To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
Regular blog readers or my Facebook friends will know I am a chronic insomniac. I usually fall asleep fine (but not always), and then will wake up two hours later . . . pretty much for the day. Today, I rose somewhere around 3:00 a.m.
But add to that I am in some sort of unusual dream cycle where every dream I have seems like someone slipped me a hallucinogen in my water glass. These are Alice in Wonderland/Oz sort of dreams in Technicolor and worlds of strange realities.
Some of it, I blame on Crohn's disease. I've been feverish every afternoon, and so sometimes, if Demon Baby is behaving and all is semi-right with the world, I will tell my three kids living at home that I am going to rest on the couch and catch 30 minutes of sleep. Fevers . . . they're their own hallucinogen.
Some of it, I blame on stress. I had a dream last night about a blue wedding cake that exploded electric blue frosting all over the world. I dreamed fretful things, like losing my Demon Baby. I dreamed of worlds colliding. Whole worlds.
And some of it . . . I blame on being a writer. Lately, it seems, a lot of my writing ideas are from a pretty strange place. I have works in progress I am playing with about demons and doppelgangers . . . and time travelers . . . and mad housewives from the 1950s. And a whole graveyard of baby boys and . . . .
I thought about something Starbucks said in the comments section the other day. She is writing something so different it might not be bought. But then again, it might be bought SPECIFICALLY because it's different.
I'm in the camp that very different will be what gets bought today. And so maybe, just maybe, my fevered dreams are a good thing.
Thoughts?
31 comments:
The only thing I enjoy writing is something that's different.
The very act of writing causes me to learn so much about myself.
When I dream like that, I wake up exhausted.
As for writing something different, I can only hope that's what I'm doing. Time will tell.
Joe:
I read a couple of manuscripts lately that just did not manage to bring anything "new" or different to their genres. I think today . . . different is important.
E
Amy:
That's it exactly. I feel like I was up all night at a rave.
E
I dreamed last night I was either alternately back at school or back working at the hospital. When I mentioned them to Leanne she said, "Those are your stress dreams." And so they are. Now, ID'ing the actual stress and doing something about it is the key. I'm sure it's mostly work-related.
Mark:
My dreams were about losing things and forgetting things. Those are my stress dreams . . . . today was my kids' first day of school. I think that was part of it, too.
E
I surely, surely hope that's the case. Nothing I write is run-of-the-mill, as you know. Besides, we're only about ten years into the twentyfirst century, the next twenty years we'll see some of the most interesting sub-genres and ideas we've seen in a very long time.
I guess it's a little like the chicken and the egg-- do you have crazy dreams because of your crazy writer imagination, or vice versa?
I think one feeds the other.
I hope that great imagination and really different ideas are rewarded in todays market.
JT:
I think your very different mind/stories are going to be a huge advantage.
E
Heather:
Definitely a chicken-egg effect!
E
Blue frosting on a wedding cake? I want to hang out in your dreams.
Different draws the crowd. Banal chases them away. Don't you just love that?
Kath:
I won't even mention that the blue frosting was a proven aphrodesiac.
:-)
E
You don't know how well-timed this post is. I'm suffering this am from major doubt and worry over my little baby book (still cooking in First Draft mode--kind of like pregnancy, isn't it? First drafts.)
At this point EVERYTHING about it seems so odd and different. A critter just brought up the gay card, which, to my mind was the most normal thing about the book, amid all the centaurs and end times and various religious factions and trying to research environmental issues.
Anyway, thx for the encouragement, inadvertent as it may be. I've always been "different". You'd think I'd just go with it by now.
Hi Starbucks:
I've made peace with different. :-)
E
Hmm. I'm not being argumentative, but I'm actually inclined to believe that "different" will be a harder sell in today's environment. Obviously, this doesn't include masterfully written books of any variety, but I see publishers pulling in their horns as their appetite for risk all but evaporates. I think publishers are looking for safe bets right now, and I can't say I blame them.
Just my $.02.
