Stepping Into Your Dreams
And a Prompt to Help You Start
Making meaning as an artist or a writer is hard. Not only because it’s so ubiquitous to have doubt, but because, more often than not, those closest to you don’t always care about your art. I’m not saying they don’t care about you or your dreams, but they might not care about the work you want and need to do to achieve them.
They might resent all the stuff about your art that keeps you from them. They might not understand the weird thing your art is before it’s fully formed (which is how it exists most of the time). They might despise all the drafts you make to get there, the time it takes, and all your energy spent on that instead of on them. They might not want to celebrate your achievements or even recognize them. Yeah, many relatives and lovers of the artist are not so keen on the art!
This can be hard to take as an emerging artist who isn’t able to say, “but my art pays for your groceries” (or whatever we wish we could say that most art isn’t ever going to let us say about it.)
Problem is, this is more often true than not. This is the way things are for most of us. Myself included. My family doesn’t want to get squooshed into a black box theatre to watch a show for 90 minutes (or God forbid an evening of shorts)! It’s hell for them. And they don’t want to attend my poetry readings either. Doesn’t mean they don’t love me and support me in so many other ways. (And they will attend if I ask them too, because they want to support me, but I know they won’t enjoy themselves, so I try not to ask.)
And I don’t make work for them. I make work for me. I do what I have to do because I have to do it. And I get validation from the people in the world who value theatre and poetry and can honestly assess my work for what it is in the worlds of theatre and poetry. Not my family. Not even my closest friends.
If you are looking for validation for, or feedback on, your writing, find a group of writers also looking for that. Then you won’t feel the need to force your family to sit and listen to whatever you’re working on, and it won’t lead to the frustration of, “what’s the point? Why do this if no one cares?”
There are people who care! Not usually the people nearby!
We can step into our artistic longings by getting support from the people who do the kind of work you want to do. We can begin to redefine ourselves (even as we exist in our familial roles) with support online or in classes, workshops or groups. It’s very possible, especially today with zoom. You can live anywhere and get connected. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of offerings online for groups to join, including free groups, especially if you put yourself out there and ask out loud for what you want or offer it yourself.
Don’t let your own loved ones make it harder for you to step into your dreams. Emerging can happen at any time, and yet we seem to think it’s always too late. Are you clinging to a limited version of yourself? Adding artist or poet (or anything new) feels like a dream we dare not dream.
Why not dare? If you’re reading this, your life isn’t over!
Yet we often feel stuck and unable to move toward our dreams. As if now it’s all about the dayjob or the kids or the grandkids. As if there’s nothing else. The parts of you that want you to break out and do something new are not wrong. Please don’t stuff them somewhere. Please don’t make yourself so busy or so numb that you don’t notice them anymore.
Dreams are here to remind you that life is more than what you allow yourself to believe. The world we live in is made up of unseeable molecules, beautiful inner structures most of us will never notice unless art calls them to our attention.
Dreams of making meaning whisper to so many of us! Listening to these messages, and acting on these dreams is how the universe moves forward toward betterment. Refusing our dreams or putting them off can cause inner turmoil and possibly even illness.
I know from experience, if I don’t make things, I get sick. Whether it’s depression or autoimmune disease, I can’t afford to ignore my dreams.
Yes, it’s hard to carve out necessary space and time. And it can be painful to see ourselves struggle toward our goals, but turning dreams into goals helps to offset the pain. Breaking goals down into manageable chunks also helps. Beginning is everything. Mark your calendar. Make a start. Take a step toward the dream you dream of doing.
The Prompt
Are you writing about horses or a lack of horses? Any other noun besides horses will do for the sake of this thought experiment. If you’re writing about a lack of love, as an example, can you find the concrete noun equivalent of that love? Diamonds? Roses? A home?
How can you bring in the thing (horses) so that we can focus on it instead of the abstraction (power)? We can understand how a character feels powerful riding a horse without the use of the word powerful.
Create deep connections for characters, and use those connections as ammunition to prove a point or elevate or denigrate, call out a lie, stand up for the truth, or do a thing that must be done. (No exposition unless it’s ammunition!)
Nothing is ever brought up just for the sake of just saying it. We are meaning- making creatures. We listen, watch and make it mean. If it doesn’t mean something, we fall out of your world.
What do you want us (audience members or readers) to connect to in your work? Are you letting us in? How are you letting us in? What is the invitation? How can you offer a pathway?
We are all in search of ways to move forward or transform. How can your story help us re-imagine new possibilities for our own future? Transformation.
How do we measure this transformation? One way to do this is through your characters’ relationships to the concrete nouns you bring into the story that make meaning for the characters, and therefore for us. Understanding what your characters care deeply about (or for) inspires us.
What are they willing to fight for? Especially if you have difficult characters, characters people have said they don’t get or don’t like, what do these characters love? What are they willing to compromise for? What leverage does anyone have over them?
You can make a list of all the things a character would do if they thought they could not fail. Build enough pressure under the character to make choosing one of those hard things easier than staying stuck. If people question it, there’s not enough pressure. Or not enough at stake.
Use your own connectedness. Identify what you are connected to (insuring your child’s success, or succeeding at what you were told you’d fail at, or being the best swing dancer in your city). What is at the heart of that? Maybe the swing dancer feels a need to be seen after a childhood of neglect.
There is something very moving about a character who has a core belief like, “I don’t matter.” That character is going to go to the ends of the earth to prove they matter. When that wound gets triggered, they will double their efforts.
How can what matters to a character show us why they make the decisions they make? Is there a way to use a concrete noun to do this? Is there a way to load an abstract idea with meaning via something real, something a character can hold in their hand or speak about so clearly the audience can see it in our mind?
