In your dreams!
How often does the following happen to you?
- You go to sleep
- After a certain time period you wake up, distraught. (the said time period varies from occasion to occasion; from minutes into the sleep till the very end of your sleep cycle)
- You find your specs, or simply get off the bed (depending on whether you have Myopia, Hyperopia, or none)
- Grab hold of your laptop/tablet/diary/pad and start typing/jotting down immediately with an unexplainable cheer (even if you’re off killing someone in your writing)
I find, quite helplessly in fact, myself in the above scenario. The result is usually a beginning to a story, a half-written character, or, if I’m lucky/sufficiently-driven a complete piece.
I’ve noted, inspiration usually strikes when we’re least expecting it to; with our guards down; in my case, when I’m fast asleep, floating amidst the many possibilities of dream-space.
I’d be in one of those scenarios/places (my childhood home, some relatives place, school, college, moon, mars, etc.) indulged in totally harmless stuff (well, not exactly that) and then suddenly, out of nowhere, the landscape would alter and I’d find myself in a particular enactment of some scene. Then, someone will hit the play button, the whole charade would be set in motion; characters would start delivering dialogues, I’d get a hold of the plot (in partial) and then, I’d hear a voice (my voice). It’d usually something on the lines of the following, “Dude, this needs to be written down”. I’d soon realize I have to wake up; to which the other part would say, “Oh C’mon! Not now, we’re actually enjoying this; aren’t we?” This part usually ends up on the losing side though.
There’s also times when a bitter me ends up staring at the empty paper/screen wondering, ‘What was so awesome about the idea that you had to wake up from a supremely awesome dream sequence?’
Today was one such day. I had slept at 15:00 hrs, at around 16:30 or so, I got up; inspiration had struck! In the dream sequence I was at my grandma’s place, fooling around when suddenly, the scenes changed a multicultural group surrounded me. My relatives had vanished. We started moving out when suddenly I tossed my katana and said, ‘Oliver, you’re up! Everyone else, secure the perimeter’. It had all the effects camera panning, slow-motion and stuff. This was when I heard the voice, “Dude, this needs to be written down!” What I failed to figure at that time was that I wasn’t a comic-book illustrator or a movie producer. It’d have been cool if I had been one of the fore-mentioned; I ended up checking FB, twitter, my blog, freshly pressed, and then writing this post up!
Of the times, something productive has come up, Lost! and That face among the faces, come to mind.
How often do you end up with a master-piece at your hands up and away off a creative sleep?
