Dream the story and write the dream
Vincent van Gogh: Starry Night
I’ve had an interesting week. After my incident with the reversing cars my husband lost his wallet. We spent Thursday cancelling his cards and calling the police to see if it had been handed in. He has multiple licenses ranging from confined space entry, to ‘A’ grade electrical (he works in the fire safety industry) and it was such a hassle trying to figure out how he was going to replace them all.
Thursday night I was enjoying Bonnie’s blog and told her I was feeling ‘stumpy’.
Friday was a different day. I woke up in the morning having dreamed a novel – In the Company of Beasts – (most of my novels come to me in dreams). I’m now four chapters in and totally loving it 🙂 I’m thinking my dream may have been ‘switched on’ from the stress of the day and then giggling at the pictures on Bonnie’s post (oh – how I love the subliminal!)
Then about eight o’clock Friday morning came the knock at the door. There stood a lovely man holding my husband’s wallet. I’ve always held great faith in the honesty of people and this kind act only served to confirm it! So – to the lovely man who found the wallet – a big THANK YOU!
It’s amazing how we can influence and inspire each other and how a few beautifully written words or an act of honesty and kindness can massage the way we think, feel and dream.
When I read BC’s post on Friday I was speechless and felt incredibly humbled that one of my posts had inspired her to write something so poignant and moving! To all those who have inspired me (sometimes without even knowing!) thank you, too!!
Don’t you just love inspiration? Even the word itself rolls beautifully off the tongue…
Dianne Gray author 
Wow, what an inspirational post! 🙂
And I wish I had dreams like that lol
Xx
LikeLike
Haha – thank you Vikki!
LikeLike
Dianne,
What a great circle of events, and I love that I was part of it. What’s even better, is that post nearly didn’t happen, at least it wasn’t ‘planned’ 🙂 . I was working on something else that just didn’t feel ready so I relegated it to my drafts folder and hopped over to Facebook, to get my thoughts clear and came across the photos of Archie and Zeus. I clicked away from them, smiling…and then went back and it struck me, the disparity of the two, and how that felt like much of my week. Isn’t the universe fun sometimes?
Let’s raise a glass to feeling stumpy, great dreams and the kindness of strangers!
xo
LikeLike
Oh, Bonnie this is wonderful! I’m raising my glass to you now 🙂
It kind of goes back to my last post – if this didn’t happen then that wouldn’t have happened and I’d be sitting here now thinking – I wonder what my next novel should be about? 😀
I love that the universe is fun!
LikeLike
You are right…I hadn’t connected that, but yes, the whole if-this-then-that! And I was feeling stumpy about not being able to pull together what I had in mind when Archie and Zeus saved me! I wonder too what your next novel will be about! Raise your glass again, my glass is empty, hours ago, but tomorrow I will toast to the universe! And you! xo
LikeLike
Woo hoo – thank you 😀
LikeLike
Such a lovely positive post – it warmed me after my own rotten week 🙂 Must go to bed early and see if I can’t dream something…so exciting that you’re charging through a new book!
LikeLike
I hope you are not feeling too drained after all that has happened – sleep and relax. Tomorrow is another day…
Wishing you wonderful dreams 😀
LikeLike
You are an inspiration 🙂
LikeLike
I wish 🙂
LikeLike
The most fascinating thing about inspiration is how at times it comes like a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky, making me drop EVERYTHING in my hurry to find something – anything – to write on. At other times it sort of laps through me in gentle swells (I guess like your dream experience) and I don’t need to worry about the paper, it’s all engraved in my brain. Sort of creepy …
LikeLike
Exactly, Anna – and you kind of have to wonder ‘where did that come from?’
When something hits me like a bolt from the blue I tend to forget it if I don’t write it down straight away (which can be really frustrating at times) – I think ‘I know I had that great idea, but what was it?:D
LikeLike
Sounds like things are on a upswing now – that’s great, and glad to hear you’ve become un-stumped. I’ve never “dreamed” a novel before – at least not while asleep. It must be a wonderful experience.