I dream that way all the time. That's where a lot of my story ideas come from. Anxiety-riddled, color-filled, off-the-wall dreams. And no fever or disease to account for it. Just my brain discharging its guts nightly.
Jon: I think they want both. They want something as fresh as an electric blue exploding cake frosting aphrodisiac, and something as familiar as an old shoe. All we have to do is give them what they want. I know, more easily said than done.
Jon and Jude:
I can't believe that I am saying this, but I agree with Jude. LOL!
I believe it's got to be something audacious and different, yet still somehow not chucking all convention aside.
And I hear you Jon . . . I think it's probably that other element--the one we all sort of love and hate to hear. That it's undeniably masterfully written so that they take notice.
E
Sarah:
My wacky dreams seem to come at times of stress . . . and the fever thing. I will have massive swollen lymph nodes all over, and run a fever, and climb into bed, sleep fitfully, wake drenched--and dream of exploding blue wedding cakes. :-)
E
When I was sick, they once put me on this really awesome drug. (It didn't last long; I decided not to go the tons-of-drugs-that-don't-work route.) Anyway, I would have these hour-long dreams. They were SO vivid, with whole plots and everything. I only took the drug for three days, and I can STILL recall the dreams in vivid detail.
I write best when I'm falling asleep while writing. Seriously. Late at night, or I get up at 4:30am and write in between dozing off.
Erica & Jude,
Yes, I think Jude said it well. They want something that fits neatly within the strictures of conventional story-telling, but adds some kind of original twist or original voice.
That said, I still don't see this as a good market for avant garde fiction ... too many vampire books are selling for me to believe that :)
Whacked out dreams and insomnia... or at least not sleeping due to circumstances... that's my life right now. Pregnant wife who can't get comfortable, baby due immanently, job is on the chopping block... Oh yeah, I am having wild dreams and boy would they make "different" manuscripts. Here's hoping that you feel better soon.
Ah, yes, the Acid Trip dreams. I've had visits from Kid and Play as in House Party, Kid and Play. I've had dreams where I'm a viewer one second and the next I'm the person. But, my stress dreams always involve my phobias. One is vomit. *Long story, don't ask* The other is me being in an elevator and it dropping. I'm always trying to get to my floor. I push the button and it goes on every floor but the one I need to get off. Then it drops.
Only once have I had a dream that I needed to write about. It was last year. I wrote it, but it needs so much work and it's a YA. Of course I dreamed about the other two books in the series. Elements of the story is different, but I can't say the entire thing is different enough. So, I'm waiting for the chops to write the other two. I'm also waiting for the right time to edit it. I don't know what the story needs yet to be fixed. But it'll come to me.
ewoh:
MAKE SURE YOU POST BABY PICS WHEN THE BIG EVENT HAPPENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
E
Melissa:
I wouldn't mind so much if I actually HAD dropped acid at some point in my life. But I haven't. LOL!
E
Yes, Erica, I will be posting baby pics just as soon as I have a baby to take pics of... Depending on the time, you may even get a call :)
Neither have I. The dreams just reminds me of those weird movies from the 60's and 70's. I would watch them and always think, "Somebody was taking acid." And that you can only understand them if you were on acid. Or at least what I think being on acid is like.
Someone has to say it...To sleep, perchance to dream. I love the dreams I desperately try to hold on to. Ones that are so bizarre you can't help but think of them all day long. They make me wonder.
I used to love time travel but it's hard to find good ones anymore. Time travel went the way of chick lit and became a taboo word. But it will back, everything comes back sooner or later.
I think chick lit turned into woman's fiction. So what would they call time travel now?
I have very odd dreams - always have. And when I wake up, I can remember even the most minute details from the dream.
I also never know I am dreaming until I wake up. All my dreams seem real.
My husband says I should make stories out of them, but I have yet to do that. Perhaps one day! Cause as you said, different can sell!
I say go for it!
Aimless:
I think the time travel thing . . . would just have a different hook . . . like the Time Traveler's Wife. One of the "hooks" was his disappearances. It made the story unique.
E
nadine:
I have dreamed resolutions to plots of actual books, so you never know!
E
Post a Comment