Dreams
Lately I’ve been having strange/weird/awesome dreams. The ones I remember long after I awaken are my favorites, naturally. I’ve always been a vivid dreamer. I’ve studied for tests, written essays, and even solved plot problems for my books!
I’ve had premonition dreams, which freaks me out the most. The gathering after my grandmother’s funeral is still as clear today as it was when I was ten. Made the mistake of telling my mother this one, and she flipped out. My grandmother died two years later. So I don’t share these dreams with anyone.
As writers, I’m positive that our dreams, whether we remember them or not, are part of our creative intellect bubbling forth. DH and I share our dreams, either during our morning coffee or afternoon ‘how was your day’ time, and I appreciate his accepting attitude. My twisted sisters are also great listeners.
Do you remember your dreams? Do you dream in color? Have you used any of your dreams in stories? 
October 20, 2009 at 9:51 am
I remember my dreams sometimes, but usually they fade after a few days. I dream in b & w if the lights are out, or dark color. If it’s daytime or the lights are on, I dream in color.
When DH worked 24 hour call and was usually out most of those hours, we lived out in the country. I usually slept with the lights on.
One night I dreamed he came home, came into the bedroom, told me he was home, then he went to the bathroom. He didn’t come back, so I got out of bed to look for him.
He wasn’t in the bathroom, or the kitchen, or the living room. I even looked in the spare room we didn’t use at all, and he wasn’t there.
I finally realized that it was a dream up to the point where I got out of bed.
It shook me that something inside my head could seem so real.
I started sleeping with the lights off after that.
October 20, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Susan,
How neat that you dream in color with light/daytime, and b & w at night.
Thanks for sharing!!
October 20, 2009 at 10:57 am
Meg,
I am pretty sure I dream in color and I don’t think it has anything to do with the lights.
My dreams are pretty random but I do have a lot of ‘flying’ dreams.
I’ve always heard that dreams were your subconscious’ way of dealing with unfinished business, but I’ve never been able to harness that energy to suss out a plot difficulty or solve a problem. spw
October 20, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Flying dreams, Sandee? Are you flying or in a vehicle that is flying? Or both?
I hadn’t heard of the subconscious unfinished business, but it sounds good.
October 21, 2009 at 10:45 am
Meg,
It’s always me flying like superman. Never in a vehicle which I would have to steer. Imagine me flying along the treetops without a cape. Usually at night, I guess I’m flying under the radar!
Jan Hudson did some really great workshops about unlocking your dreams, and using relaxation techniques to free your inner muse. The information was very compelling. She was a clinical psychologist by trade, so she knew what she was talking about.
You might need to find out what your dreams could be doing for you. spw
October 20, 2009 at 11:00 am
Oh, yeah. I dream. And sometimes they are eeriely prophetic. Before my DH and I got married, before we even started talking about children, I dreamed I was introducing my children. I had 2 boys, both with dark hair and eyes, and a girl sandwiched in the middle, with light brown hair and blue eyes. 28+ years later, I have 2 boys, both with dark hair and eyes. And a girl, right between them, with…brown hair and blue eyes.
October 20, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Lynn, how cool is that dream about your kids!!!!
Thanks for chiming in!
October 20, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I’m jealous that I don’t work out plot problems in my dreams. Not much, anyway. My dreams are usually rather strange and it depends on when I wake up as to whether I remember them or not. Some of them are down right freeky.
Sandee, when I was younger, I had the same recurring dream and I could fly. I’d jump from one cloud to another. Haven’t had that one in a while, though. Oh, and I was a child in the dream. Hmm. Wonder if that’s why I’ve never “grown up”? lol
October 20, 2009 at 6:49 pm
LOL, Linda!
Cloud jumping. I could get into that one.
October 21, 2009 at 10:47 am
Linda, I’ve never landed on a cloud. But you remember that scene in the first Batman movie where the batmobile comes out of the cave and swoops down the drive with the leaves rustling out of the way of the wind ahead of the car? I do the leaf thing all the time when I’m flying. It’s always night and Fall, apparently. spw
October 21, 2009 at 10:55 am
Linda,
Here’s what the Dream Moods Dictionary says about flying dreams:
http://dreammoods.com/cgibin/flyingdreams.pl?method=exact&header=dreamid&search=flyingintro
So cool! spw
October 20, 2009 at 8:21 pm
I used to have dreams where I would get into some dangerous situation, then morph into someone else — stronger, tougher, more capable of self-defense. I haven’t had those in a long time. Wonder if it’s because I’ve gotten stronger and tougher for real?
My sister and I have the same recurring dream: that we’ve bought a house and we walk through it and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. We think we’ve seen everything and open a door, and there’s another ten or twenty rooms behind it. I have no clue what this dream means, or what it means that she and I both have it regularly.
My other dreams are generally very disjointed. They don’t make sense when I’m having them or later when I remember them.
October 21, 2009 at 6:39 am
Marilyn–
Awesome strength dreams. You are probably right about becoming stronger for real so you don’t need the extra.
What a wonderfully strange recurring dream that both you & your sister share! My sister and I have both dreamed about our father on the same night.
But aren’t senseless dreams wonderful in a way? No logic–completely Twisted!
October 21, 2009 at 10:53 am
Dream imagery is very cool. Generally, they do mean something consistent. Here’s what I found online for Marilyn’s new house with rooms appearing every time she opens a new door: “To dream that you find or discover new rooms, suggests that you are developing new strengths and taking on new roles. You may be growing emotionally. Consider what you find in the discovered room.”
This is from the Dream Mood Dictionary (http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/). Very cool. I need to read what it says about flying dreams. spw
October 26, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Neat, Sandee! And I can see where that’s true. We’re both making changes and doing other things, some of it by choice, some not. How cool is that??
October 20, 2009 at 8:43 pm
I dream a lot and always vividly. And I have had dreams about my stories. The first one I ever wrote I dreamed it. Of course, I had to change a lot of it, because as dreams usually go, some of it didn’t really make sense. But I work out plot problems and all sorts of things. It’s cool actually. I worked out a lot of stuff in dream format for the last book I wrote.
And I do beleive it’s our subconcious telling us things. I used to have the same dream- nightmare really- over and over about my dad. When things finally got bad and I had to cut him out of my life, the dream stopped. I think it was definitely telling me something.
October 21, 2009 at 6:40 am
Kira–
Thanks for sharing!! I’m glad you can dream out plots!! Isn’t it so cool?