The subconscious mind is an amazing thing. Have you ever been in the situation where you were trying to remember someone’s name or a word and a few minutes after you’ve given up, it pops into your mind?
Happens to me all the time.
I’ve noticed that my writing is being done subconsciously too at times. I get my characters in a bind and I can’t think of a good, logical way to get them out of it. I walk and I think and I try different things but nothing works. Then, out of the blue, an idea hits me that is so freaking awesome I wonder why I never thought of it sooner.
In the past I thought it was just my mind working from one possibility to the next until a good idea came up. That’s my conscious mind that I’m talking about. Recent events have made me wonder if that is actually true.
I have noticed a tendency where I sleep poorly if I’m working through story ideas. My mind just seems too active. When that eureka moment hits and I’ve written down the solution to my current problem, sleep returns. I never really gave it much thought.
But recently, I’ve been working on a story idea that is in a genre I’ve never written in before. It’s a genre I’ve read widely and love dearly, and maybe that love has added some pressure to write something decent the first time out. The genre? Comedy.
I love reading Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and Robert Aspirin. They are each brilliant in their own ways and I really want to write something that reflects my affection for them. So after writing three drafts of my first chapter, each one brand new and each one not good enough (in my opinion), I was starting to wonder if I could do it.
And my dreams were becoming very bizarre (think moving around as a character in lego world bizarre). I was waking up exhausted knowing only that my dream was severely weird.
I would dispiritedly type a few more words for my story, but none measured up. Last night I finally had my eureka moment. The words lined up and made sense. The characters acted the way I wanted them too. I got a good night’s rest.
I’m convinced now, more than ever, that it was my subconscious mind working overtime that was responsible. I was dedicating so many brain cycles that I wasn’t resting even when I was asleep.
But, now there is hope. The story is progressing and I will start recording this coming weekend. You can expect to see/hear the pilot episode in my ‘Get Published’ feed very soon.
Personal Update
As mentioned above, the podcast story is starting to move forward. I also entered the flash fiction contest at Absolute Xpress last weekend. One more contest to enter this week and I’m good to go.
