Dreams as Ideas--A Commanding Thought
After having a vivid dream which could make for a solid story, I thought I should take the opportunity to speak about the topic of using dreams as an idea source. Having studied dreams as a hobby from time to time, I find their composition very interesting. Knowing the kinds of things that a person dreams about can clarify things about how that person's mind works, but it's still not the definative answer on such a topic (since there isn't one).
A few facts about dreams:
1. A healthy person has 3 or 4 dreams every night (8 hour sleep period), regardless if they remember what they dreamed about .
2. The thoughts a person has during the last hour or two before sleeping dominate what that person will dream about.
3. Dreaming, or the Rapid Eye Movement stage of sleep, is one of the physical cornerstones of mental health. Entering this stage allows the mind to sort out our problems and cope with stress.
4. Having and remembering a single dream within a year's time constitutes a recurring dream, which is a way of the mind making a statement to the conscious self.
In the dream I had, I was in the future, probably no more than 10 or 20 years in the future. I was seeing things through they eyes of a man who was about 23 years old, had short brown hair, and wore a long coat. He'd just returned from a long journey where he'd learned many things and was given an impromptu surprise party by his "three favorite people in the world."
These three people were Cyclops, Phoenix, and Iceman. Their boss, who was a short distance behind them, was Professor X. When I made note of all these things, I figured out who's point of view I was seeing things from: a very different version of Cable.
The rest of the dream played out as a growing dissent of social philosophy between Cable and Professor X. There were a lot of subtle details that I can't really put into words after that. Eventually, the two had a complete falling out and went their separate ways.
It concluded with Cable leaving the X-Corporation (not the Xavier Institute) and meeting a woman on the street. He stops the woman and asks her, "Why are you wearing a blonde wig over your shiny black hair? And why do you use makeup to conceal the lovely black design over your eye?" This woman was a different version of Domino. They talked for a few minutes and walked away from the X-Corporation together.
Yes, I really like the X-Men.
I noticed that this version of Cable wasn't a warrior or soldier in the least. He was on a path where he might become one, but wasn't. Instead, he was a young man developing his own ideas and using them to help others through the X-Corporation. One of the things he did was redesign and rebuild the X-Corporation building through sheer force of will; he reshaped an entire skyscraper just using his thoughts.
My thought was that I might be able to take this dream and the open-ended ideas in it, and turn it into a story. There were some logical name changes present: Nathan, not Cable. Scott, not Cyclops. Rachel, not Phoenix or Jean. I think it can still have the structure of the X-Men characters that were present, but no more than that. Basically, dreams and outside inspiration together can lead to story ideas.
I've had other ideas come from dreams. The Brill'Que, one of which I showed before as a picture, came from a nightmare, one of the worst I ever had. Some of the ideas from "The Golden Hollow," such as a telekinetic natural disaster, came from a dream. All of these have been refined in the past and will likely be refined more in the future. Dreams alone can't be the story, but they can be excellent building blocks and strong foundations if managed properly.
A few facts about dreams:
1. A healthy person has 3 or 4 dreams every night (8 hour sleep period), regardless if they remember what they dreamed about .
2. The thoughts a person has during the last hour or two before sleeping dominate what that person will dream about.
3. Dreaming, or the Rapid Eye Movement stage of sleep, is one of the physical cornerstones of mental health. Entering this stage allows the mind to sort out our problems and cope with stress.
4. Having and remembering a single dream within a year's time constitutes a recurring dream, which is a way of the mind making a statement to the conscious self.
In the dream I had, I was in the future, probably no more than 10 or 20 years in the future. I was seeing things through they eyes of a man who was about 23 years old, had short brown hair, and wore a long coat. He'd just returned from a long journey where he'd learned many things and was given an impromptu surprise party by his "three favorite people in the world."
These three people were Cyclops, Phoenix, and Iceman. Their boss, who was a short distance behind them, was Professor X. When I made note of all these things, I figured out who's point of view I was seeing things from: a very different version of Cable.
The rest of the dream played out as a growing dissent of social philosophy between Cable and Professor X. There were a lot of subtle details that I can't really put into words after that. Eventually, the two had a complete falling out and went their separate ways.
It concluded with Cable leaving the X-Corporation (not the Xavier Institute) and meeting a woman on the street. He stops the woman and asks her, "Why are you wearing a blonde wig over your shiny black hair? And why do you use makeup to conceal the lovely black design over your eye?" This woman was a different version of Domino. They talked for a few minutes and walked away from the X-Corporation together.
Yes, I really like the X-Men.
I noticed that this version of Cable wasn't a warrior or soldier in the least. He was on a path where he might become one, but wasn't. Instead, he was a young man developing his own ideas and using them to help others through the X-Corporation. One of the things he did was redesign and rebuild the X-Corporation building through sheer force of will; he reshaped an entire skyscraper just using his thoughts.
My thought was that I might be able to take this dream and the open-ended ideas in it, and turn it into a story. There were some logical name changes present: Nathan, not Cable. Scott, not Cyclops. Rachel, not Phoenix or Jean. I think it can still have the structure of the X-Men characters that were present, but no more than that. Basically, dreams and outside inspiration together can lead to story ideas.
I've had other ideas come from dreams. The Brill'Que, one of which I showed before as a picture, came from a nightmare, one of the worst I ever had. Some of the ideas from "The Golden Hollow," such as a telekinetic natural disaster, came from a dream. All of these have been refined in the past and will likely be refined more in the future. Dreams alone can't be the story, but they can be excellent building blocks and strong foundations if managed properly.
posted by LEN! at 2:04 AM
1 Comments:
Hmm, so was X-Corporation an actual business group, or was it still an educational facility?
Either way, it'd be interesting to see where Nathan would proceed from there. Form a rival corporation? Become a corporate raider like that guy Gideon?
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