The Dream's the Thing...

[morgan_dhu]

So several people on my flist have posted about their dreams today. I rarely talk about about my dreams, because they are either very surreal in a way that's only going to be meaningful to me (and these kinds of dreams usually are very meaningful, and I know exactly what they're saying to me) or I dream extended fantasy/sf/adventure novels with no meaning whatsoever except that my subconscious is getting bored with hanging around doing nothing while it waits for me to wake up and feed it more data.

Also, I tend to have very full recall of most of my dreams.

Last night, for instance, I had a dream in which I was two people observing that same sequence of events from two different but crucial perspectives. One of me was the commander of a Roman legion that had gotten lost in the mists somewhere in the countryside of Brittania while out looking for Caledonian incursions past Hadrian's Wall. When the mists clear, they are somewhere that they don't recognize - though the lay of the land seems somewhat familiar, and they hastily make camp. Scouting parties reveal that they have camped near a cluster of strange metal and wooden buildings inhabited by large herds of animals and a small number of strangely attired people. They are confused, frightened, and in full-out Roman legion defense mode, and the commander is deeply concerned that his men are about to be ambushed and slaughtered in some strange Caledonian mind-trick.

My other consciousness in the dream is that of a rather mousy British civil servant whose primary responsibility is to take care of increasing numbers of bewildered and displaced people who have been appearing all over Great Britain from a variety of past eras. His current task - dredge up a small "first contact" party of people who are reasonably fluent in 2nd century Latin to go explain what's going on to the Romans before they get too antsy and conquer the nearby dairy farm. He really, really dislikes all of these people, becasue his former job, before all of this started happening, was much more predictable, and now he never knows what he'll have to deal with, and when.

Misunderstandings, near-fatal decisions, and other foolishness ensues, and unfortunately, I woke up before I learned anything about why all of these time travellers were littering up the British countryside. Maybe that will come tonight - sometimes dreams that I don't finish one night pick up where they left off on the following night.

This is why I have never been inclined to keep a dream journal. I'd never have time to do anything else if I actually wrote down everything that happens in all of my dreams.

Comments

[ladydaera.livejournal.com]

Wow! That actually sounds like it could be a really interesting historical fantasy novel. My dreams are much more nonsensical. They have nothing like plot and are much less creative :-/

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Well, I do like to amuse myself, I guess. ;-)

I've often thought that some of my dreams might be developed into interesting novels, but I really don't have the patience to write them myself. I'm more of a short-form writer, poetry especially.

That and the occasional fanfic at various points in my life.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Wow! I'd read that story! You have to tell us what happens next installment. (-:

I don't remember my dreams well--I don't think I dream in such interesting narrative set ups. The main plot is usually a search for a bathroom, but other semi-plots weave themselves in as I resist waking up to follow this quest in earnest. Why not be writing this stuff down and then up where your writer's mind will take and refine them?

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I'd be exhausted if I tried to write all this stuff down, and I really don't have the patience or discipline to write novel length stuff. The only reason I got as far as I did with my Xena fanfic was becasue I loved that show in the early days, and I had lots of encouragement. Once the love fizzled and the encouragement was no longer available, I couldn't even find the discipline to finish it. It's still languishing on my website, and it looks like Xena and Gabrielle will never get further than a kiss. Sigh.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I still hate that I can't swoon over them as a couple anymore as I still can for Willow and Tara--despite my giving up the show after they killed Tara--it didn't ruin the couple as a couple in memory since I tuned out on what they did with Willow with her vengence kick. And I can swoon over Frodo and Sam, despite the class shit in the original and the dysfunctional shit in PJ's, and revise it all with the fanfic. I can still enjoy Gabrielle as a character since I didn't watch the last couple seasons, but I can't redeem any enthusiasm for Xena at all. I guess it's because I can't like LL's face of Xena anymore. I have to be able to like people, even fictional ones, to find them attractive, I guess.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I have to be able to like people, even fictional ones, to find them attractive, I guess

That's probably the key to my fanfic inclinations, too. I still *think* about slash plots and images, even if I don't write it much any more, but I find myself going back to the good old standbys, rather than finding new people to slash. It's rare for me these days to find two characters in one fictional universe that I like and that have a natural inclination to be slashed - I never did hold with forcing a relationship that there just wasn't any text or subtext for in the characters as developed for the page/screen.

But Frodo and Sam always did make the perfect couple. ;-)

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

You have such vivid dreams. I dream about dating Alan Shore and Gregory House, and about running around town with a co-worker trying to find a place to eat that will give us our food quickly enough that we can eat and be back at work in 30 minutes.

[victoriacatlady.livejournal.com]

I'd read that novel too. But it sounds like you need to hook up with an author who's good at writing but short of actual ideas for novels. If you actually did sit down to write a novel, it's probably a much more worthy project to write the fictionalization of the life of Mary Magdelene I mentioned earlier.