Zymurgy on the shelf or ZZzzz And Scene. Goodnight! Exploring storytelling through dreams.

From fruit to ‘punch’.

ZZZ, are we cheating by using a string of ZZZ’s for the last post of the A to Z Challenge? Okay, let’s talk about Zymurgy instead. Zymurgy is the study or practice of fermentation in brewing, wine-making, or distilling. It’s the last entry in my little computer dictionary. How fitting is that? Let’s look back through some posts to explore some choice posts on fermentations:

SF Daddy | Science Fiction Daddy: F Ferments and Krauts
SF Daddy | Science Fiction Daddy: B Boozy Botanists

On to the ZZZ’s conversation anyway…

We’ve established that we’re storytellers and we’re going to let stories create the structure for the learning environments we create around us. Some of us are writers, published or not, writers of novels, poetry, and whatnot. We all have ways of conjuring up a story to tell. Hopefully, if you find yourself employed to write you have plenty of inspiration and no shortage of ideas.

My kids need to be reminded sometimes how to come up with an idea to write about. We’ll prattle off lists of topics and ideas, hoping to be so mundane that they come up with something that will interest them on their own. “Dryer lint, speed bumps, how many shades of blue does paint come in?”


Let’s look back at a few older posts and talk some more about dreaming.

SF Daddy | Science Fiction Daddy: D is for Dreaming
Dream from March. Star Wars Episode III – SF Daddy

Journaling and especially dream journals are great ways to collect bits of stories that can be pulled from later. A twelve-year-old won’t believe you if you tell her this. She’ll have to figure that out on her own first.  She won’t believe that she’ll dream MORE if she merely pays attention to the dreams she’s already having. Then, after she has tuned in, she’ll find that the dreams flow whether she’s paying attention or not. If she’s right there in the morning ready with a pen to collection them in her journal, she’ll have an endless supply of ideas to cull.

I wonder if many of the writers we follow have used inspiration from their dreams to work out their stories.