In My Dreams…

/ Diane Henders

This will be a shorter-than-usual post because I’m finally at the point in Book 14 where all questions have been resolved and the action is flowing and OMG-I-just-have-to-write!  It’s my favourite part of the process — that glorious absorption where every waking minute is consumed by what happens next; and mundane matters like food and sleep are merely annoying distractions.

And speaking of sleep:  My dreams have been especially vivid lately (writing 14 hours a day will do that).  Everything is in full colour and it all makes perfect sense… until I wake up.  So many times I’ve invented something absolutely brilliant in my dreams only to wake up and think, “What the ever-loving f…?”

I don’t know why my dream-inventions always seem brilliant at the time (maybe a slight ego problem?), but at least that’s better than The Exam Dream.  You know the one:  I’m late for an exam, I haven’t studied, I can’t find the building where the exam is being held, and I may or may not be naked.  When I finally get to the exam hall and sit down, I realize that this the wrong course entirely, and I can’t even read the questions.

But when I try to run away and my legs won’t move (that’s another typical dream), I struggle and strain and eventually bend down to dig my hands into the ground; and then I don’t have hands anymore and I run effortlessly and tirelessly on all four paws.

I prefer to think that this is all normal.  (Yeah, I know:  In my dreams.)

Any other inventor-shapeshifters out there with academic performance anxiety?

Book 14 update:  It’s been an awesome writing week!  I’m on Chapter 52 and I might… (dare I say it?) …finish the draft this week — I’m so pumped!

43 thoughts on “In My Dreams…”

  1. I would say it is about time to start the re-read (I think it will be #6) so I will be ready for the next “chapter”. ; ) (Still finding little snip-its I missed before.)

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    • Wow, six re-reads – hooray! I hide a lot of little details in each book and sometimes I don’t fill them out until a few books later, so it’s very cool to hear that you keep finding new things. That makes my day! 😀

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  2. Glad to know I’m not alone with both types of dreams….just had one last night (or very early morning) along the brilliant idea path. Woke up remembering that the idea I came up with in my dream was brilliant, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what it was…ugh!! I think I have re-written the exam dream somewhere along the line…I have it, but someone always tells me the correct room I should be in or the answers to the questions will come to you or that it’s ok to be naked…..go figure! Have a great week!

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    • Seriously? You dream that somebody helps you out? What an amazing dream! Nobody has EVER helped me out in mine. And it’s fabulous that somebody actually tells you it’s okay to be naked. Life should be like that. (Not that I want to be naked in public – I sunburn far too easily for that. But it would be nice to be told that it was okay. ) 🙂

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      • It may sound a little crazy, but I was reading a book about dream interpretation years ago and it talked about inserting yourself into the dream to control the direction it goes…not very successful with that, but I really worked at talking myself down with these stress dreams…being chased…taking tests….being naked in public….it has evolved into someone telling me it’s ok and when I hear that…deflates the stress and dream…call it weird or whatever, but it truly has worked.

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  3. My variant of the Exam Dream is that I have gone through four years of college (in one night, mind you) and have failed to attend a single class that keeps me from graduating. I also have the “can’t find it” dream. At some point, I can’t find my car, my hotel room, my way back home. Unfortunately, I have not translated any of these into money-making ventures, only morning exhaustion.
    Fortunately, when I need to pee I dream of bathrooms.

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    • Thank goodness your subconscious has successfully dialled into the concept of bathrooms when the need arises. It could be inconvenient if it fixated on the corner of the closet instead. 😉

      I hate that Exam Dream, but it would be considerably more tolerable if I could find a way to monetize it. Hmmm, now you’ve got me thinking…

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  4. It’s great that the book is close to climax.
    I had to treat myself to a new ereader as the old one was refusing to charge all those books. My account wouldn’t work on the new one an error on my part in creating it first time round so it’s a new and correct account and the first books I bought were yours.
    I’m currently curled up with chapter one book one, thinking suddenly my recovery is going to be so very much more fun.
    Had another abcsess but this time in an unmentionable place sitting is not much fun, still now I can drift off with all my good friends.
    Oh as an aside kobo was trying to tell me book 13 wasn’t available for reason. But I have 12 books to get through first.

    Are you have full on dreams with aydan and the gang? Bet you are enjoying them, I remember you saying that you envied me being able to control and manipulate my dreams.

