“It’ll be fun!” Kags said as she pulled me onto the train car. I don’t think I could have rolled my eyes harder. “You know I hate doing things for my birthday–what makes you think this will be any different?” Kags only laughed as she hopped over to an empty seat, “Because this WILL be different. I promise you’ve never seen anything like this.” She pulled her hoodie over her head and watched the countryside go by. “Couldn’t we just play games or something,” I grumbled as I sat down next to her. Her reflection smirked at me from the train window, “Well, I also just enjoy torturing you sometimes, you know?”

This is all I can really recall from a dream I had last year. I had written down this blurb at the time, but the next part was lost to the dream memory fairies. I had an ephemeral recollection of arriving in some Ghibli-like village and finding myself in a Totoro outfit, but I can’t say for certain whether or not my mind made that up in the foggy stupor of rude awakenings.

Short as this blurb may be, I am proud of a couple small things. I feel like I got across character personality by “showing not telling”, a technique I’ve been trying to practice. “I don’t think I could have rolled my eyes harder” hits with a double-whammy of playful sarcasm, and the imagery of Kags pulling her hoodie over her head conveys an introverted feel. I am particularly proud of the line “Her reflection smirked at me from the train window”. It sets a tone of mischievous wit, and I think it creates a believable rapport between the two characters.

I drew from real-life interactions with my friend at work, so the writing came very naturally to me. Hopefully I can draw from this kind of inspiration as I work on my current novel!

I must say though…my friend is a lot cooler in my dream than in real life =P