Dreams

Dreams give me a lot of story ideas -- or even entire stories! I keep a dream journal -- actually, it's not so much a journal as however I can document my dreams when I remember them -- a sheet of paper, a notebook by my bed, my Palm Tungsten, my Google Notebook, or a notepad document. It's almost never a convenient time to fully flesh out a dream, so I jot them down for later when I have time to fill in the blanks or make suppositions about how I ended up being chased by aliens through the parking lot of Kmart wearing only a bath towel. ;)

It's when I need a story idea that I go through my documented dreams to find something suitable. Most of my dreams aren't complete stories, but I can sometimes find two or three to put together or make several stories based on one.

I've tried lucid dreaming, but that hasn't really worked for me yet. I don't believe in reincarnation, but I've tried past life regressions before (with a borrowed audio tape), and that would probably be considered lucid dreaming. Each regression was an interesting ride with lots of stuff to write down and sketch. Regardless of whether you believe a regression really makes you remember a past life, is a lucid dream, or is something different, I would recommend trying it purely for entertainment value and for coming up with interesting story ideas.

It's time for me to go to bed. I hope I dream!