Ideas & Solutions & Dreams

[hmmnmm]

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[tanyachrs]

All the time.

I don't know if this will make you feel any better or not, but I'm beginning to think that what was in my head probably wasn't all that perfect. It felt perfect because I was thinking it, not reading it, and 'cause I was half asleep at the time, but I'm kind of doubtful that it'd really be such genius if I could see it in print wide awake.

I can believe the most ridiculous stuff when I'm half asleep, like that time I was convinced I didn't have to get up to go to work because the radio had just said there was a nuclear bomb headed our way and work was cancelled. If I can believe that, I can believe that what I'm writing in my head is good stuff.

 

[hmmnmm]

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[angela146]

I leave my cellphone next to my bed for those moments when I wake up in the middle of the night with an "ah ha!" moment. I then leave myself a voice message.

The problem is, when I listen to the voice message later in the day, I frequently find that either the idea is silly or that the message is incoherient.

Unfortunately, parts of the brain can be asleep while other parts are awake. The "judgement" portion of your brain might be taking a nap while the creative portions are awake.

That brilliant paragraph might not ever have existed.

 

[TxRad]

I leave my cellphone next to my bed for those moments when I wake up in the middle of the night with an "ah ha!" moment. I then leave myself a voice message.

The problem is, when I listen to the voice message later in the day, I frequently find that either the idea is silly or that the message is incoherient.

Unfortunately, parts of the brain can be asleep while other parts are awake. The "judgement" portion of your brain might be taking a nap while the creative portions are awake.

That brilliant paragraph might not ever have existed.

I do the same with my little pocket recorder.... and yes most of the stuff on it from the night before is usually dumb or off the left field fence..... or both.....

But every once in a while there is a diamond in the ruff so to speak.....

But it usually takes a lot of work to dig it out and polish it up even when it was perfect during the night.....

 

[hmmnmm]

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[cloudy]

I've gotten some of my best story ideas that way.

And I've also had lots of "what the fuck was I thinking" mornings after.

 

[oggbashan]

I've gotten some of my best story ideas that way.

And I've also had lots of "what the fuck was I thinking" mornings after.

Me too.

The 'what the fuck?' outnumber the good ideas by about 10 to 1. They all seem great at 2 in the morning...

Og

 

[hmmnmm]

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[damppanties]

I leave my cellphone next to my bed for those moments when I wake up in the middle of the night with an "ah ha!" moment. I then leave myself a voice message.

The problem is, when I listen to the voice message later in the day, I frequently find that either the idea is silly or that the message is incoherient.

Unfortunately, parts of the brain can be asleep while other parts are awake. The "judgement" portion of your brain might be taking a nap while the creative portions are awake.

That brilliant paragraph might not ever have existed.

I keep a notebook and pencil at hand. If you're awake enough to write it down immediately, it's probably something worth keeping. No incoherent voice to deal with the next morning.

 

[angelicminx]

So lately I've expended more care and time into the construction of paragraphs that make up stories - or in this case, one particular story, which I'm presently using as an exercise example, the hope being to eventually submit it, but not necessarily for voting purposes - since I have a tendency to overwrite or to wander into descriptive details which impede the flow or hamper the overall idea, which I'm starting to do now...

Other eyes and minds have also offered tremendously beneficial critique, pointing out things that I might overlook. It's slow and arduous, but an enjoyable labor, encouraged by the prospect of steady improvement, if ever so gradual.

Anyway, this morning I was in that state of sleep that's sort of between dreaming and conscious thought, if that makes sense. And I was writing or sorting out a paragraph, a section, a better way to word it. I mean, I could see it clear as day, it was like, "Oh! that's it! Perfect! And so obvious!"

But then I woke up, and I've forgotten that obvious perfect wording.
This is inspiring because those words are in there, down there, somewhere. But frustrating because when I am awake they are so elusive.

This has happened before.
Has it happened to you?

Happens all the time. When I'm working on a story, poem or song, and the words are flowing, I spend countless nights 'writing in my sleep'. Sometimes I can recapture the words, but most times I can't.

I've also had fantastic nightmares which have been the springboard to stories I'm working on now.

Needless to say, when I'm in writing mode I don't get a lot of rest.

 

[angela146]

I keep a notebook and pencil at hand. If you're awake enough to write it down immediately, it's probably something worth keeping. No incoherent voice to deal with the next morning.

I don't mean mumbling, I mean "incoherent" as in meaningless thoughts that don't make sense:

"The washer has a red rabbit in front of the soda bottle."

 

[kendo1]

Just take LSD.

It'll all make sense in the morning.

 

[hmmnmm]

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[cloudy]

Which morning?

yesterday morning.

And the answer is 42.

 

[hmmnmm]

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[cloudy]

Oh, that one.

What is 42?

the meaning of life.

 

[hmmnmm]

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[kendo1]

My point was that these wonderful ideas you have in your dreams are, more often than not, just pipe dreams. They make sense at the time, but in the light of day...

Yes. I have had them. I suppose most people do.

As with any ideas, it may be worth writing them down just in case.

Remember Coleridge

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.


Note by Coleridge:This fragment with a good deal more, not recoverable, composed, in a sort of Reverie brought on by two grains of Opium taken to check a dysentery...

 

[hmmnmm]

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[Huckleman2000]

I keep a notebook and pencil at hand. If you're awake enough to write it down immediately, it's probably something worth keeping. No incoherent voice to deal with the next morning.

I do that sometimes, with the result that it's not just incoherent, but indecipherable as well. My penmanship is awful in the light of day, even worse when it's too dark to see clearly.

I do have extremely vivid dreams, though, and that in-between state results sometimes in episodic dreams that continue when I drift deeper again. Part of it is a side-effect of the anti-depressant meds I take, but I also take Vitamin B6 on occasion to help remember dreams. It works! I've always been a dreamer, though, meds or not.

[eta] One thing that really helps is to do something mindless, like take a shower, or concentrate on something else for awhile, like a crossword puzzle. Ideas are like souffle's - the timing is never the same twice.

 

[hmmnmm]

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