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by Linsey Lanier
Maybe it’s because I was thinking about this upcoming post on the Subconscious and Dreams, but I dreamed a book again. Let me correct that. I thought I dreamed a book.
Over a year ago I wrote “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley . . . ” or someplace like that in which I claimed to have dreamed a whole novel. But I didn’t write it down right away and later, I didn’t remember the first thing about it.
Occasionally, I’ve had similar experiences since then. A few nights ago I had another one.
So here’s what I dreamed. There’s a huge room, penthouse, Manhattan, maybe. The ceilings are super-high. Perhaps three floors. Everything is ultra-modern. White, glossy tan woods. Jazzy Cole Porter piano playing in the background.
Down one of the spiraling staircases comes my heroine. She’s not dressed up like the rest of the guests. She’s in jeans and T-shirt, or tanktop. Something casual. She crosses the floor and joins a group in large sunken circle on the floor. There’s a circular couch. And a piano where someone is playing the afore-mentioned Cole Porter music.
The heroine sits down on the floor next to a hot, hot guy and starts flirting with him. Does she knows him? Is that the hero? I hear myself ask in my subconscious state. Then, out of the blue, a hand reaches out, grabs the heroine by the collar and lifts her out of there.
Oh, that’s the hero. And he’s hopping mad. He’s jealous as heck about the hot guy. They’re about to have a big fight about it when …
I wake up. (You knew that was coming, right?)
Anyway, knowing I had this upcoming post, I hustled to the keyboard to get it down. Not going to make the same mistake I did last time. And now? I have to say it. That’s not a book! It’s not even a whole scene! What it was, was an impression. But it felt like sooo much more. Why is that? And where the heck did the rest of it go? Is it buried deep in my subconscious? Or maybe not there at all.
But at least it’s a germ. I could do something with it, maybe, though I’m not too sure about the hero’s King-Kong move. I’m glad there’s two sides to my brain, LOL.
On second thought, I think I write better when I’m awake.
So what interesting snippets have you dreamed lately? Or do you prefer to do your creating while fully conscious?
by Linsey Lanier
14 comments
Hi Linsey!
Very interesting dream. I try to keep paper and pen by the bed because I often get all kinds of inspiration in those relaxed moments just before I fall asleep or just after I wake up – often it’s snippets of dialogue or the idea for a scene.
Maybe that’s just a scene in a future book, and one day the rest of it will form in your subconscious. At least, that’s how it happens for me.
I agree with Darcy. A pen and paper is handy. I’ve even written the germ of a scene on the back of a grocery store receipt. I dream a lot of sci-fi dreams so my subconscious is definitely trying to tell me something!
Like Nicki, I have a fair amount of sci-fi dreams. One last week felt like a story. I had to shut down some sort of geothermal power plant that was going haywire. I must have failed because everything got really hot. Huge sections of the planet turned into lava fields. I was riding over them in a hovercraft. Hum….
Anna, your brain was in high gear!
I enjoyed the post Lindsey. Some of you are so ‘with it.’ I put paper and pen by the bed–great for phone messages so far.
I do dream a lot. I just don’t do too good at remembering it. I’ll try focusing more on the dreams and not getting back to sleep.
I keep paper and pen beside my bed also. I use it for writing stuff as well as making a list of what I need to do the next day. I have wild dreams, not what I want to write about when I’m awake.
Great scene, Linsey! I think I’d like to read more. At first I thought it was more of a YA with the heroine in jeans and that her dad was dragging her out of the group. Just my take on it or what I would use it for.
As for dreaming, I don’t do a lot of that or at least I don’t remember them. Even with the pen and paper by the bed, I don’t remember anything. Maybe some day…
Tami
You felt like it was more because deep down you know the book is there. Although you don’t remember it, you know the story. I’m sure once you get started writing, it will come to you. The characters will take over and tell their stories.
Thanks, everyone, for the dip into your subconscious.
Darcy, Nicki, Maxine, Susan, Actually, I do keep paper and pen beside my bed. Or I used to. The problem is when I write something down, the paper migrates to the computer and never comes back. But I need the reminder to put it back there, LOL.
Maxine, do you have notes in other places? Could be you’re more productive elsewhere. I have notes all over. It’s hard to keep track of them.
Nicki, I never would have thought you’d dream about sci-fi! But then I’d never have thought snails and dead gardeners would come from your head either. Do I see a genre change in your future? Hmmm.
Anna, you too. Your dreams should be books. Try writing a sci-fi sometime.
Tami, I hadn’t thought of a YA. That’s an interesting twist. I’ll have to think about that.
Thanks, Tammy, for the vote of confidence. You could be right. Actually, I have other books ideas waiting in line in front of this one, but we’ll have to see if this one pushes itself in front of the others.
This was a very interesting and timely post. I have just finished a novel, Eternal Dreams and will be sending it out to agents tomorrow. I will take seeing this post has a good sign.
Hi Johnny, glad you stopped by! Big Congratulations on finishing your book. Not everyone can say they’ve finished a book. Good luck sending it out.
Linsey –
I’m glad you wrote down what you remembered. You might be surprised by what pops up later at a semi-conscious moment. I leave a notepad by the shower for those out-of-conscious experiences, as I call them.
Linsey,
Most of my dreams are too bizarre to make it into a novel–more like americanized Monty Python sketches. Oh, well. Maybe someday I’ll dream an entire novel.
I do think that you’re on to something with dreams as impressions, though. Sometimes a single impression will start me on a novel. My very first novel, otherwise known as the book that shall never see the light of day was based on a poker table in the basement of the Bird Cage Theater in Tombstone, AZ. Just that one moment of the tour stuck with me.
Hi Linsey,
Sorry I’m late…..
I would love to dream more book ideas, but it’s a rare occasion.
I think your partial scene would fit nicely into a book. Instead of king kong, he might just grab her arm, stopping her progress toward the other man. He tells her that he knows what’s on her mind and she jerks her arm away and tells him that his jealousy is getting old, that she was only going to welcome the only guest in the room that she didn’t already know.
Good luck!
Sandy