I Dream of Genies

Dreams.

Much has been written about them, but they're still this magical, little-understood miracle in our lives. They can be deeply disturbing, simply shocking, or absolutely blissful. Sometimes they don't make a lick of sense. Other times, we get our stories from them, carefully crafted by someone other than our own conscious minds.

This is how Twilight was born.

I've read of other authors who use their dreams exclusively in writing their fiction. They've even learned to manipulate their dreams, follow different story lines, back up and start again when it veers off in the 'wrong' direction.

As for me, I am not in control of my dreams. Occasionally I have one that's too disturbing to continue and I wake up with a horrified gasp, slightly less dramatic than in the movies.

But most of all, I notice a spike in storylines in my dreams when I haven't written anything new in a while and my mind really wants me to start imagining again.

In the past month alone, I've dreamed of time travel, whodunit murder mystery on a cruise ship, a love triangle involving a seemingly ordinary girl and two brothers, animals that foretell the future in an ominously human voice, and explosions of major landmarks.

I find myself in the shower afterward trying to weave these separate points into one cohesive story. It's enough to make me laugh out loud at my own subconscious. Some elements shouldn't be combined into a single story, and the attempt is nothing short of hilarious.

You probably won't be reading my "Dr. Who meets Agatha Christie with talking animals" for young adult readers any time soon. But it's opened up my imagination a bit to contemplate the idea. And I never would have dreamed of combining those elements... if I hadn't dreamed them first.

What role do your dreams play in your writing life?