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Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Dreams vs. Reality
I don't know about you but sometimes when I'm asleep it's hard to decipher between what's real and what's not. I've taken this concept into my writing and twisted it.
I've dreamed in color my entire life. Don’t know what’s up with that, but that’s just how it is. More vivid, I suppose. Helps me remember when I wake up. Dreamland for me is a chance to work out all those things during the day I didn’t get to, mostly writing. I dream about my characters often. Scenes and conversations. I always play a lead character too. Which is strange because my heroine isn’t me by any means. Maybe it’s because I voice her. But it helps me write her better when I wake up.
I think about writing while I’m in the shower in the morning, conversations between my two main characters flowing like the water from the showerhead. Dreams are what give me ideas, thoughts, conversations, pieces to carry over into fiction land. It’s like acting out a scene before writing it down. One of those poetry in motion thingys. And for me, it’s perfect. I’ve always been very hands on, sticking my nose into everything. I’ve gotta see it done first before I can write it. So if I can’t see the scene, it can’t be written the way I want it and I’m stuck. But with dreams, anything can happen. Anything in your wildest dreams. And opportunity and imagination are the two best things you can have as a writer.
So, my question to you today is: Ever have those dreams that just stick with you? The ones that when you wake up in the morning and have you thinking about your plot and characters and setting? Do you use them as a guide for your writing?
Labels:
2012,
Quartermaster's Queries (Sin),
Rehashed,
Sin
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16 comments:
I rarely dream about my writing. I wish I did. It would be useful to have that. LOL! My dreams are the usual Freudian crap: naked in public, falling, pregnant, whatever. The other day I dreamed I was roller skating with a basket of live fish. I have no idea what that means.
But I do think of my story before I fall asleep. And if I'm up with the little dude at night. In the car too. Not usually as SOON as I wake up. My brain needs caffeine immediately, but then it starts moving.
I have had those dreams that stick to me. I woke up one morning after a dream that my husband cheated on me. Gave him a big elbow. How dare he lay there, happily sleeping, after such behavior?
I apologized later.
I don't see my stories in my dreams either. That would be nice. Especially since my characters often remain a bit blurred in appearance in my head. I can see parts of them, but not all of them clearly. Man, that would be nice.
But I do think of them right before falling asleep. Sometimes they keep me awake. Or wake me early and words and scenes run through my head. Which is why I now keep a notebook beside the bed.
Marn, those are some interesting dreams you have there. Mine are often strange too. I've dreamed in black & white before and even animation once. That kind of freaked me out. Last night I dreamed one of my fav authors was opening a burger joint sponsored by some weird infomercial product. And I think I let my child go off and get a tattoo. See - weird.
Make me #3 - I've never actually dreamed about my stories either. Now day-dreaming about my stories and story ideas I'm a champ at!
I have had a few dreams that have stayed with me and I think mostly they are the ones sending me some kind of message or ones that are incredibly odd. I do have a few dreams that I have over and over again.
There's even one dream that I had as a teenager that has come back to me about 3-4 more times in my life. That dream really weirds me out.
I do wish that my characters would figure a few plot points and character traits out in my dreams so I wasn't overthinking it in the concious world.
Scape, I've got a dream that revisits me too. It's a creepy dream. Wonder what that's about?
I know right Marnee!
I envy you such useful dreams, Sin. I never dream about my stories either, although bits of dialogue and pieces of scenes often float through my head at bedtime when I'm in that half-way stage between consciousness and sleep.
My dreams tend to be less colorful than those of the rest of you, usually consisting of pieces of my past justaposed strangely like a Chagall painting. I dreamed recently about my third-grade boyfriend, whom I haven't seen in more than fifty years. He had long gray hair and a beard and the same smiling brown eyes he had at eight, and he asked me if I still ate balogna and banana sandwiches. LOL (I don't. Ugh!) I'm probably happier not knowing what that dream means.
Where is everyone today?
Sorry guys. It's the beginning of a new year which means I've got all this tax and expense stuff to do.
Thank you all for taking the time to reply to my blog today :)
Sorry! Lost track of the days...
Dreams! Yes, Dreams! I dream my plots a lot. I find the beginnings of stories in dreams. I'm a lucid dreamer so I generally rise just enough to take the wheel in my dreams and aim them interesting places. I've even stepped back into dreams that I left the night before.
Mutant. I know.
The Changed World stepped right out of a dream. So did Almost Human and The Alien Library. I've taken plot struggles into dreams and worked them out...
I also have a recurring dream of a perfect donut. Glazed, chocolate icing, shot through with chunks of chocolate and a dark cinnamon ribbon. I've tasted this in my dreams and continue to periodically dream of it...
Now, I'm hungry.
Roller skating with a basket of live fish...this would be an interesting place to take a plot... Sounds like something Crusie would do... ;-)
A fascinating place to open a book, at least!
I envy those of you who dream characters, plot, etc. First, I just don't dream about my stories. Wish I did. Second, my dreams are so f*cking surreal, that after the remnants of groggy dreamy state have been shoved aside by wide awake, there's nothing coherent left. I'm always amused by my husband's ability to describe his dreams.
I don't, however, have loads of conversations going on in my head during waking hours. Driving; taking a shower, washing dishes, vacuuming, shoveling horse sh*t. Mundane tasks really lend themselves to creativity.
Correction: "I DO, however, have loads of conversation going on in my head...." Fingers meet brain. Brain, fingers.
LOL! I got it, Pat. Same thing for me. Except I thankfully have no stalls to muck.
Sin - Bless your heart! It's that time of year. Guess I should find all my receipts and crap. *sigh*
Chance - You are a MUTANT!
I know...what can I say?
Now, if the night sweats would ease off my dreams might return to my level of normality...
Happy New Year, Revengers!
Sin, what a cool post! I seldom dream about writing. Or anything else I remember in the morning. I seem to have stray story thoughts when I'm doing things on autopilot, like washing dishes or folding laundry.
Sorry, I'm yet another person who has yet to dream about her characters (though I would find it immensely helpful in content and how the characters really look); however, I do believe dreams do work out things in our head, things we're worried about or trying to set right from the past. I had a dream about Deerhunter that was bizarre but when I thought about WHY the stuff was happening, I figured out it was my brain trying to explain why he does certain things. And then I had a dream about some teenage nemesis of mine who I still loathe--and I'm not sure what that dream was about or what my brain was trying to solve, but I do know it irked the shit out of me. *LOL*
I'm sorry I wasn't here today; I was feeling run down today and called in sick, then proceeded to sleep like a stuffed dead cat. I did go into town long enough to weigh in at WW (see, I am serious about that goal *LOL*) and come home. Now I'm having some chicken noodle soup. Basically all those hours of sleep and NO helpful dreams.
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