Tag: dreams

My writing interferes with my sleep, but in a good way

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Image result for dreamingMost of us get things stuck in their head, from time-to-time. After watching the new Aladdin trailer the other night, for some odd reason the “Prince Ali” song was rolling around in my head the next morning. I couldn’t get rid of it, not even in the shower (which is another whole level of embarrassing) until I put my headphones on, started the Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, soundtrack and got on the metro.

Beyond that, dreams put things in my head that helps me in my writing. The problem I have is that it’s usually four-to-five different things at once. I’ve started the outlines for three different novels in the past month, and on top of that, I had a distinct dream last night that gave me an idea for another project. I love it when the “creative juices” start to flow (it’s better than writer’s block) but it can also be considered on overload.

My dreams have always been a big part of the inspiration I draw on for my novels. I think it’s a culmination of years of playing Dungeons & Dragons and video games, reading comic books and various sci-fi/fantasy novels, and watching anime, Saturday Morning cartoons, and everything from Star Trek to Game of Thrones. All that “input” has to go somewhere and it’s usually into my dreams.

It’s amazing how this play acts out in my head, but it can also be quite frustrating. I CAN’T GO BACK TO SLEEP! When I wake up from this incredible dream with a story playing out right before me, it’s so damn hard to get back to sleep. That’s especially difficult when I have to work the next day.

How can you compartmentalize your sleep so you can (a) you can put those wonderful dreams to good use, and (b) you can still get a good night’s sleep. Some people suggest keeping a tablet next to the bed. I tried that but I can never wake up enough to write anything down. I’m also afraid that, if I would get up to start doing that, I would never get back to sleep.

I think that’s why I am working toward being a writer, so I can wake up and start writing without having to worry about making the metro on time. It would be great to be able to write whenever these crazy ideas pop into my head. I don’t want to lose what could be a great idea to sleep.

The last time I had a dream like this was this past year. Back in June 2018, I had a simple dream–waking up on a crossroads, nearly dying, and studying magic from a hermit-like caster to become a bad-ass warrior/caster. This led me to the book I just finished writing, The Last Magus. From the original dream, six months later, I had a manuscript of more than 180,000 words. That’s the power of dreams.

I usually get my best ideas from recurring dreams, like my last one, and it sticks with me until I finish writing. So, then I know it was meant to be. I haven’t had a repeat of my dream from the other night, so I’m not sure if that’s one to go with just yet. Even still, when I close my eyes tonight, I will wait and see if another new idea hits me.

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Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase as a paperback/ebook at Amazon. The Dark Tides is available for purchase as a paperback/ebook at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iUniverse publishing. The Outlander War, Book Three of the Forever Avalon series is coming soon from Austin Macauley Publishing.

What do you do when you wake up in the middle of the night with a story idea?

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frustration_zpsde5ab9fdDon’t you hate it when you wake up in the middle of the night, from a vivid dream or something else, and you have the next idea for the book you’re currently writing? As much as I love it when that instantaneous idea of genius hits me; after I wake up, it’s so hard to go back to sleep. I have to write it down before I forget it, or it will rumble around in my head, keeping me awake even longer. That’s the problem you run into as a writer… A lot of sleepless nights. The question is, do I ignore those late night inspirations for the sake of sleep?

Author and writing mentor Tom Bird writes, “Writing should be a comprehensive and holistic support system that opens participants to a free-flowing mental, physical, emotional and spiritual state.” I totally agree with that, but it’s kind of hard to be inspired at 2:00 a.m. after waking up from a wicked dream.

I find that inspiration is something that comes at a moments notice, whether from a dream or maybe something that pops into your head while out on a walk. For example, I was walking my dog the other night, thinking about the chapter I currently writing in my next book of the Forever Avalon series, The Prometheus Engine. I’ve been stuck at this one part when it suddenly hit me, as clear as day.

You see, I’ve been working on creating a new type of mage, a fighting mage called the Magus. These wizards are not worried about studying magic or understanding the philosophy of magic; but rather, they use their skills to fight and protect other wizards. Think of them as a magical Praetorian Guard. Their focus is on attack and defense. They are the warrior class of mages.

