Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Dreaming
This morning, as I struggled to wake up and emerge from the warm cocoon of my bed into the cold cave that is my house, my brain started composing a letter. The letter was one asking for advice, as from an advice columnist, about the difficulty in waking up, and the near-constant desire for sleep, and if that was a problem, and also what if I really just like dreaming. In fact, I like it so much that most of the time, I'd rather be dreaming than anything else in the whole wide world. And I realized that was, if not an actual, full-blown problem, it is at least an indicator of a problem or a precursor to a problem. Or maybe it's just seasonal depression.Anyway, I thought further: maybe I should explore that as a character for my NaNoWriMo novel this year? A main character who just wants to sleep a lot, is avoiding something, and (because a novel that was just a series of dreams interspersed with scenes where the character was just going through the motions until he can sleep again would be, y'know, boring) is forced to stay awake for some reason.
I think the character would be interesting, and funny, and probably grouchy. Kinda like Dr. House, from the teevee.
Then I thought: "But I already have an idea for my NaNoWriMo novel - tell a story backwards!" (even though I haven't blogged about it yet, yes, I've been working on this idea for this year) And I thought further: "I don't really know how to combine those two ideas - I have no idea where my sleepy-but-not-narcoleptic character would end up."
And yet, I'm going to intersect those two ideas. Even though I have NO IDEA how it's going to actually "start" (and by "start", I mean "end", because I'm beginning at the end and ending at the beginning).
So that's what I was thinking this morning.
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Simply put, my friend, sleeping would be the obvious end to a story about a fellow who wants nothing more than to sleep. However, in that same vein, it might also be considered "bridging" - where it takes the entire 50,000 words to get him to his goal.
If this is the road you take, I recommend finding and keeping the character's mantra known (at least to the author). For the audience will read and ask, "What would cause someone who wants nothing more to sleep NOT to sleep?"
I am sure the narrative will reveal itself as you write each preceding scene! I wish you luck!
If this is the road you take, I recommend finding and keeping the character's mantra known (at least to the author). For the audience will read and ask, "What would cause someone who wants nothing more to sleep NOT to sleep?"
I am sure the narrative will reveal itself as you write each preceding scene! I wish you luck!
OK, actually, now that I've thought about it more, I think that the natural end of the story would be the main character either:
A) figuring out why he wants to sleep all the time, and overcoming it, or
B) finally having a reason to stay awake.
I think that works better, and it still allows me to use dreams in the course of the story. I saw the main character as sleeping off and on during the story - because writing dreams is a great way to pad my word count! Oh, yes, I'm totally planning ahead for NaNoWriMo.
A) figuring out why he wants to sleep all the time, and overcoming it, or
B) finally having a reason to stay awake.
I think that works better, and it still allows me to use dreams in the course of the story. I saw the main character as sleeping off and on during the story - because writing dreams is a great way to pad my word count! Oh, yes, I'm totally planning ahead for NaNoWriMo.
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