Daydreaming Your Way to Better Books
Part 4 of the “We Will Rest” series
I have a confession:
Some of my best writing happens when I'm not writing at all.
Last month, I was stuck on a blog post. I'd been staring at my screen for an hour, typing and deleting the same paragraph over and over.
Finally, I gave up and went to wash dishes—something I usually consider a chore, a distraction, something I wish I didn’t have to do.
But as I stood at the sink, watching soap bubbles swirl down the drain, my mind began to wander. I started thinking about how those bubbles were like the tiny, iridescent ideas. Then I imagined an author whose ideas literally appeared as soap bubbles around her head, and how she'd have to catch them before they popped...
By the time I finished the dishes, I had the perfect metaphor for my blog post and two new ideas for future articles.
That's the power of what Tricia Hersey calls "DreamSpace"—and it might be the most underutilized tool in your creative arsenal.
What Is DreamSpace?
In We Will Rest! The Art of Escape, Hersey explores how "daydreaming as rest" becomes a portal to deeper creativity.
She describes DreamSpace as the mental landscape where our imagination can roam freely, without agenda or pressure to produce.
This isn't the kind of goal-oriented visualization that productivity culture promotes ("Visualize your success!").
This is the opposite—allowing your mind to drift without destination, trusting that the journey itself has value.
DreamSpace is where:
Your subconscious processes experiences and emotions
Different ideas connect in unexpected ways
Your authentic voice emerges without editorial judgment
Stories begin as feelings before they become plots
Your creative intuition speaks louder than your critical mind
For writers, DreamSpace isn't a luxury—it's essential creative infrastructure.
Why We're Afraid of Daydreaming
Our culture has pathologized daydreaming. We call it "spacing out," "being unfocused," or "wasting time."
In school, we're taught that a wandering mind is a problem to be fixed.
In productivity culture, any mental activity that doesn't produce immediate, measurable results is seen as laziness.
We’ve lost the ability to embrace rest as a healing spiritual practice, rather than seeing it as time stolen from work.
Daydreaming isn't the absence of productivity—it's a different kind of creative labor.
The stories we tell ourselves about daydreaming:
"I should be using this time to write"
"Successful authors don't zone out and stare out windows"
"I need to stay focused to meet my goals"
"If I let my mind wander, I'll lose my momentum"
The truth about daydreaming:
It's how your subconscious processes and synthesizes information
It's where your most original ideas often originate
It's how you connect emotionally with your characters and stories
It's essential for creative problem-solving
Different Types of Creative Rest
Not all rest serves creativity in the same way. Understanding the different types can help you choose what your creative spirit needs most:
Active Rest: Gentle Movement
Walking, swimming, knitting, cooking—activities that engage your body while freeing your mind.
Many writers report breakthrough moments during these activities because the repetitive motion creates a meditative state that allows the subconscious to work.
Author Example:
Mystery writer Janet Evanovich famously comes up with her plot twists while cleaning house. The physical activity keeps her analytical mind occupied while her creative mind works on story problems in the background.
Passive Rest: Pure Reception
Sitting in nature, listening to music, watching clouds—moments where you're not actively doing anything, just receiving whatever comes.
This is the closest to Hersey's concept of DreamSpace.
Transitional Rest: Between-Worlds Time
The moments between sleeping and waking, during long car rides, in waiting rooms—liminal spaces where your guard is down and your imagination can surprise you.
Author Example:
Fantasy writer Neil Gaiman has spoken about getting his best ideas during the drowsy moments before sleep, when his conscious mind relaxes its grip and lets stranger, more interesting thoughts emerge.
How Daydreaming Improves Your Writing
Character Development Through Imagination
When you daydream about your characters, you're not thinking about them—you're spending time with them.
You're allowing them to exist in your imagination without the pressure to perform plot functions.
I encourage my author clients to set aside "character hanging out" time.
Imagine your protagonist grocery shopping. What do they buy? How do they interact with the cashier?
These details may never appear in your book, but they create a three-dimensional person who will feel real to readers.
Emotional Authenticity Through Association
Daydreaming allows your mind to make unexpected connections between your personal experiences and your fictional world.
That memory of summer rain might become the emotional foundation for a pivotal scene.
The feeling of being misunderstood as a teenager might inform your character's motivation.
These connections happen naturally during daydreaming, without the heavy-handed effort of "mining your life for material."
Plot Solutions Through Lateral Thinking
When you're actively trying to solve a plot problem, you usually approach it logically and linearly.
But during daydreaming, your mind can make lateral leaps that logic might miss.
Case Study:
A friend of mine was stuck on how to get her two characters alone together for a crucial conversation. She'd tried coffee shop meetings, chance encounters, work situations—nothing felt right. Then, while daydreaming during a shower, she imagined herself stuck in an elevator and how vulnerable that would make her feel. Suddenly, she knew: her characters get trapped in an elevator during a power outage; the high stakes of that situation added the vulnerability that her other ideas were missing. The solution came not from plotting but from imaginative empathy.
