Dreams to Ideas

As a prelude to this post, an explanation must be given. I have seriously twisted, vibrant dreams. They sometimes stick with me for days; sometimes I wish they wouldn’t. Occasionally my dreams make me exhausted all day. Sometimes, they are all about me being a character in “24” (yeah Jack) or “Stargate SG1” (yeah Jack). Wow, both those TV shows have a Jack as the lead character. Tangent, anyway…
Having expounded upon that, my novel was inspired by a dream I had back in December 2009. I couldn't get the dream out of my head for weeks. I told my parents and sister the dream’s content, saying I would like to write a novel about it. I didn’t think I actually would start writing it. One night, I was trying to sleep, but my body would not succumb to the rest I desperately desired. The dream popped back into my head as it had numerous times over the past couple of weeks. I gave up on sleep to start formulating the plot. That sleepless night, I had the end of the novel completely outlined in my mind. The following day, I turned on my bright green Dell laptop and began the eager process of typing away the idea that had plagued me for some weeks. The idea still plagues me—the gift of being an author. I wrote the end first, then the beginning, and then filled in the rest as I wrote. It took me five months, some writer’s block, and long evenings and weekends to complete the rough draft. Now I’m working on the technical process of editing.
I tell the background of how my novel became a reality in order to offer you a way to come up with writing ideas. Pull from your dreams. Really. Sometimes the oddity of dreams can become great ideas for writing material. I have another book idea that derived from a bunch of my reoccurring dreams. Just last night I had a dream that I have toyed around with today for another book. Keep a notebook by your bed just in case you wake up from a dream that is brilliant, so you can jot it down. You don’t want to forget it.
I hope that this will give you a way to get ideas for writing. Welcome to the world of an author—in that world you just need an idea you can run with. Make sure you run with it, otherwise, you’ll never know that 300 pages later you’ll have a novel. Of course, a novel that needs lots of tweaking and editing, but hopefully in the end, you’ll have a finished product. I am eager for that day to come very soon!