Interviews with Wattpad's intuitive minds. Ponderings & Process: Has your writing changed since the use of AI? How do you outline? Do you write by the seat of your pants, or sit in silence and pause for the words to flow, or simply channel things ma...
Very recently, Kathryn updated an Author's Note in one of her stories I'd been reading and I immediately asked her for an interview, as one of the most unique 'muse to page' writing stories I'd ever heard.
See if you don't agree...
🐇 The Author's Note for "Taken" that I mentioned, you will find in quotation marks to begin her interview, and below that Kathryn's added some extras for us!
I'll just pretend to ask questions...
Kathryn, please, take it away...
🤗 I don't know what you want to use but this is what I believe intuitive writing is about and how it works thru me and my dreams.
My story Taken, "...has 2 main characters that are unnamed. Not the most popular type of story I know but this is how it's been dreamt up. Literally.
"I would have this reoccurring dream, it would replay every night until I wrote notes down about it. My next dream with these characters would be another dream on repeat until again, I would write notes about it. This happened for years. I have a tiny little travellers size notepad with all these notes in it. Sometimes written as small as 3 lines for each line on a page.
"Years have gone by with this notepad sitting in a box under my bed. This is the box that I keep special things like a tarot deck from my Grandma, a medal my Grandpa was honored with by the Navy, a tiny little ring that my other Grandpa wove for me out of vines that grew around his pheasant run. The first ultrasound of my child, taken at 6 weeks into my pregnancy - this showed my son was a viable pregnancy and I wouldn't lose him. Needless to say, this notepad means a lot to me to be with these other treasures of mine.
"I discovered Wattpad around the same time I got into KPop - my friends recommended stories to me that were based on BTS - smut... ok, it was all smut. LOL I have since matured and gotten into other genres and while I still very much enjoy the smut, I have more sci-fi, fantasy and action stories in my library.
"I decided to write my dreams out on Wattpad, silly me, thinking I could compete with all of these amazing authors. But I started this story Taken and have gotten a few chapters in, trying to read my itty bitty writing & keeping to the time jump theme my dreams emphasized in. A little girl is taken by a young boy, not much older than her. Dreams jump thru her experiences, between her young age to an older age. I'm not one to argue with dreams so I try to stick to the time jump scenes.
"I am currently editing for spelling mistakes, making sure I have my notes properly translated to what I have written here, and to help me get back into writing the rest of this story.
"Thank you for reading Taken and I hope you have patience with me once again updating it."
~ Kathryn
🐇 Wow! So tell us more about your dreams, Kathryn?
🤗 I have found that my dreams have always been very realistic, like I'm somehow guiding them. I have nightmares that seem like those 'make your own adventure' books. I make choices and it either gets worse or better but I always feel like I'm in charge and I can stop it anytime I want.
For a book I have called Family, I have dreams about what I need to write about. I keep track of the subject I need to get down in writing.
Lately I have been remembering spending time with my Dad at antique shows, dreaming about how I felt back then, what my brother and I would do at these shows. I dreamt the entire memory, I just need to find the right words to describe the dream.
My stories from my childhood and life are all real. Sometimes embarrassingly so. I'm looking at you, Mr. Snapping Turtle! I just feel the need to write about a certain subject. My dreams have always been a bit different than other kids. I remember my mom asking me why I can't be normal. Lol.
🐇 That's amazing, how you're following through... dare I say... on your "dream job"!
[Sadly, I'll have to do my own laugh track, as well here... 🤣🤣🤣🤣]
🐇 Oops, please continue...
🤣 With Taken, my notebook was filled to a certain point and then forgotten about. The dreams started again, there are things that I felt I needed to insert between chapters. These dreams seem more sinister somehow but when I write them out, then type into Wattpad, they make sense. I wish I could control these dreams like my other ones but these dreams just keep coming back until I finally get them written out.
🐇 So what do you make out of dreams, in general?
🤗 I think that dreams are a way for loved ones to contact you, a way to soothe your soul after a hard day, a method to warn you about something. Like how you feel deja vu, dreams can connect you to something that is surrounding all of us.
Example, when my Grandpa died. He had a really horrible heart attack and even tho he had surgery, he was dying. My Mom had flown out so it was me getting my brother off the school bus and waiting for my Dad to get home from work. The night before we drove down there, my Dad and brother had gone to an antique show, depressed and feeling horrible, but they went.
They left at 2am (normal time for us leaving for a show) and I'd gone back to bed. I had a dream about my Grandpa Ryan, he was smiling at me, telling me how much he loves me and how I need to not be so sad. His face is as I knew it, no tubes in his mouth or nose, just his happy mustached smile and the love in his eyes. His eyes were sparkling, I've never seen his eyes sparkle before but they were in my dream.
I woke up, went downstairs to wait by the phone. Not even a minute passed before it rang, I answered with a Hello Mom. I knew he had died.
🐇 That is so special. 💞
🤗 Now some people may say that I knew he was going to die and I just dreamt of him to feel better so I could sleep. I agree with them, in times of crisis, we will dream things to comfort ourselves. It's human nature to want to feel safe.
With my dreams being how they've always been, I knew it was my Grandpa and he was there, he was there in my dream to prepare me to be strong. The love in his eyes and the way he spoke to me, it gave me strength to be there for my brother and my Dad when they got home...To be strong for my Grandma, who slept next to me the night before his wake.
I was upset, I cried, I talked with all the extended family there about memories and how he was a great grandpa, father, husband, friend. I believe I was given strength by this dream, from my Grandpa.
🐇 Wow! Thank you. This is really profound. But then, I feel all your chapters are warmly profound, in many ways. I get a sense of wonder from your writing and your life as it was, which reminds me so much of how I had grown up. I appreciate that.
🤗 For me, dreams give me stories, they breathe life into me and I'm thankful for whatever gives them to me.
🐇 I really appreciate this and your willingness to share the dreams that you've had and how you're using them in your intuitive process!
Thank you so much! ~ William T.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
