The cat’s circadian rhythms need some adjusting. Currently, his sleep cycle dictates that he wake up in the wee hours. Whether his circadian rhythm prompts him to wilfully disturb the dog, I can’t say. What I can say is that the ensuing shenanigans have woken me up most nights for the last couple weeks. It doesn’t take me very long to get back to sleep and I don’t remember much, but after last night’s episode, I realized something—after I wake up and as I doze back off to sleep, I’m thinking about my stories.
This isn’t a conscious decision. It’s not like I’m saying, “I’m awake, so I might as well think about what I’m writing.” They’re just right there, in the front of my brain.
I’ve mentioned before that a disproportionate amount of my story ideas come from dreams. I’ve also said that new stories form very, very quickly in my head—usually in about 10-15 seconds. I have a story kernel and before I know it, I’ve got a few characters, a basic situation, and skeleton plot formed. Fleshing it out and working out the logistics take a lot longer (and then there’s the whole pesky “writing” part) but I rarely start writing without knowing the story’s basic course. I never thought about it much, it’s just how stories tend to come to me.
Now I’m wondering how much of this is being done subconsciously while I sleep.
Current Mood – Friday! | 
Currently Listening To – Screeching Weasel – “Kill the Musicians”
4 Comments
I heard some psychologist once say that dreams are so crazy because it’s our brain trying to make sense of a random series of thoughts and images. Trying to make a cohesive story out of them for the written word must be both fun and a lot of work.
And dreams are the reason I can no longer play puzzle games like Tetris (stay away Sudoku!).
I’ve had a lot of dreams that I wanted to turn into stories too (because I thought they would make good stories). The problem is I remember the dreams right when I wake up in the middle of the night to piss or whatever and then when I go back to bed I forget the dreams.
I tried to rectify this by jotting down the basic plotline and concept quickly, but the next morning I only understand half of what I wrote. Though, the couple of jotted down notes I do understand, I still think would make pretty good stories now that I’m semi-conscious and able to think with the right part of my brain.
So do you ever have problems remembering your dreams to turn into stories?
I too have had Tetris dreams. It’s nice to know you can waste away your life playing video games while both sleeping and awake.
I think my post was misleading. I actually don’t wake up remembering a complete dream that I think would make a good story. I generally wake up having no recollection of any dreams and start my usual routine. A lot of story ideas hit me in the shower or while I’m making the bed, about 30 minutes after I’m up.
I’ll have a very vague idea or image in my head and I usually figure it was part of a dream. Then in like 10-15 seconds I’ve got the whole story in my head–beginning, middle, end and usually the main cast of characters.
I used to think that my imagination would just formulate the story that fast. Now I suspect that my imagination has been kicking it around for six or seven hours while I sleep. That singular image sparks my brain to reveal the whole shebang to my conscious mind.
Which is weird. The more I think about it, the more I feel like Spider Man when the Venom costume would take over his body and go for a spin when Peter Parker was asleep. Only instead of a symbiotic alien life form glomming onto my soul, it’s my creative unconscious playing with different ideas.
This is just preparation for Cousin Hobbes’s visit in June. You (and he) will be awaken at 4am by the earthquake that is his stomach rumbling.