It came to me in a dream.
I'm not kidding. A definition of
narrative came to me in a dream. In my
sleep I could see it full blown, from
initial capital to final period, and when I awoke it was still there, still
vivid, and ready to be committed to paper.
Narrative is nothing more or less than taking what happened "then"
and rendering it in the "here and now."
Something happens, in the world or in the imagination. The narrator takes the stuff of the past and,
using narrative strategies such as scenes and dialogue, renders it as if it's
happening in the present.
The author may be from another era (Jane Austen) or from my
own (Anne Hull), but my transaction with the text is the same. I am transported to another time and place. I am immersed in an experience that feels as
if it's going on right here, right now.
This is either the most profound or most obvious insight I've
had in a while. Your vote. Either way,
it was cool that it should come in a dream. And do you ever dream stuff that gets into
your stories?
I dream these great exciting scenes of which I would...