The problem is, I needed a way for the Magus to carry a variety of magical weapons at their disposal without looking like an overzealous, overburdened fighter. You see, to me, the Magus focus their magic on weapons, not wands and staffs, so they learn about the art of war like a mixed martial artist. Then I had this wonderful idea for a pauldron–a shoulder plate armor piece–that extended down a Magus’ arm into a gauntlet. Each piece in the armor would be storage for a different magical weapon. So a young Magus might have one or two weapons while a more powerful Magus could have 10 or more. All a Magus had to do was cast a summoning spell to bring out the weapon.

All this came to me while walking my dog. That’s what I love about being a writer. Inspiration hits me at different times and it makes writing so much more fun than I could imagine. It just takes a moment for that spark of imagination to ignite inside me.

It’s those late night, interactive, rolling movie set of a dream that keeps me awake all night sometimes. I have a dream where an idea for another part of my book hits me. I wake up and realize, “that’s what I’ve been looking for!” But now that I know what I’m going to do, I can’t stop thinking about it. It just goes on and on, like a multi-part mini-series spread over two weeks inside my head. No matter how hard I try, I can’t go back to sleep. It’s frustrating, especially when I have to get up for work the next morning.

So what do I do? I usually write it down. I find that writing down these bursts of imagination helps me go back to sleep. Normally, I’d say keep a pen and paper close by, but my Galaxy Note smartphone has a great note taking function that lets me jot down ideas, but to each his own. I still have trouble going back to sleep, but that’s okay. As long as I got the idea written down, it’s worth it.

So remember these words when you have those moments of instant clarity and inspiration that keep you up at night.

“The power of a writer is that he is a god of sorts. He can create his own worlds and populate them with his own people, all by the powers of his imagination. It’s the closest a man can come close to the gods. No wonder the most successful writers are considered immortals.” ― Bangambiki Habyarimana

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51nd6H6sATL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_SKU-000941753Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The Dark Tides is available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iUniverse publishing. The Outlander War, Book Three of the Forever Avalon series is coming soon.

 

Daydreaming is for dreamers, keeping writers like me feeling young again

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1218075500955_fRalph Waldo Emerson said, “Live in the sunshine. Swim the sea. Drink the wild air.” I like the sound of that, not only as a writer but as a human being. To me, it says “enjoy life” to the fullest possible sense. It also helps to keep one’s creative juices flowing.

I will admit that I daydream a lot. I find myself dreaming about the next chapter of my novel, or captain of a spaceship, travelling to the stars. I’ve even dreamed about being a rock star while listening to my favorite music. I think that dreaming comes naturally to people with a creative talent, like writers, artists and musicians.

It’s through dreams that we create and add to the building blocks of our stories. The whole concept for Forever Avalon came from a dream I had, and each story of the series has come to me through dreams. I’ll give you an example. I’m currently writing the fourth book in the Forever Avalon series, but I’ve been stuck on this one part. For weeks, I’ve been staring at my computer with little to no results. Then one night, as I laid in bed trying to sleep, it came to me. The story just laid itself out perfectly in my mind. It was exactly what I was looking for. The only problem was that because my mind was racing with all these ideas, I couldn’t fall asleep.

“Never let it be said that to dream is to waste one’s time, for dreams are our realities in waiting. In dreams, we plant the seeds of our future.” ─ Unknown

I think that’s the curse, for lack of a better word, for writers. Our ideas can come at the most inopportune time and we don’t know how to shut it off, no matter how much sleep we lose. That does present a problem, whether at work or late at night when you’ve got to get up for work the next day. Dreaming, and daydreaming, can both be a negative and a positive for writers.

Its a part of us that lets us bust loose with incredible adventures in worlds never imagined or seen before. I wouldn’t trade all the sleepless nights and missed deadlines if I had to give up my dreams. Even the smartest people in the world want to live in their dreams.

Albert Einstein said, “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live in my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”

We need our dreams to give us something to aspire too. Those dreams are the foundation of our future. Let’s not give up those dreams, otherwise we will stay stalled in our life. I will continue to dream and grow my world through my imagination. That way, I’ll never grow old.

