Journaling in present tense.

When I started writing my dreams down way back in high school… I naturally wrote them in the present tense. The girl I used to share my dreams with in the morning commented that she liked it. Always seemed the natural way to do it.

Then in that song, ‘Silent Lucidity,’ by Queensryche… the little voice over says to record them in present tense as well. So does anyone else do this? Or are you all past tense people?

I always write mine in present tense. I read somewhere that it is better to write it that way.

I’ve always recorded my dreams in the past tense, ie “I walked out of the house, and got into my car”. Except for recently, because I’ve been a little too lazy on the holidays to actually put that kind of detail in. Now, it’s just like “Plane->Spilled coffee->Caused the appocolypse”.

I find that even a few keywords like this can cause me to remember my entire dreams. It’s not the smaller details that I lose, it’s the entire thing or nothing. :smile:

I write mine in past tense but i think i’ll change to present tense, it seems like the right thing to do.

This morning when I was writing down my dream. Cool dream; I got stranded on an island after being knocked overboard while flying a kite. Did I mention that Pamela Anderson was stranded too :grin: . Too bad nothing happened. Thats two nights in a row I had dreams that could have been great dreams but they remained frigid and nonlucid.

But back on topic, when I was writing down my dream, I realized that I too write dreams in present tense. I thought for sure I wrote them in present tense. I guess normally its pretty early so I’m not really paying enough attention to remember what tense I’m using :bored:

Writing in present tense as if it is happening makes you relive the experience a bit more so hopfully you will remember certain things that you would normally have forgotten. I write my dreams in present tense since I’ve remembered things while writing them.

I didn´t think about it when I started writing a DJ, but I also write my dreams down in the present tense.Often I use just keywords, though

Pilot, I think thats it for me. I am thinking about the dream and reliving it as closely as I can in my head so what I’m writing comes out in the present tense.

“I am walking fown the street.” “I look up at the sky and see it burning.”

I was just wondering how many people did the same… just as an aside… does anyone know what prompted Queensryche to write that song?

I never really noticed, but I think I write them in part present tense part past tense. Like I’ll say “I’m frosting a cake, then the cake turned into a whole room and a voice over started playing” But I always start off with present tense.

this is a much better way for me to write them down, it also helps recall them as was writen before but a good idea is to wrie down the emmotion that comes with it, like “i looked up at he sky and i saw it burning” “i am very scared” this helps recall heaps more, last saturday i remembered a dream fell back asleep and woke up in the moring i started to write down my dreams from the one in the middle of the night and i wrote it in present tense, i also wrote down little detials too at the beggining, i wrote down 13 pages small writing too. Present tense helps its alittle more effort but it is worth it.

Present tense isn’t more work for me. If I have to make a note about something I put it in parenthesis. Like this:

Entry- I look up and the sky is burning. I am scared and try to run. I run into my house. (Its the house that I lived in when I was five)

I use the parenthesis to make notes of things that I didn’t realize in the context of the dream but when looking back can see the paradox.

Now that i think about it, i probably SHOULD write in present tense. Anything that helps me grab the rest of the dream is good, because i always have fragments.

For example my entry this morning is dotted with fragments like
“Forest:I can’t remember”
And later
“Are we IN the forest?”

It’s pretty annoying trying to grasp a little more.