Psych Lessons for Writers: Lesson 1, Dreams and the Unconscious

I taught my first psychology class yesterday (which btw if you're new here, despite my utterly absurd blog and total lack of seriousness I'm also an adjunct professor, of English and Psychology---trust me, it makes no sense).

And...well here's what I learned.

1) Standing for 3 hours straight makes you really tired!

2) Talking for 3 hours straight makes you really really tired!

3) Standing and talking for 3 hours straight inevitably leads to you prancing around your classroom, stomping your feet and pretending to be an ape, turning in a circle like a pigeon, jumping in people's faces and yelling BOO and showing video clips of weddings on youtube---yes, I actually did do all of those things and more...

4) Oh and I freaking LOVE psychology. If only my psych professors at Cornell could see me now...

Needless to say, my class yesterday was a success. My students quite possibly think I'm the most eccentric professor in Nursing School (yep, nursing school) but I taught the crap out them! And sooo, I thought, well you guys ask me from time to time to see my professor side and so why not?

I've decided to give you some psych lessons too (Frankie Style), but I'll be tailoring them specifically to writing issues. And now, you too can psychoanalyze your characters and hopefully, shed some light on their psyches, motives, hidden desires and nervous habits, which should in turn bring them even more to life for you.

So here we go!

Today's Topic is the Unconscious!!!
Ooooh! Aaaaah!

Popularized by medical doctor turned controversial-phallic-obsessed psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, the unconscious mind of your characters, especially your main character is a very valuable resource for you to tap.

Now here's the deal with Freud.

He believed that deep down inside, we're all driven by sex and aggression. BUT...because we need to function in society and act civilized most of the time, we supress these drives and hide them away in the deepest darkest parts of our mind. Anything taboo, forbidden, improper and more get stuffed away. Please note that what's considered forbidden by society is not always considered forbidden by the character so make sure you acknowledge the difference!

But...just like certain laws of nature, what goes up, must come down...what goes in, must come out....what's hidden away, must be revealed.

These little revelations of your characters' secrets will come out in a myriad of ways.
In dreams.
In habits.
In slips of the tongue (aka Freudian Slips).
In their mannerisms.
In their coping methods.
In their reactions to the world around them, despite what might actually be happening.

Let's look at dreams.

Many critics will say, and I agree  (to a certain extent) that having a dream sequence in your story can be a cheap way to share information or....to foreshadow! BUT dreams can be done well, especially with a little help from Freud.

Remember how I said dreams were a way for the unconscious desires to come out? Well that's true, but they often come out in code.

For example, if your main character secretly loves someone they are forbidden from loving...you have to ask yourself two questions.

1) Is their love forbidden by society? (They love someone in a different station, someone married, someone of the same sex, someone taboo --like a family member-- someone of a different race, someone of a different religion...)

2) Does the character also believe their love should be forbidden?

If the answer to question 1 is yes, but 2 is no, then your character will most likely have some straight forward kissy kissy dreams, posibbly interupted by society trying to break things up. In this case, the dream is not so much about unconscious desires as it is about wishfulfillment and real fears they have warring with each other while they sleep.

But if the answer to number 2 is yes....then we can get into some interesting dreams.

If your character is in love with someone that they can't admit to loving, they will dream of their love in code. Let's pretend for a minute that Jane Austen wrote dream sequences...I know, blasphemous! But let's pretend.

Elizabeth is in love with Mr. Darcy. We all know this, but for a while, she does not. She does not appreciate his wealth, and his attitude and the way he talks down to her. For awhile he's just all around FAIL in her eyes.

So she has a dream...in her dream, she is frolicking in the fields with a very poor farm boy in tattered clothes. But he's everything she wants. He's smart, well read, handsome, witty, romantic....humble.

She is so happy.

And he proposes.

But then he says, "I'm sorry, I can't marry you. You're too rich for me. And I see the way you look at all of us farm boys, it's so condescending. I must find a girl more like me, more worthy. Good bye."

And then she wakes up.

How does this relate to her secret, fordidden love for Mr. Darcy?

Professor Mallis' Analysis:

Well the roles were reversed. (In your dreams by the way you can be anybody). In her dream, Elizabeth was actually the poor farm boy, and she was Mr. Darcy.

If she's in touch with her feelings, she might wake up and go OMG! I love Darcy and I'm just turning him down for stupid reasons.

OR she might wake up and say OMG! This is exactly why I do not love Mr. Darcy! Because love between people of different stations and wealth never work. Thank goodness for that.

 Or she might wake up and say OMG! That was a wierd dream. And unfortunately there weren't any psychoanalysts at the time to interpret for her.

So that's one way to use a dream to show what your character is secretly feeling, share something about the character with your readers, or help the character realize something about themselves.

But dreams can also tell the future...or...foreshadow.

Be careful here. Too obvious foreshadowing looks amateurish and is annoying for readers. Especially if the dream comes out of left field.

JK Rowling does some excellent dreams in Harry Potter. She's able to hide the real message in codes, and convey both Harry's fears and desires and hint at what's to come.

When Harry first gets to Hogwarts and is sorted into Gryffindor, he has a very telling dream.

Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much, because he had a very strange dream. He was wearing Professor Quirrell's turban, which kept talking to him, telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was his destiny. Harry told the turban he didn't want to be in Slytherin; it got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully--and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled with it--then Malfoy turned into the hook-nosed teacher, Snape, whose laugh was high and cold--there was a burst of green light and Harry woke, sweating and shaking.

Ok! So here we have Harry's fears that he's really meant for Slytherin. BUT we also have foreshadowing of the connection Harry has to Slytherin--we discover in book 2 that Voldemort transferred some of his powers to Harry. Get down with your bad self, JK! Foreshadowing and character development in one image!

We have Harry's fear of being made fun of by Malfoy.

But we also have foreshadowing of the connection between Snape and Voldemort!

We have Harry's everyday life being replayed in his dream....he just sat with the sorting hat on his head.

BUT in the dream it became the turban. The answers are all there for the end of the book. Turban, green light and Voldemort's evil laugh.

The bad guy is Quirrell, the owner of the turban whose working for Voldemort....but who saw that one coming? That's a dream done the right way!

What about mannerisms or slips of the tongue?

Often, especially in romances, the hero will do something out of character. Rush to save the love of his life...think of Edward stopping the van for Bella...so far he's been pretty pissy with her with a dash of friendly interest. Then suddenly he's saving her life and then running away and acting pissed about it. His true desire for Bella escaped in that moment and then he had to rein it back in.

These little slips are often the makings of No Kiss Scenes!

Ok, hope this gave you a taste for the unconscious and ways to bring some extra dimensions to your characters.

I'll take a cue here from Shannon and her USC Film Lessons and assign you some homework. Because....that's what professors do.

Write a dream sequence for your main character that:
A: Includes snippets of their day (like Harry and the sorting hat)
B: Reveals something they are already aware of (Harry's worry over Malfoy)
C: Reveals something about them that they are NOT aware of (Elizabeth's love for Darcy)
D: Foreshadows a future event

And make sure it's in code. A perfect dream will leave the reader feeling like they have a little more insight into the character, feel closer to the character (how much closer can you get then their unconscious) and will leave the reader clueless about the foreshadowed event (except when they reread your book and smack their heads and say "Oh well duh! She told us what would happen on page 10).