Epinoia Morpheus Epiales

When the flames strike, Scivias

Whenever I see writers talk about, or advice from creative writing teachers about writing novels and stories in regard to dreams, hallucinations, visions, etc. it’s always a caution.

Oh, here we go…

“Don’t do it! Avoid it. And if you need to do it, for whatever reason, if you must, tread careful.”

Formats, rules, dos and don’ts. Everyone talks about how hard it is to do this well. It can’t be done. A cheap trick, writerly showing off.

I understand why this is so believed. Dreams and visions have been used as awful devices to cheat a story. But those who give this advice are often terrible squares. Unimaginative. They believe writing dreams is either a plot cheat, or a writer’s flex. They can’t imagine it being done well. With style. A bit like those who have similar ideas about sex scenes because of all the terrible sex scenes that were written by unimaginative squares, who obviously can’t fuck any better than they can write fucking. They don’t see the point and believe it can’t be achieved in any well-written way.

Stories about dreams and visions are on the edge of reality. Looking into the abyss. They go deep into psyche. We tell stories to see into life. Windows into other realities. Into other souls. Minds. Hearts. What other medium allows us to explore the inner dimensions so deep? To reveal uncanny depths of the subconscious. To explore the relationship between outside and inside worlds in such detail.

I never understand why writers find all this so hard to do. To convey a sense of otherworldliness. To show a scene into nightmare or Epinoia. Transcend into other realms. Dimensions. Morpheus, Epiales. In fantasy, it’s often clumsy, so tacky, I can’t bare to look. In horror, it can be done with skill, sometimes. But to write dreams and hallucinations well is a visionary ecstasy.

Most of my books are centred around altered perception. A bent perspective. I don’t believe in reality. I made up an equation for reality:

Cultural Input X Brain Chemistry = Reality

Little lies our culture has taught us to tell ourselves so we can filter the chaos. Nothing is true. Ten witnesses. Ten versions of events. Each religion knows it is correct. Political extremes convinced of their understanding of the ‘facts’ and their solutions.

Nothing is true, everything is perverted.

For me, one of the most interesting things about story is perception. An altered state can inform a scene. Influence exaggeration. Turn facial features monstrous. This all evokes incredible atmosphere. Light and shadow. Visual writing. Scenes play out like moving pictures. Hallucinations. Visions. Dreams.

And this is what my books are all about. Stories that dip into schizoid paranoia. Dream and hallucination. Psychotic visions and voices. Esoteric apparitions. Spiritual ecstasy. Demonic or Daemonic possessions. Slip in and out of different realities like a trans-dimensional shift. Nightmares. Night terrors. Waking dreams. Subconscious ideas. Intrusive thoughts. Delusional conclusions. Racing thoughts. Visions brought on by madness, starvation, fever, sleepless nights, magic potions, drugs and other means.

When the flames strike, Scivias, and the visions roll in and shake my bones, I let my Daemons play. Leave them to it and allow them to get busy. I receive these visions as an ecstasy or a horror. My scenes are not only informed by visions, but also fed by visions. Scene. Seen.

All writing advice talks about the hard work and places very little value in the inspiration. I don’t work this way. I receive visions and I write them into stories. I also write while in a kind of ecstatic trance. I don’t plan, structure or plot before. I never rewrite anything. Never have. I edit. But my work after a first draft is minimal. A few changes here and there. Not much. My first drafts ain’t shit, like they’re supposed to be.

I believe the writer is the magician. The oracle. Conduit for visions from another dimension. I believe writing is an act of magic. To invoke images and adventures from other realities and describe them in magic symbols, which in turn, transmit them into others’ minds.