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    • Oh, poor you! Abscesses are just nasty. I hope it heals up quickly and you feel better soon. And I REALLY envy you the ability to control and manipulate your dreams – that would be so cool! But then again, I guess when I’m writing I’m kinda manipulating dreams, too, so I don’t feel too badly. 🙂

      Look at you go, re-reading the series again! Wow! It makes my day to know that it still stands up to re-reading. It’s weird that Kobo doesn’t have the link for Book 13, though. Try this one – it seems to work for me: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/once-burned-twice-spy

      Good luck, and happy reading!

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  5. Writing 14 hours a day! Wow it’s amazing your brain has energy left to run on all four paws! Good luck in the sprint to the finish. Hope your hands reappear which might be handy for typing.:)

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  6. It’s no wonder your books are so inviting, it’s as though you put all this wonderful energy into them. Love your work.
    PS. I get a kick out of your posts. Thanks so much

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  7. I used to dream and would hate it when I woke up in the middle (or at least before I felt it was finished), but rarely could I remember what it was about. Now I think some of the medication I am on lets me sleep pretty much all night through with very few dreams). What dreams I could remember would involve running with someone chasing me – just on the verge of being caught.

    Sounds great about the progress on the team’s adventures. When I get into a new book (especially one of Ayden’s) I wish it took me longer to read them. I’m almost “cussing” myself when I finish it too quickly. I love series books.

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    • I’ve had the “escaping” dream a few times, too – no fun. It’s funny how I always wake up just as I get caught (which is probably a good thing).

      I love series books, too – get me hooked on the characters, and I’ll read as many books as the author is willing to write!

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  8. I’ve never had the exam dream but I’ve had the I-need-to-pee-and-I-can’t-find-a-bathroom dream far far FAR too often . . . comes with having a small bladder, I think.

    I’m fascinated by your writing process, or by anybody’s process, really. I can’t write fiction at all, and I’d love to be able to. To get a little glimpse into your brain on the topic is wonderful!

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    • Oh, the bathroom dream sounds awful! I think the only time I ever have that one is when I actually NEED to wake up and pee.

      I think my writing process is, um… ‘non-typical’. (That sounds so much nicer than ‘completely bizarre’.) In the writing world, there’s a well-documented schism in writing styles between pantsers (those who fly by the seat of their pants and let the plot happen as they go along) and plotters (those who use outlines and notes and index cards and plan the story down to its tiniest detail before they even write the first word). Considering how detail-oriented I am, you’d think I’d be a dyed-in-the-wool plotter; but I’m a pantser through and through.

      I’m obsessive enough to research the fact that Christmas Day was on a Sunday in 2011 and on that day the sun rose at 8:38 AM and set at 4:33 PM in Calgary, so that’s how it happens in my book; and I keep a story bible with every single character’s name and details and quirks… but none of it is recorded until AFTER I’ve written it down in the story. The thought of planning it out in advance sucks the life right out of my soul.

      I’m just… okay, there’s no nice way to say it: completely bizarre. 😉

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      • You’re completely bizarre. Like me. Your methodology sounds remarkably like mine. No kidding. I had one scene that I couldn’t turn off. At all. So I wrote it down to get it out of my system. Didn’t work. So it came to me, “What happened before, and what happened after?” And I figured it out one LINE at a time. No clue where it was headed. It turned out okay, I think. After four years I’m essentially done, and I STILL enjoy reading it. That’s not a bad thing, right? After 750,000 words? And 1,500 pages? Er, plus?

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        • I never thought I could do it, either. You should give it a try – you might surprise yourself. Just start with a question: “What would it take for (fill in the blank) to happen?” I started this series because my brain got stuck on the question, “How would a civilian ever meet a secret agent and realize that he was actually an agent? Because secret agents are, well, y’know… secret.”

          Try writing a short story to answer your question, and see what happens. Worst-case scenario, you exercise your imagination a bit and decide you hate writing. Best case, you accidentally write a novel the way I did! 🙂

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          • When you explain it like that, it sounds a TINY bit less intimidating 🙂 I’ve copy/pasted your suggestion and will follow it up the next time I’m out of ideas for a blog post. Thank you for breaking it down like that – it helps.

            Do you write any short stories? I wonder if the skills for those are fundamentally different than the ones for writing a novel? Sorry, this is not a good time to be making you think – I’ll come back to that question sometime in the future after you let us know you’re not so busy!

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            • That’s okay, I need to emerge from my cave for a little while every day and communicate in something other than grunts and gestures. 😉

              I’ve written flash fiction, which is a lot of fun – it’s a great challenge to set a limit of 1,000 words (1,500 max) in which to set up a story premise, build suspense, and create a satisfying ending. Flash fiction is a really good place to start your writing journey because you don’t get overwhelmed by the size of the task.

