Wednesday, August 24, 2016

The Movies in My Mind

I am prone to weird dreams. Not necessarily nightmares - although, I have those, too - but dreams that seem somewhat normal but leave me utterly exhausted. Although I can sometimes tell they originated from a book or from other media, I've never tried to actually interpret them. I'm pretty sure I don't want to know....

Here's a recent weird one:

I'm attending some sort of conference and sharing a huge hotel room with three other people. One of them is a fellow blogger. (Someone who is familiar in the dream but has no name or face I can place when I wake up.)

Huge heavy drapes are pulled across the windows, and I don't know if it's day or night. Suddenly, a group of men come in, my Dad among them. (My Dad passed away last year, but in the dream he's alive, not a ghost or anything.) He tells me we need to go, there's some sort of alert and we have to leave Pasadena. (This tidbit comes from either a horror novel about a spider invasion that partly takes place in California or from an old episode of The Big Bang Theory.)

I shove things into bags - for some reason, I have lots of stuff for this conference. Whatever is happening is bad because my Dad - a very organized packer - would never let me just throw stuff in bags. He picks up a backpack that's obviously too heavy for him - he's wearing a green sweatshirt and sweat stains form between his chest and stomach. I scold him, and he tells me he's fine. (By the way, that part would've totally happened in the real world.) We head out into a morning that looks normal but has a weird yellow cast to it.

*****

Do you have weird dreams, too? Do you use them as inspiration for stories, for art? Do your characters dream or have nightmares? Do you like to interpret dreams? Any thoughts on mine? Hmm, maybe it's a post apocalyptic story waiting to be written....

23 comments:

  1. I have no idea how to interpret dreams either. Was your father good at getting you out of a crisis?

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    1. I know there's lots of books - and probably websites now, too - about interpreting dreams. I think I just like to figure them out for myself. Or just let them go. :)

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  2. I know the brain needs to dream to work stuff out or let off steam, but sometimes I wish I wouldn't remember mine. They are exhausting.

    I do like to analyze them though. It sounds as if your dad is your symbol for protection. He's looking after you. Whatever is happening in your life will turn out fine because you have the grit to see it through.

    That's the way your dad raised you. :)

    Thanks for sharing your dream. It's fascinating!

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    1. I'm glad I'm not the only one exhausted by their dreams!

      I like the idea of my symbol of protection - that was nice.

      You're welcome! I've got loads more where this one came from. :)

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  3. I have weird dreams. I'm almost always hiding/on the run from someone, and they all seem to take place back at my parent's home. I tried looking that up once, the hiding bit, but different websites said different things, most of which I don't feel really apply. But yes, I wake up exhausted too.

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    1. Running and/or hiding sounds pretty scary to me!

      Some of my weird dreams have me tearfully arguing with someone or verbally defending myself. Totally exhausted when I wake up.

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  4. HALF my stories are dreams. (I kid you not.) See, if I had a dream like that and it didn't finish, I'd spend the next hour formulating what the motivation was and how these characters (who will obviously not be me or anyone I know in the story) deal with the fallout. I tell you what, I've got some epic pieces. It's not cool when they leave you tired though.

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    1. I can definitely see this dream turning into something more - a story or a scene in a longer piece - but I would heighten the fear and horror. Big surprise. :)

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  5. I have lots of weird dreams. The last one I remember was actually normal, but when I woke up, I felt like I had been having a nightmare. It was weird.

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    1. That is weird! Maybe it felt normal to Dream You, but in real life, it would actually have been a nightmare and that's why Real You had that reaction.

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  6. I also have weird and nightmares and I rarely figure out what triggered them. I'm careful not to read scary books or watch scary movies before bedtime, but that doesn't seem to matter.

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    1. I usually try to switch to a magazine or lighter reading right before I go to sleep. Obviously, it doesn't always work.

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  7. I've always had vivid and strange dreams. They've given me a lot of story inspiration over the years!

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    1. Me too. The best one I can remember inspired my story Goyyou. I got the whole plot and the main character's name from the dream.

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  8. That sounds like the making for a creepy, exciting story. I always get ideas for books from my dreams. :)

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    1. It really has a post apocalyptic vibe to it, especially the end.

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  9. I believe God can speak to people in dreams, and sometimes dreams do have something to tell us, but most of the time they are the result of throwing thousands of stimuli into a blender, then fermenting them in REM sauce.

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  10. That is a strange dream. I have them all the time too and can't interpret them at all. I've had lots of dreams with my dad in them since he died a few years ago. It made me smile that the conversation the two of you had and your scolding would have happened in real life too. :)

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    1. I'm glad that made you smile, Julie. Once I get over the creepy aspects of the dream, I smile, too. :)

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  11. Totally sounds like a Stephen King story!

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