Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Dreams: Inspiring ideas and sucking up time since forever.

I am always this beautiful when I sleep.
I'm the type of person who dreams often, vividly, and with almost total recall. My dreams are usually so off the wall that friends and family enjoy a play-by-play the next morning. Just last night I dreamt I was back in high school doing one of my college finals (yup!), but my adviser hadn't received my thesis yet and I had five minutes to send it off before I had to take the school bus home! But of course the printer wouldn't work and my computer ate my flash drive! Eventually I said "LOL HILDRED YOU GRADUATED LIKE TWO YEARS AGO" and I woke up immediately. Har.

Most of you know by now that my series CROSS// was inspired by a dream I had a few years ago. I've had lots of dreams inspire my writing, such as the other night when I dreamt I was with some girl I didn't know and was on the run in my own dang house. The part where we perused through a book of signatures inspired a scene I'm in the midst of writing at this moment.

Now, I'm not the type to roll over when I wake up and write what I dreamt about in some notebook. I've always maintained that if the idea was good enough I'd still remember it later on. No, it's the dreams that nag at my brain all day that end up in my stories. I guess at the end of the day my dreams are my ultimate muse.

How about you? Are you a literal dreamer? Do your dreams factor into your writing?
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6 comments:

  1. Jennie BennettMay 9, 2012 at 6:54 AM

    Bits and pieces of my dreams make it into stories, but rarely do I base a whole novel off of them. I love it though when dreams are so real you can taste them when you wake up. Great picture, BTW. I look that good too ;)

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    1. Hildred BillingsMay 9, 2012 at 11:54 AM

      Oh, good! I was starting to worry I was the only one who looked so heavenly while asleep. Maybe we should take up modeling gigs. :P

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  2. AnonymousMay 9, 2012 at 10:18 AM

    Other writers talking about inspiration from dreams makes me really jealous. Mine are always random crazy stuff. The most vivid dream I can remember is "waking up" on a city-ship drifting slowly away from a fiery earth while a song I hadn't heard in years played perfectly over the ship's radio (The La's - There She Goes).
    I considered a poem about it ... but a novel? No way.
    *Jealous face*

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    1. Hildred BillingsMay 9, 2012 at 12:02 PM

      I don't know if I would be too jealous. Most of the time these past few years my dreams are mostly awful, inciting lots of horrible emotions and triggery memories. The one I described above made me wake up covered in sweat and feeling miserable, ha. I think getting ideas from them are just my brain's way of compensating for having to go through them.

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  3. Esther JonesMay 9, 2012 at 11:29 AM

    I've written a couple of short stories based on dreams, but they're a little weird and crazy. Also, I only remember a dream once in a long time, so I'm a little jealous of you.

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    1. Hildred BillingsMay 9, 2012 at 12:12 PM

      Like I told Halford, my dreams tend to create awful sleep so I wouldn't be too jealous. ;) The weird ones are the best though. I do love my occasional wacky dream that's all good fun.

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