Ideas

I have had several people ask me where my story ideas come from, both for new books, and for while I am writing my current stories, to keep them going…and that answer if very easy for me.

Dreams. They come from my dreams. Both sleeping and awake, but mostly sleeping.

this is the usual process…

I dream. Unless the dream is in color (which is a rarity for me that it is not in color), I do not take note of it. At least for a story. But I usually don’t take too close of note of the dream for potential story use if it occurs just once. oh no. there has to be a lot more to it than this. No, the first time I dream, it is purely for entertainment (and informational purposes from my subconscious).

If I dream the dream again, regardless if it is the same exact dream or not, no matter what form it is in, this is where I really start paying closer attention for potential use. Even if it is in black and white and shades of grey. If it has the same theme, I take note.

Why would I take note even if it is not in color? Because it is building on the original dream. Sometimes it is the same exact dream repeating itself, letting me know that I need to pay attention, that more information will be coming. Sometimes it jumps right into continuing the dream, or going into a new segment of the same theme. This is when I start becoming aware that there is more to it.

then comes the part that is even more fun than "”watching” the dreams unfold” (which I don’t take any action with the dreams to creating anything from them yet). there is still one more test to go through before I know these dreams are leading to a idea that will bear the test from just being entertaining dreams to becoming short stories (that will probably never see the light of day *snicker*) to actual books.

I start creating “mind movies” with them. I put the potential characters through potential scenes in my head (usually while I am lying in bed waiting for sleep to come and the house is quiet around me).

If the characters play in the scenes without any problems, or they actually take off in the scenes with little direction from me, I know that the idea is going to be one that I will be able to complete…regardless how much time it takes.

However, if the characters are stiff, if it takes everything in me to get them to do what I want, then it has failed the final test and I know, that while the dreams were fun, the idea won’t fly, and I stop playing with them to make way for another dream, another idea, to come to me.

For a story idea (other than the odd short story, which I admit I don’t write too many of…I have issues with short writing LOL) to come from the dream stages to a workable idea for me, it can sometimes take several months. that is not counting actually building the actual story from the information I gathered in the dream/mind movie stage. It has been a rare story idea that has been born spontaneously.

This *is* a valid way to get ideas, there is a lot of psychological meaning behind it, the symbols that come out in it alone would let a dreamologist have a heyday. And I *do* interpret the dreams along with using them as story ideas, but man, I love the ideas they create…and no, don’t bother trying to figure out my dreams from the stories, LOL, they change so much from the original dream as the characters take on a life of their own that the original dream gets lost in the mix ;)