Wednesday 23 April 2008

Where do stories come from?

I got a story idea from a dream this morning . I jumped out of bed when my alarm went off at six in the middle of a fairly lucid, if a bit weird, dream. As I was making my cup of tea to drink while I got stuck back into The Novel I was still thinking about it and it formed itself into a story idea - a short story maybe or a segment of something longer (novel #3?). Anyway I typed it up straight away and have it now for future reference.

I introduced a new character into my novel this morning. He is key to the whole thing so I want to get him right and I was really pleased how parts of his character unearthed themselves as I wrote. The next chapter is looking a bit blank in YWriter at the moment but its going to be a biggy story-wise so I'm looking forward to getting stuck in - I'm going to go for the "just write it all down and see what happens" approach and see if I can surprise myself!

4 comments:

CL Taylor said...

Last night I dreamed my mum told me that I was raped as a 15 year old and gave birth to a baby that was given to my aunt to raise as my cousin. Apparently I was unaware of the situation because the shock of the experience made me suffer total amnesia.

A very cheery read for a story there! ;o)

When I told the boyf the dream this morning he said, "That's it. No more red wine for you before bed. EVER."

p.s. I should mention here that the dream was totally ficticious in case anyone is concerned!

HelenMWalters said...

How great that the dream stayed around long enough for you to get it written down. Mine rarely do.

Karen said...

I love it when this sort of thing happens. I've occasionally woken up with a good idea...sometimes it turns to dust, but not always!

Jumbly Girl said...

Calistro - wow sounds like the plot of a blockbuster to me. Interesting that the bf blamed the wine - I always blame it on late night chocolate.

HelenMH - I rarely remember mine in detail either - my dream diary is sadly bare, which is why I was so eager to scrible this one down

Karen - its worth grabbing the ones you can! I read somewhere that if you start writing your dreams down then future dreams are easier to remember but it hasn't worked for me yet