sunny street. The days were growing longer. Summer would bring a needed break from school. I didn’t really care. Time was the enemy and I willingly marched towards my death.

Everyone should know there is nothing wrong with facing death. Only the bravest people can move closer to the end with dignity. I turned around and walked back to the house.

Intrusion Explained:

      • Who is saying, “Everyone should know…?
      • The statement doesn’t fit. The reader has to consider what the author means here.
      • Plus, it’s preachy. Why should everyone know? Is it a known fact, only the bravest people can move closer to the end with dignity?

 

What Does it Mean?

Problems like these are jarring. They upset the reader, and sometimes prevent the reader from finishing the book. Note how the above intrusions put questions in the reader’s mind. Questions that have nothing to do with the dream. Mistakes like these are costly. That’s why it’s best to never break the reader from the dream because when you do, you give the reader reason to stop thinking about the story.

Study these examples of intrusion to ensure you create a fictional dream without distractions every time you tell a story.

Fictional Dreams – Part 1

Fictional Dreams – Part 3