The more I think about this, the more curious it seems. From the comments in the previous post (for people reading this on LJ):

Paul said: 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.

Eric said: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 said: 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.

Consider Jay Lake’s comments on where he gets his story ideas.

Brains. Consciousness. Unconsciousness. Subconsciousness. Weird things.