              I haven’t written any short stories (“short” is generally considered to be under 30,000 words) or novellas (30,000 to 50,000 words). There’s something in my brain that jumps directly from flash fiction to full-on novel. I didn’t set out to write a novel at all – the thought of pumping out that many words with complex plots and subplots and character development was FAR too intimidating.

              But as I started to answer my original question, my brain kept saying, “But then what would happen?” And after I’d written three full-length novels secretly (didn’t even tell Hubby), I realized this might be a “thing”. That’s when I found Janice Hardy’s Fiction University (at http://blog.janicehardy.com/, excellent comprehensive advice and ALL FREE) and pruned my rough stories into actual novels. And the rest is history…

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              • Wow – this is fascinating stuff, Diane. I’d read a full-length book about writing if you wrote it. I’ll check out the link, too. I think you’re right that a short piece would be the way to start, for me at least. I can’t imagine myself having the imagination to come up with the detail required for anything longer. But look at you . . . who knows where a person might end up! Thank you for the reply at a busy time for you 🙂

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  10. Dreams are so fascinating, aren’t they? I am a very….active dreamer. I know this not because I remember all my dreams but because I start out the night like a normal person: head on pillows by the headboard, feet at the footboard, all snuggled up under covers. Normal. I wake up with pillows flung all over the room, sheets in a death grip (or sometimes wrapped around me), all other covers are on the floor, usually I’m half on/half off the bed if it’s a good night, if not I’m also on the floor. Once I remember dreaming that I was a leopard sleeping in a tree and I woke up sitting up, wrapped around my bedpost. And I’m laughing as I’m typing this because the facial indentations from laying on the artichoke that caps the bedpost was truly spectacular! Lmao!!

    And writing 14 hours a day?! WOW! As one of the grateful beneficiaries of your dedication I will just say that I am so glad that you love what you do. YAH 14!!

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    • OMG, I’m laughing out loud at the thought of your leopard dream – that’s fabulous! Just imagining the explanations that would have ensued if somebody had caught you in the act…

      Your sleep style sounds potentially hazardous! I’m usually a pretty quiet sleeper, but every now and then I lash out in my dreams. So far Hubby has escaped personal injury, but there have been a couple of close calls! 🙂

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  11. I had a dream once, but my second grade teacher crushed it and I have don’t have dreams anymore. Well, that’s the most common dream I have. The other frequent dream I have involves machine guns and not being able to find my uniform …

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  12. Uh…(eyes shifting, er, shiftily) not as far as anybody else is concerned. (Eyes still, er, shifting) And why do you wanna know…? (Shiftshiftshift…)

    Okay, paranoia aside, CONGRATULATIONS!!! As always, if nobody’s told you today that you rock, please allow me to be the first! Plottage has crashed solidly into the Hunnerd Percent Barrier! Yay! Writage has thmashed the Ninety Perthent Barrier and ith halfway home from there! Yay!

    And it’th probably thtill to thoon to athk about nameth and cover art…but I’m gonna anyway. Tho, have you thettled on a title yet? And, on thecond thought, never mind about the cover art. Ath long ath you’re thtill gonna uthe that thame hot redhead anonymouth model ath before, all ith well, ath far ath I’m contherned. The’th a theriouth babe. Don’t tell her I thaid tho, though. Wouldn’t want to embarrathth her, you know. Jutht thayin’… 😉

    Hm. Why do I thuddenly need to clean my thcreen…?

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    • LOL! Mutht be thomebody thpitting over your thoulder.

      You’re right, it’s a little too soon for a title and cover art yet, but that’s next! As soon as I’ve finished the draft, I’ll know what the title should be. That’s probably ass-backward to the “normal” writing process, but I never claimed to be normal. 😉

      (And the cover model thanks you, even though she didn’t hear any of what you jutht thaid… or thpat.)

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  13. That is always the best part of the book to finally get to! Glad you’re there!.
    High anxiety dreams. What would Sigmund Freud say? Probably has something to do with how you were potty trained. Or your genetic makeup. Well, you know what they say, nature or nurture, either way it’s your parents’ fault!

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    • It’s always good to have a scapegoat (or two)! And I’m sure Freud would have a heyday inside my brain. I haven’t had The Exam Dream for quite a few years now, but it was pretty frequent right after I graduated from university. These days if I start dreaming about exams, the other half of my mind kicks in and says, “Hang on, I graduated over thirty years ago! This is just a stupid dream!” Sometimes you win… 🙂

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