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Writing about curtained reality

For the last few nights, I haven’t been sleeping well.

I’ve been dreaming lucid, mostly. I’ve  been dreaming I got up and did things, or walked somewhere with people I am sure I knew but could not recognise. I wake up after a dream, most of the time.

In an effort to sleep better, and to perhaps find out what ails me, I did what I usually do when I am puzzling with a writing (plot/scene/character) problem. I put a notebook beside my bed, and made a note every time I woke up.

This is what I found scribbled on my notepad this morning:

“Let  your soul flow in a torrent that would not whisper nor deny the truth of your existence.

Do not make a travesty of that which is not, nor lean into what is not to be.

Let fear take you, but only occasionally.Take on fear instead.

Be open to all, whether good or evil, because it is thus you would realise your true worth.

Let not the winds blow over you, catch some of them and sail.

Your breath is a gift, do not waste it on anything but prayer.”

I have often read that a dream is curtained reality. But I do not know how to take the words of wisdom I have scribbled to myself.  Tonight I’m going to try and remember to describe my dreams in my book, not just pen down cryptic one-liners.

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

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  • indigobunting says:

    Wow. I wish this is what was going through my mind in my half-slumbers when I’m not really truly sleeping…

  • Writing down dreams can be helpful but sometimes dreams are just dreams and keys to anything.

  • damyantig says:

    I don’t know about nuggets, Darc. And maybe I wasn’t even asleep, only in a trance. A lot of stress can do that to you.

    I don’t want you to try it..everyone should get sound sleep at night. It is hard to function well without. Ask me.

  • DarcKnyt says:

    Those are very interesting nuggets you’ve mined from yourself.

    I’m amazed you can even write when you wake up from a dream, never mind writing legibly.

    Maybe I should try this; last time I did, it yielded nothing.