I do draw inspiration from my dreams sometimes, but often they have to be toned down and have SOME rules of logic applied to them. One of my adult stories called “Rising on the Edge of Sleep” not surprisingly comes from a nightmare about a cowl-wearing figure creeping along the side of my bed parallel to the floor. I put the dream in a murder mystery (of sorts)—genre mashup!
Some of my favorite dreams are actually about writing. I once dreamed I was in writing class. It was being held out in the woods. The teacher wore flannel…must have been in Maine or Oregon. He was teaching the class on the run while all of us students were running alongside him. He stopped at the top of a hill. Down in the valley was a barn with a decrepit silo. It was obvious that the silo was about to crash to the ground. He asked the class, “Why do you write?” I took off running toward the silo and shouted over my shoulder (as I ran right beside the silo), “I write to disturb!”
And I do.
That is not to say that I write to write disturbingly scary things. But I write to “interfere with the normal functioning” of my readers’ minds {thanks Merriam Webster for the definition}. I may disturb with laughter or sadness or fear…but I would like to tell a good story and do a little disturbing when I write.