Robert Olen is a Pulitzer Prize winner and the Francis Eppes Professor in English at Florida State University. From Where You Dream was originally a collection of Butler’s lectures that Janet Burroway edited into book form. In Burroway’s glowing introduction, she explains what Butler does in the lectures:

“His self-declared obsessions have to do with the descent into the dreamspace of the unconscious in order to discover the yearning that is at the center of every person and therefore to every character, and with the moment-to- moment sensual experience of that character’s story.”

This book must be read from beginning to end. To skim, or try to get a general sense of it will be to lose the power of his tone. He gives measured and  specific advice not only on getting to the dreamspace, but his comforting words on dealing with rejection, insights into the state of modern literary fiction never seemed more appropriate. He addresses, as do all master teachers, the importance of reading and he explains how to read— both for pleasure and for criticism.

“You should read slowly. You should never read a work of literary art faster than would allow you to hear the narrative voice in your head. Speed-reading is one reason editors, and not incidentally, book reviewers can be so utterly wrongheaded about a particular work of art.”  

Butler’s methods are very prescribed; about how to tap into the dreamspace, how and when to write, even how to journal:

“…return to some event of the day that evoked an emotion in you. Record that event in the journal. But do this only—only moment to moment through the senses. Absolutely never name an emotion; never start explaining or analyzing or interpreting an emotion.”

Butler argues convincingly for the effectiveness of his methods throughout the book, one of which is using index cards to record scenes and structure the novel. He outlines how to fill out the cards, and why one must not vary from his suggestions. Another example of how specific he gets is in an exercise later in the book where he has a student recall an anecdote with the most sensory detail possible, focusing on where in the body a sense and emotion comes from. He asks his student questions like, “How did you know your brother was behind you?” and “Where did you feel his presence?” There is also a written exercise that focused students on an object that evoked anxiety. These, as well as his discussions of how dreams and films work, illustrate how we already deep down know how to get to the core of a scene, and the corresponding emotion.

This was my favorite writing book for many years. I am happy to find that everything that struck me as important when I first picked it up is still very much relevant to today.