Make a list of the different abstractions your characters want (love, power, freedom, justice…) How can these become concretized and real? What proves they win or lose? What actual thing? Can you share that with us?
Brave Space
With prompts, grounding practices, & discussions, Brave Space invites playwrights, poets, painters, potters, novelists, memoirists, musicians & artists working in any medium to make meaning in a safe community. Begin and/or bring your projects to completion.
Or use Brave Space as a body-doubling space to get other things done in community (write hard emails, clean out your closets, do taxes).
$5-25 suggested per session. 4+x/week! On or off camera. No commitment, drop-ins welcome. Try it!
Female & nonbinary folks welcome any time. All Humans welcome on Sundays.
Brave Space Schedule:
Mondays & Wednesdays at 12pm ET; Fridays at 12pm ET w/fast feedback; and Sundays at 6pm ET with Sharing Second Sundays at 730pm ET (that means November 9!!!) Email or reply for a link!
ACTUAL SCHEDULE: Next Brave Space Sunday 10/19, 6pm ET. Then Monday 10/20. Wednesday 10/22 and Friday with Fast Feedback 10/24. All Human Brave Space Sunday 10/26.
Opportunities!
ASAP - only first 100 subs will be considered! The Theatre of Western Springs’ Directors’ Workshop 2026 New Plays Workshop (Chicago). Performances August 20-23, 2026. We’re looking for previously unproduced one-act works longer than 15 minutes and less than 50 minutes. Scripts should be ready for performance workshop. Playwrights should be interested in and be able to participate in the workshop process by attending rehearsals as needed. Plays should require minimal set and tech (will be produced in a 117-seat black box theatre) and have a maximum number of actors in a show of six (actors may play multiple parts). Any Questions should be directed to: TWSnewplaysworkshop@gmail.com (ask them for the application form)
artwork by Scott Sherman at ScottShermanStudio on instagram
NeuroAffirming (NAF) Parts Work Group:
Meets Second Saturdays of each month (November 8th at 12pm ET - time zone converter here) to offer community, parts work experience and support for anyone neurodivergent (inclusive of Autism, ADHD, Audhd, OCD, cPTSD, and more).
You do not need an actual diagnosis to participate. Run by Emma and Jess (Level II), both of us Audhd, we are creating non-pathologizing and anti-ableist Parts Work content for healing and ease in neurodivergent systems. Sign up for our link here. Sliding scale from $5-25/session, but no one will be turned away.
Amazing People Doing Amazing Things:
If you want to be listed here, please let me know what you’re up to and include your links!
Jess Pearce & I made these IFS experientials on Insight Timer. Enjoy here.
I have a new poem at Exist Otherwise.
I’ve a poem in a beautiful anthology The Nature of Our Times edited by Luisa A. Igloria, Aileen Cassinetto, and David Hassler · Foreword by Phillip Levin. The anthology features poems from some of the country’s best-known poets, including Jane Hirshfield, Camille Dungy, Naomi Shihab Nye, Arthur Sze, Kimberly Blaeser, Nickole Brown, and Diane Ackerman.
I’ll be reading from the anthology with several other poets on Thursday, November 6th at 8pm. Please join me by registering for the zoom link here. Or you can get the link here at poets.org! (I’ll be reading first due to the alphabetical edge of hyphenation.)
My micro-chapbook, “Possible Paths for the Minotaur,” is part of the Ghost City Summer Series! It’s free to download, or you can donate any amount and proceeds will go to the Trans Law Center. And 2 of the poems (“Minotaur in Therapy” and “Dusk for the Minotaur”) from this just dropped online at Carmina! They were accepted there before the chapbook acceptance and gave me the confidence to submit to the chapbook series. I will always be grateful to Clarabelle at Carmina.
And on New Year’s Day 2026 (yes, it’s coming) a new poem in Quartet! And some news I can’t yet share about a play…
POLITICAL ACTION:
I suggest, instead of feeling helpless in the face of the news, ignore corporate media and get up-to-date on issues that are important to you. Seek out Substacks or youtube providers or other newsletters and news outlets beyond the corporate hegemony. Here are a few examples and other ways to focus on issues that may be of interest to you.
Get Involved:
JOIN YOUR LOCAL INDIVISIBLE. They host a weekly chat with updates, and much more! If you’re near me, join Inwood Indivisible!
Lunchtime Calling Klatch: Join Swing Left online every Tuesday at 12:30 to catch up on issues and call local elected officials.
Third Act - a community of older Americans coming together for political action.
NO KINGS (re: ICE) is asking us to ask local businesses to put up Signs of Solidarity. You can get the signs and more info at this link.
JOIN the TESLA TAKEDOWN every Saturday at 12pm ET in NYC at the Manhattan Tesla Dealership or check the link for an action near you!
What you need to know about ICE.
Fight for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
Writers for Democratic Action.
READ/SUBSCRIBE:
Chop Wood, Carry Water - a substack by Jess Craven that helps me focus on political action and includes good news to help sustain us!
ABORTION EVERY DAY a substack by Jessica Valenti - support real research about what’s really happening. MEN, this is scary shit, and your support is needed and appreciated!
THE CRUCIAL YEARS a substack by Bill McKibben - climate change and ways to understand it and to actually do stuff about it.
ERIN in the Morning, by Erin Reed - news about the trans community.
The Intercept, 972mag, and Mondoweiss - independent news.
DONATE:
Give to the Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance
Give to Doctors Without Borders
6 Ways to Support Palestine
Donate for Civilians in Palestine
This really applies to what I am going through. Your words inspire me and I thank you for the encouragement.
Thank you for your words and for sharing your beautiful Minotaur poems. Always inspiring!