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Friday, January 23, 2009

Dream Planning

And I don't mean like your goals and aspirations. I mean dreams. You know those crazy picture shows in your head at night.

Ever since I was little I've determined that if you think of something while falling asleep you will dream about it.

I've used this time to plan the perfect bedroom for myself as a teen (I remember lots of blue, steps, a loft, a private bathroom and a balcony), to imagine TV shows with me as an added character (I had lots of great Charlie's Angels plots where I could play the role of Sabrina's [made up] younger sister Jamie) and of course to figure out story ideas.

Story ideas are the things I've stuck with the most. After awhile it gets boring to plan a room you'll never actually have - and I grew out of the idea of wanting to be on Charlie's Angels, but I still need to plan out stories.

Before I fall asleep I'll let a troublesome scene run itself over in my mind. I can get great dialogue this way - the key is to remember it in the morning.

Now - the big question: does thinking about something before you fall asleep make you dream it. It hasn't worked for me yet.

And last night I dreamt that a Revolutionary War battle was going to be fought outside our house and we were watching through the windows waiting for people to arrive. When the soldiers in their red and blue coats showed up we went into town to get out of the way. The whole time I was very concerned about backing up my computer. And when we got back, and the soldiers were gone, I was mighty upset they had put holes in our new screen door.

Yeah - I didn't think about any of that before falling asleep.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gee, I thought you wanted a pink room. We could have painted it blue. It did have stairs going to it and you had a bathroom nearby. Ok, it wasn't private, but the elements were all there.

I hardly ever remember my dreams, or if I dream at all. I know I dream sometimes, but it's rare that I have any recollection of even dreaming. If I do, it all disappears very quickly. I don't know how usual or unusual that is. Someone could probably analyze all of that and conclude that my dream mechanism was damaged because I ate too much peanut butter and jelly when I was a kid, or something. I don't worry about it. So, you wanted a blue bedroom. I never would have dreamt that.

By the way, the word verification doesn't show any letters to copy, so I can't post with my Google account.

Dad

christine M said...

Gee, Dad - I guess I hid my desire for a blue room pretty well. :)

PJ Hoover said...

I always wanted satin sheets. Never got them, but man they looked pretty in the JC Penny catalogue.
I think dreams are just a mish-mash of all our internal thoughts. And I don't recall dreaming about something I thought about right before falling asleep.
Fun post!

Barrie said...

Christine, you have one wild imagination!