No
kidding. Dreams can be a helpful part of
the writing process. The trick is remembering
what you dream!
Actually, it happened to me this weekend. My dreams have helped me before but there was a certain issue with a plot point in my second book that wasn’t quite coming together the way I wanted it to. I’ve mulled over the issue now for a month or two but with each edit and revision, I wasn’t sure I liked the reasons behind what this particular character was doing.
And then a
dream came to me. Well, I don’t actually
remember the dream but when I woke up, I was seeing the character and my mind
had an intense memory of what actually drove her to do what needed to be
done.
I woke up to
an ‘Ah ha!’ moment…I absolutely love that feeling.
And then I
lost it once I rolled over and fell back to sleep because I didn’t do what I’m
supposed to do…reach over, grab my notepad and pencil and quickly write it
down.
When I woke
up again, my book was on my mind but with no specifics about the dream. I just knew I had to get back to the book as
soon as I had a good amount of caffeine in me.
At the time I didn’t realize I’d completely lost a memory that would
help make sense about a critical motivating factor behind a character’s actions.
So I went
through my regular morning routine and was on my second cup of coffee while having
a conversation with my husband when something hit me. I’m not quite sure what it was…a word or a
phrase maybe, but it suddenly struck me and my mind left the conversation
completely. BAM! All of a sudden the memory flooded back to
me, I felt that ‘Ah ha!’ moment again and there was no way I would let it slip
by another time. I jumped up, ran for
the nearest notepad and began writing down everything that came to me.
After that
there was no going back. I made another
cup of coffee, grabbed my writing notebook and headed upstairs to my office
with both Mandy and Piper on my tail (the two pups, who really aren’t pups
anymore).
I’ll admit
it’s funny how this works sometimes but I’m now very happy with the fact that I
can move forward with that part of the story and finally away from it because
the questions have been answered. I’m
now satisfied that I have been able to close a gap in the story with regard to
what was motivating that particular character.
I might pretend to know what’s motivating my characters but the truth is,
there are times when I have to let them tell me before I can really make sense
of it. What makes writing so interesting
is how and when characters finally do give you the answers you need and yes, when
life gets so busy you have a hard time hearing them through the noise of the
daily grind, eventually they’ll have no choice but to tell you in your dreams.
Have a great
week and here’s a great quote to finish off the post:
“Dreaming
is an act of pure imagination, attesting in all men a creative power, which if
it were available in waking, would make every man a Dante or Shakespeare.”
~H.F. Hedge~
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