Ideas

Posted by Christine on Jul 29, 2008 in General | 1 comment

So I read on another Authors blog recently that one of the most common questions that authors are asked is where they get their ideas.

I have to admit it has never occurred to me to ask this question.  The question I would be more likely to ask is how do you decide which idea is worth writing and which ones to pass on.

I have hundreds of ideas.  I have stories started in notebooks all over the house.  When I run out of notebooks to start ideas in I flip the notebook over and start a new idea at the back.

If I run out of ideas I have a wonderful idea generation technique.

I take a nap.

My dreams are highly vivid.  In addition I remember my dreams in detail when I wake up and occasionally I even revisit a dream for several nights in a row.  I really like dreaming. For a long time I thought everyone dreamt the way I did – in wonderfully detailed stories that they could continue to tell themselves when they woke up.

When I was young this was sometimes a problem as I would have recurring and vivid nightmares.  However at some point I started to sometimes have Lucid dreams. Occasionally I  realize I am in a dream and direct the dream and “tell” the story to myself even as I participated in the dream.  I make the dream move forward as a story and change details to suite the way I want the story to go.

Many – maybe even most of my story ideas have started as either a very vivid dream or a lucid dream.  My subconscious mind never seems to run out of fascinating ideas, at least to me 🙂 .  Sometimes these stories draw me in so much that I want to revisit them on paper.

The issue I run into is which of these dozens of ideas to turn into full stories, then staying focused on that story to completion and not getting distracted by another idea when I fall asleep. 🙂