Shadow of a Dream

“Shadow of a Dream” is a story about a young woman with an infant daughter whose happy life is being threatened by an abusive relationship that does not want to stay in the past. Rhiannon has to look to others for help, but she has to acknowledge and overcome her own emotional wounds before she can let other people in to help her, allowing her to mend some scars that never had a chance to heal. The theme of this story involves a person’s endeavor to outrun a past of abuse and deception and, when that doesn’t work, face it and overcome it. The majority of the story, if not the entirety, is written from the protagonist’s point of view as she is the one the theme surrounds, and the plot is driven by Rhiannon’s voice. This work also has a lot of myself and my own struggles woven into the story. The objective of this presentation is to discuss the ways a writer’s experiences and the creation of fictional worlds are intertwined and the challenges these connections can create in a long-form work of fiction. This presentation also aims to identify the methods and techniques that are used to create this fictional world when some of the only tools in my arsenal are imagination and experience