What are your deep dreams? prompt by Natalie Goldberg



Deep Dream painted by Javier Martinez

I asked my Sunday-night group (many of whom had been doing practice writing for three years), “Where do you want to go with writing? You have this strong creative voice; you’ve been able to separate out the creator and editor. What do you want to do with it?”



There comes a time to shape and direct the force we have learned. I asked them, “What are your deep dreams? Write for five minutes.” Many of us don’t know, don’t recognize, avoid our deep dreams. When we write for five, ten minutes we are forced to put down wishes that float around in our mind and that we might not pay attention to. It is an opportunity to write down, without thinking, wishes at the periphery of our perceptions.

Reread them. Start to take your dreams and writers seriously. If you’re not sure, if you honestly don’t know what you want to do, start wishing for a direction, for your way to appear.

Excerpt from Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down The Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

Goldberg, Natalie. Writing Down The Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. Boston: Shambhala, 1986