For me it started with trying to make sense of my feelings and the events unfolding in the world around me by descending deeper into the possibilities of what could have been if I’d been more prescient, if the people around me had acted differently, if the world hadn’t changed the way it did, if time hadn’t come to a standstill. The more I talked about it and wrote about it, the more I felt comforted by the fact that I wasn’t the only one feeling this way, that this feeling of hopeful wishful disarray is one of the great constants of our time.
I decided to create a place for all these unexplored possibilities to grow.
Welcome to The Abandoned Dreams Collective!
We’re part newsletter, part indie zine, part mystical neverland.
Here, for a few moments each week, I want readers to forget everything else for a little while and allow themselves to be led into someone else’s life and feel intensely the same complicated blend of euphoria, regret and magic that the author did when they dreamt that dream.
Format
Each newsletter will comprise a non fiction piece (essay/poem/story) written by a different contributor accompanied by an image of their choosing and an introductory piece of writing by me. During each season I will be sending out an essay every week by email to subscribers.
Submission guidelines
The theme for Season 3 can be found here: Season 3 theme
I’m looking for non-fiction writing of 1500-1800 words. If you have something in another format that you feel strongly about, feel free to make your case for why it fits perfectly within this project and I’ll keep an open mind.
Here’s what I’m looking for from the pieces:
I want it to read a little like you're spinning, and descending into this alternate world that you've conjured up.
I want it to feel like a half forgotten dream you wake up from at 4:47 am, where you hold on to the ephemeral moments that you remember in snatches and flashes and try to slip back to them before they disappear into nothingness that never was.
I want people reading it to feel seen and feel okay to sometimes want something so much you start living in the world where you've willed it to happen, your imagination acting as a fuzzy blanket lulling you to remain there.
If you have that, I hope you’ll consider submitting to us at theabandoneddreamscollective@gmail.com
Email your completed piece to me in a Word doc with a short introduction about why you think your piece is a great fit for us.
Spread the word
My aim with this project is to give budding writers a platform to showcase their writing and build a readership organically. For this, we’d need every writer contributing to this newsletter to share writing from here across their networks so that writers of our collective can have their words connect with readers across the world.
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