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| Altered Consciousness for Fantasy
Writing
© Greg Hamerton Reading fantasy fiction allows us to dream in a very vivid way. Writing fantasy fiction takes the dreaming to another level. You are the dreamer who leads the dream, the creator of the dreamworld. It is the most powerful kind of meditation, an experience of controlled psychosis that results in a prolonged experience of altered consciousness. In this article I will examine ways in which you can induce the receptive state, how you can deepen the intensity of the dream, and how to hold onto the vision for a more profound writing experience. 1. Hearing the music of the mind Consider music. It is a patterned structure of sounds which you follow in your mind. You find pleasure and enlightenment by following the composer's creation. The further the musical piece takes you outside of your body, beyond the mundane world, the greater the enjoyment. A masterpiece lingers in your mind leaving you with an altered sense of reality, if only for a while. You believe wonderful things are possible. You are inspired. Fiction is very similar. Critics who insist on moral instruction, political messages or historical fact miss the musical aspect of writing altogether. A novel is a composition, a concert of ideas, a melody of story played within an orchestra of dreams. It is woven in a particular way by the author to bring about the mental crescendo and ecstacy. Some scornfully label it escapism, as if that means it is less worthy of literary merit than a stuffy book of factual realistic torment. I see escapism differently. If a book is capable of transporting me to escape my reality, then it is a mighty success. In a good novel you get to experience things beyond your world and in some delightful way your power of imagination can be challenged, you can be gripped by raw emotion, and you can find release. As a writer, the deeper you can sink into the dream you are creating, the more powerfully this music of the mind comes through. Listening for it often means forgetting what you are trying to write (the plot) and to become swept away by the visions (the passion). As you try to record your visions, you can enhance this receptive mental state by following the principles mentioned below. 2. Remove the most obvious distractions The telephone, appointments, people, email and internet access can all be removed by selecting a writing room that is private. Close the door. 3. Seven hours alone is better than seven stolen hours in as many days It takes me over an hour to 'load' the background story into my head. If I had to write one hour a day, I wouldn't write at all. The shift from 'everyday attention' to 'guided dreaming' is a change of mental gears. Some writers can do this quickly, but I suspect few fantasy novelists can, since the depth of world-building is vital to a fantasy story, and it takes some time to exchange one reality for another. An office romance story is set in a contemporary world - the shift is a simple step away from the office. Fantasy is often a world apart. I write in blocks of many days, for total concentration, so I can deepen the psychosis and reach further into the darkness of my dreams. 4. Touch-type to free the mind A long novel can be 250 000 words or more. At sixty words per minute you could theoretically type it in seventy hours, or ten days of working. If only that were true. At the speed I create, I could have typed my novels with my nose and still have time spare. So is typing speed important at all? Yes. Touch-typing is a vital skill for those moments when the inspiration strikes. I need blinding typing speed to synchronise words with thoughts. The slower my typing is, the further my manuscript trails behind my mind. And the more I am trying to 'remember' what I saw in my moments of altered awareness, the more my attention is being drawn away from it, down towards the everyday awareness. Fast typing allows me to move lightly through my dream, without my stumbling fingers pulling me out of 'the zone' by dragging the narrative along like a ball of lead on an ever-lengthening chain. 5. Darken the screen to see what cannot be seen If you watch the words appear on the screen, part of your mind can't help but notice that you've spelled danger as dnager. You reach for the backspace key, and whoomp! the muse is gone. Who is sitting in his place? The critic. Look, that word is wrong. And there's a typo in the previous sentence. And the paragraph is getting a bit long, don't you think? And this story is a bit silly, it's all rubbish what you've written, you know you can't expect people to believe this. And so on, and on. You can't write the first draft with this guy on your shoulder. Flick the switch on your monitor (your PC will still work). If you've developed your touch-typing skills you don't need to see the words or the keys to write. The spelling can come later. The layout is not important now. What's important is to side-step the critic to be unhindered in your dreaming state. 6. Musical assistance I use a familiar haunting instrumental to begin my day. It helps to drown the smaller sounds out (like the scratches of rats beneath the floor ;-) that draw my mind away on a thread of interest. Depending on which character I'm writing about, I play themed music that reinforces the mood. It's all part of controlling the environment to nudge my mind back into the space I need it to be in. 7. Release yourself from yourself The more aware you are of Who you are, the more you can only see Your world and the less you are able to see beyond it. To get deep into the altered world you must forget who you are, the identity who has a name and all the responsibilities and concerns that attend The One Who Is Named. I use a meditation every morning, just a few minutes of considered thought, to dissolve my ego, to become an unfettered mind. Sounds a bit airy-fairy and New-Agey? Doesn't matter. You don't have to believe in this stuff for it to work. All you gotta do is pretend you are nameless and free ... 8. A hard exercise to sit in silence Regular exercise is the only way you'll last in the chair for so long, day after day. Start your day with exercise, even if a walk is all you're up for - if it is done first, you're ahead when you begin your writing day, and your mind is in peak form. Now sit, and don't get up! When your mind begins to accept that the only escape from boredom is through your writing, it begins to work with you. When you allow yourself to get up for that extra cup of coffee, the snack, to answer the door, or write something on the shopping list which you've suddenly remembered, you're done for. 9. Walking on the border of dreams Staying awake is the hardest aspect of writing. You are attempting to walk on the borders of a dream, and I often find myself falling, only to wake up later with a screen full of l's or k's. But that's where you want to be - in the shadowlands, where what you see has a life of its own, and you lose your way, and the story overwhelms you. Keep working, falling asleep and waking again. Your strength as a conscious dreamer will develop with use. As your skill develops, so you can see more of the world you are trying to create, hear its sounds, walk in its altered light, until, at last, your creative world is real and you are merely its witness, the scribe who brings us the tale. Then you have achieved the fantastic - you have passed from this world into another. May the words you write show us the way to get there too. |
 ABOUT THE AUTHORGreg Hamerton has been writing fantasy since 1999. His Lifesong cycle begins with THE RIDDLER'S GIFT.  |