Creating Protected DreamSpace
The Guilt-Free Wander
Set a timer for 10-15 minutes and give yourself permission to let your mind wander completely. No notebook, no phone, no agenda. Just sit comfortably and see where your thoughts go.
The timer serves two purposes: it gives you permission to "waste" time guilt-free, and it prevents anxiety about how long you've been daydreaming.
The Story Shower
Many writers report breakthrough moments in the shower. There's something about the white noise of water, the lack of visual distractions, and the fact that you can't take notes that creates perfect DreamSpace conditions.
Instead of trying to memorize every thought that comes up, focus on the feeling or the essence of the idea. Trust that if it's important, it will resurface.
Or, if not having a way to write down your ideas causes anxiety, keep your phone just outside the shower. That way, if you've a brilliant idea, you can stick your head out and take a quick voice memo (yes, I’ve 100% done this!).
Walking Meditation (Without the Meditation)
Take walks without podcasts, music, or audiobooks. Let your surroundings inspire random thoughts.
Notice which details capture your attention—they often reflect what's brewing in your subconscious.
One thriller writer I work with discovers her plot twists during evening walks through her neighborhood. She's learned to trust that the story will speak to her if she creates the space for it.
DreamSpace for Different Types of Writers
For Plotters: Letting Go of Control
If you're a detailed outliner, DreamSpace might feel uncomfortable at first.
You're used to directing your creative process consciously. Try setting aside "discovery time" where you explore your story world without advancing the plot.
What would happen if you let your antagonist explain their motivation to you?
What if you imagined a conversation between two secondary characters?
These explorations might not change your outline, but they'll add depth and authenticity to your execution.
For Pantsers: Trusting the Process
If you're an intuitive writer, you might already access DreamSpace naturally.
The challenge is learning to distinguish between productive daydreaming and avoidance.
Productive daydreaming feels generative—ideas flow, connections spark, emotions arise.
Avoidance daydreaming feels stuck or circular.
Trust your instincts about which is which.
For Hybrid Writers: Balancing Structure and Flow
Use DreamSpace to bridge the gap between planning and discovery.
After creating your outline, spend time in DreamSpace with each major scene.
How does it feel? What's the emotional temperature? What details want to emerge?
When DreamSpace Leads to Breakthrough
Hersey writes about rest as a way to "reclaim access to the wisdom" in our dream space.
For writers, this wisdom often manifests as those moments when a story suddenly clicks into place.
You know the feeling: you've been wrestling with a character's motivation for weeks, and then while folding laundry, you suddenly understand not just what they want, but why they're afraid to admit it.
That's DreamSpace delivering wisdom your analytical mind couldn't reach.
These breakthroughs don't happen because you've worked harder—they happen because you've created space for your deeper creative intelligence to operate.
Common DreamSpace Fears (And Why They're Wrong)
"If I let my mind wander, I'll get distracted and never write."
Actually, regular DreamSpace often increases focus during writing time because your subconscious has had a chance to process. You come to the page with more clarity, not less.
"I need to capture every idea or I'll lose it."
The ideas that matter will return. Trying to capture everything during DreamSpace defeats the purpose—you're not supposed to be working during this time.
"Other writers are more disciplined than this."
Every successful writer I know has some version of DreamSpace in their process, even if they don't call it that. Some garden, some cook, some take long drives. They've learned to trust their creative rhythms.
DreamSpace and Your Author Platform
Here's where this connects to your author brand: readers can sense when writing comes from DreamSpace versus when it's forced from pure discipline. Books that emerge from protected creative rest have a different quality—they feel lived-in, authentic, surprising.
Your author platform should reflect this depth. Instead of just showing your productivity, show the fullness of your creative process. Share the questions that arise during DreamSpace. Talk about the unexpected connections your wandering mind discovers.
When you honor DreamSpace in your creative process, it shows up in the quality of your work—and quality is what builds lasting author platforms.
Your Invitation to Dream
This week, I want you to try one DreamSpace experiment:
Choose a current story problem you're facing. Instead of brainstorming solutions, spend 15 minutes daydreaming around the edges of the problem.
What if your character lived in a different time period?
What if the story happened underwater?
What if it was told by the family dog?
Don't try to solve anything. Just play in the realm of "what if" and see what surfaces.
As Hersey reminds us to "focus on the transformation."
DreamSpace isn't about transforming your productivity—it's about transforming your relationship with creativity itself.
In my next post, “Creating Author Community Through Collective Rest,” (Coming Soon!) we'll explore how to extend this individual creative rest into something larger: building author community through collective rest rather than competition. Because the best creative work often emerges not from isolation, but from the fertile ground of supportive creative relationships.
