Dream diary
Dreamcore comes from dreams, and dreams evaporate within ten minutes of waking. The dream diary is the oldest, cheapest tool against that — and the genre's ultimate image quarry: LSD: Dream Emulator came entirely from one person's dream diary. Yours is good for a world too.
How to keep one (seriously)
- Pen and paper by the bed. Not your phone: the screen wakes you all the way up and the dream leaves.
- Write the moment you open your eyes, before moving. Moving erases. It's basic dream physics.
- In the present tense ("I'm in a hallway", not "I was in a hallway"). The present preserves the texture better.
- No judging, no pretty prose. Fragments, loose words, a four-line drawing. "hallway / green light / someone who doesn't appear" is a perfect entry.
- Note the feeling too, not just the facts: it was calm, it was urgent, someone was waiting for me.
- With two weeks of practice you'll remember twice as many dreams. This is surprisingly well documented.
From the archivist's diary
I'm at school but the lockers have no doors, just the gap. the bell rings and no one comes out of the classrooms. I'm not scared: I'm early, for once. the light is the light of the last day before the holidays. I sit down to wait and the bell rings again, just as calm.
the mall of my childhood, but the signs are in a language I almost know how to read. the escalators run for no one. in the fountain there are new coins, shiny, from this year. someone still makes wishes here. that makes me happy and I don't know why it makes me so happy.
the field from the home page. I recognize it because it's the archive's, and in the dream it amuses me: I'm inside the wallpaper of my own website. the house on the horizon has its light on. I don't go closer. no need. knowing it's on was what I came to see.