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51nd6H6sATL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_SKU-000941753Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The Dark Tides is available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iUniverse publishing. The Outlander War, Chapter 3 of the Forever Avalon series is coming soon.

Some may say I’m a dreamer, and they’re absolutely right

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Dreaming-Quotes-93Dreams are the lifeblood of a writer, for it is in the dream that we cultivate and grow our stories. John Lennon once said, “I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?”

That’s the truth about writing for in the dream, we get our inspiration, make changes to character and plot and navigate our way through the dreamscape. It was in my dreams that I found the story that is the Forever Avalon series.

I was a sailor, deployed far from home and missing his wife and newborn baby daughter. Off duty hours were spent indulging in my favorite pastime, Dungeons and Dragons. The combination of the two led to a recurring dream of being stranded on a magical island with my family. Over the years, the dream changed and expanded until I finally decided to write it all down.

Today, that dream has come full circle in the publication of the Forever Avalon series, including The Dark Tides and the third book in the series, currently under development, The Outlander War. These are the products of my dreams, my pure inspiration and fantasy.

People use to tell me to stop being a dreamer, to grow up; but Oscar Wilde declared, “Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” That’s the magic of being a dreamer.

I often try to guide my dreams as I fall asleep, so I can continue to cultivate my story each and every night. Sometimes, I just let the dream take over and see where it leads me as I sleep. More often than not, the dream escapes me and I toss and turn as I try to sleep. On more than one occasion, the most brilliant idea comes to mind and I have to get up and write it down before I forget it completely.

These are the faults of our dreams. As writers, we can’t stop creating, even when we sleep. The dream is our reality, though not in the Inception kind of way. It’s funny how the human mind works. in that sense, our dreams are our (the writer’s) way of bringing our reality into everyone else’s.

Stephen King said, “And people who don’t dream, who don’t have any kind of imaginative life, they must… they must go nuts. I can’t imagine that.” Neither can I.

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SKU-000941753Forever Avalon is available for purchase at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The Dark Tides is available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.

Dreamers are the writers of tomorrow

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703.-More-Than-One-DreamIt’s funny how writing correlates to dreaming. Most people forget what they’re dreaming about when they wake up the next morning. As a writer, I find inspiration in my dreams.

Dreaming is the television of the mind, as I like to call it. It’s where our fantasies become realities. Daydreams are especially poignant. Edgar Allen Poe said, “Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only at night.”

I truly believe that day dreamers are the most creative people alive today. It takes that level of imagination to inspire one in art, writing, and other creative endeavors.

Daydreams are the most prevalent dreams we have. They have been the subject of everything from Saturday Morning Cartoons to an episode of “Happy Days” (the episode that introduced us to “Mork from Ork” played by the incomparable Robin Williams). I remember a “Looney Tunes” cartoon with little Ralph, who daydreamed his way through school, being a deep-sea diver after gazing at the classroom fish tank one moment to being General MacArthur when he leaves school promising “I will return,”

Dreams are the playgrounds of our minds, as the song says. As writers, we use it to cultivate the stories for our next chapter. The hard part for me is that, at times, my mind is racing through thoughts and ideas so fast that I can’t get to sleep. It’s especially difficult if I was writing just before I went to bed.

That’s the difficulty of being and independent author. You have to work at another job so that, at night, you can focus on your passion for writing. Unfortunately, it can lead to a few restless nights.

Dreams is your subconscious talking to you, in one way or another. It’s the creative side of your brain reaching out to tell you something. That’s how I originally came to write Forever Avalon.

When I was on active duty in the Navy, I had this recurring dream whenever I deployed. It was my subconscious trying to help me cope with the long separation from my family. It put me in a place where they relied on me, needed me, on a magical island out of time and space. In my dream, I felt closer to my family than any time before.

This was the dream that inspired me and led me to write the Forever Avalon series. Funny thing is that after I wrote my first story, the dream stopped. Like I said, it was my subconscious talking to me and I got the message, loud and clear.

edgar_allan_poe__by_ohparapraxiaEdgar Allen Poe said, “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” These are words to live by when you’re delving into your creativity and inspiration to create a world of fantasy.

Forever Avalon is available for purchase at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The Dark Tides is now available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.