Wednesday, September 26, 2012

How dreams affect my stories . . .

Well, I don't normally have dreams/nightmares. I've never quite known why, but after my 7th birthday, the dreams started dying down. Sure, I get one every now and then, but probably no more than one every few months.



When I do have a dream/nightmare, it's always centered around sounds/people/places around me. Say, I'm sleeping in a crowded room with my siblings screaming and pretending to sword fight with hangers or sticks or whatever they find. I'll probably dream that my siblings are getting kidnapped or I'm surrounded by a mob of kids (The latter would be a nightmare, I'm sure).

If I have a very interesting dream (normally a fantasy kind of dream), and if I can remember it when I wake up, it'll probably become a story idea. Once, I had a dream that my FMC (Guinevere) was trying to kill me. I still haven't figured out why she was trying to kill me, but it did give me an idea for a scene in the story.

When I have nightmares, like the one where toys came alive and took over the house and tried to kill me (No, I did not watch Toy Story before bed), I normally turn those into suspenseful scene ideas. Well, I didn't turn the toy dream into a story idea. It's already a movie trilogy. ;)

But I have turned other nightmares into scenes. I don't remember them now, but they're somewhere in some story.

Recurring dreams are my favorite. They are the same, but yet, they have a different element every time. Those are the ones I make stories out of the most. I used to dream I was kidnapped at a gas station and then I was brought to the mall, where I escaped and hid in the bathroom until I was able to call the cops. Every time, though, there was something different I'd do. Whether I would escape at first and get caught again, or something else.

There was also a nightmare/dream that got me started with "Changing Time". I don't remember it all, but the story is coming along nicely, so I must have made a good decision with that one. At first, "Changing Time" was only going to be a spy story back in the 1930s. I wasn't sure if I wanted it to be time travel (I don't think it was going to be). It was with a bunch of adults of different nationalities, and more of a love story than anything else.
 
After my dream/nightmare, it became an action/dystopian/fantasy novel. I figured that, if I wanted it to be a bestseller (or at very least memorable), I would have to have the readers grow with the character. But, I wasn't sure. So I asked the terrific people on Go Teen Writers Facebook group, and they helped me out.

Now, my main characters are kids. And I have TONS more plot twists and ideas to work with now.

So, dreams and nightmares are like pals of mine (sometimes). They help me with stories. I . . . . don't do anything for them. :P


So, anyway, just . . . "watch" your dreams. If you do, you never know how many story ideas you may get!



God bless!
Galatians 6:9 KJV

2 comments:

  1. Sounds so interesting! And yes... I've had some interesting dreams that have given me story ideas.

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    1. Don'tcha just love that? It definitely saves me the trouble.

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