Toe in the Water

My Unconscious Assistant

My Unconscious Assistant

A while back, I wrote about the effect of the unconscious mind on our writing. It’s always present, whether we can discern its influence by later dissection or not, but I seem to be currently on a quest to encourage its influence on my writing. This involves handing over the reins to an ever-increasing extent. The results are sometimes surprising, sometimes disappointing.

Generally, I find that the unconscious is good at sparking off a story, providing the initial impulse through a phrase or sentence from nowhere, or a picture or feeling that haunts and won’t let go. It’s not so good at providing satisfying endings. Too often, it leaves me, somewhat exhausted by the dance it has led me, with an interesting tale but no hint of how to bring it to a conclusion.

I suppose this is in the nature of the unconscious, since it doesn’t accept an ending to any story and continues to hold on to and develop whatever it fancies at the time. And this is where we have to step in and take charge again. Who wants to re-write Ulysses, after all (the James Joyce novel, not Homer’s less boring effort)?

It also means that I have a growing collection of stories with considerable potential but hastily cobbled together endings. If I can crack the problem of kicking the mind into action when it’s been playing in the fields all day, I might be able to produce some reasonably decent stuff.


Word count: 246