From Where You Dream

The Process of Writing Fiction

By: Robert Olen Butler, Janet Burroway - editor, Janet Burroway - introduction

Narrated by: Robert Olen Butler

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author "shares his insights into-and passion for—the creation and experience of fiction with total openness" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Robert Olen Butler, author of Perfume River, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, and A Small Hotel, teaches graduate fiction at Florida State University—his version of literary boot camp. In From Where You Dream, Butler reimagines the process of writing as emotional rather than intellectual and tells writers how to achieve the dream space necessary for composing honest, inspired fiction. Proposing that fiction is the exploration of the human condition with yearning as its compass, Butler reinterprets the traditional tools of the craft using the dynamics of desire. Offering a direct view into the mind and craft of a literary master, From Where You Dream is an invaluable tool for the novice and experienced writer alike.

"Incisive and provocative, Butler's tutorials are a must for anyone even thinking about writing fiction, and readers, too, will benefit from his passionate exhortations." -Booklist

©2005 Robert Olen Butler and Janet Burroway (P)2023 Tantor

A Bullseye for Writers (& Other Short Stories)

I’m a bit of a sucker for writing books, and I don’t know why because I rarely walk away with a genuinely new perspective. Someone on YouTube recommended Mr. Butler’s book, and I dutifully bought it with tempered expectations. But wow! The first quarter of the book provided such a rich understanding of writing fiction that broke away from the orderly, “structural” discussions of organizing fiction, just as it steered clear of ethereal fiction writing mysticism so popular these days. ‘From Where You Dream’ stays grounded. And yet, Mr. Butler builds out a fully articulated view of the human psyche and the relationship between subconscious imagination and the realities of writing fiction. It’s a different take and perhaps, one of the most important takes on creative writing I’ve heard in years.

The book also contains multiple short stories in their full form as well as transcripts of classroom discussions. While I wished for more straight discussions from the author direct to me, the change of pace mostly worked. Why? Because I bought into the core ideas of the book and so, I enjoyed the relevant explorations and exercises the book takes in the later chapters.

Either way, I think fictions writers need to hear Mr. Butler’s firm grasp of the elusive skill that creatives sometimes abandon or fail to cultivate. My mind changed early on in the reading. Quick aside: I wrote my first novel a few years ago and then switched to non-fiction for my next book. I’ve had a difficult time returning to fiction and now I know why. This book gave me the exact perspective that I needed to return to the source of all my most powerful creative impulses….that place where archetypal designs emerge in their raw forms, that place deep down from where you dream.