LikeLike
It is because I wake up and can still ‘see’ and ‘feel’ the characters and the overall feeling of the dream (which makes it easier to put on paper) 😀
LikeLike
That’s amazing. I never dream about my characters. Some of them, I don’t even know what they look like beyond general descriptors of hair/eye colour, height, ethnicity. But I’ve never been that visual – I’m much more auditory. I hear my characters voices all the time. In my dreams, I hear music sometimes that I think might be original music.
LikeLike
Oh, Janna – you have just reminded me – I always wake up to music and the particular song will stay with me for most of the day. I sometimes wake up to songs I don’t even know! Paul McCartney tells the story of dreaming the song ‘Yesterday’ and he asked people for weeks if they had heard the song before. When no one knew where the song had come from he recorded it!
I have no doubt your dreams are original music! 😀
LikeLike
Yay for the wallet! There are still good people in the world. 🙂
LikeLike
It just goes to show! Wonderful isn’t it? 😀
LikeLike
Thanks for a great post… coming from your locale it is possibly anticipated and certainly breathtaking that a novel should come by dream! To sleep, perchance to dream is pure gift!
LikeLike
What wonderful words! And so true – one wouldn’t imagine the stress and overall situation could produce such an amazing dream. Thank you so much for commenting 🙂
LikeLike
Its always nice to hear when someone does something good for a change… glad you got the wallet back.
Nothing better than having a story comes to you in a dream…
And I agree Bonnie’s blog is great.
LikeLike
Hey, Maggie – totally agree, there is always something different in Bonnie’s blog 🙂
I’m really glad the wallet came back as well – it’s a lot easier than living with a bear with a sore head 😀
LikeLike
That painting is one of my absolute favorite paintings of all time. I even bought a framed replica of it from some street vendor for $40. LOL
That’s pretty awesome that, that guy returned your husbands’ wallet. Most people wouldn’t be so polite like that these days. People just don’t seem to care.
Inspiration to me is in everyday things. Like a guy mowing our grass, the way the grass smelled when he was done.
It’s pretty amazing how our dreams seem to inspire us. My story started out as a dream. It’s pretty awesome to dream it and then be able to write it out. Sometimes I wake up just to write after I’ve dreamed something. 🙂
LikeLike
I chose this picture because Van Gough dreamed his paintings and I absolutely love this one. I used to have it framed on my wall many moons ago and it seems to have vanished in the many moves we’ve had over the years 😦
The smell of fresh mowed grass is beautiful. I also like walking into a bakery and smelling the warmness of the freshly baked bread!
It’s wonderful being able to dream stories – it really is a gift 🙂
LikeLike
Something as simple as a returned wallet can restore your faith in basic human decency.
Alas, my characters rarely enter my dreams. They prefer to ambush me when I’m working on other things—usually the day job! Given how much I love their stories, I’m willing to go along with that.
Thanks for the inspirational post!
LikeLike
So true – considering we live so close to the city and are surrounded my so many ‘unfortunate’ souls (to put it kindly without swearing!) When the wallet was returned I said to my hubby – do you think someone will return my handbag one day? He shook his head – it was actually stolen from my kitchen while I was on the other side of the house feeding the dogs their dinner 😦 Someone had jumped the fence and run in and taken it.
I love that your characters ambush you during your ‘day job’ it must make things very interesting at times!
LikeLike
Glad your hubby got his wallet back. 🙂 I think some writers dream with a story structure. I know I do sometimes. Stephenie Meyer dreamt the Twilight story around the same time her children started swimming lessons in 2003. Stories from dreams are like gifts, especially if you can make them work.
By the way, the ‘act of honestly’ typo in your post reminded me of Kath and Kim’s ‘abducted air conditioning’ and ‘power over eternity’. 🙂
LikeLike
Hahah – thanks for the heads up, Justin! I just corrected it (do you want the job as my proof reader?) 😀 I love Kath and Kim – my favourite say is ‘You’re not a pretty face, Kim!’
I didn’t know Stephenie Meyer dreamt the Twilight story – very interesting indeed!
LikeLike
So glad your husband got his wallet back. It must have been a big relief to you both.
LikeLike
It certainly was – PHEW! 🙂
LikeLike
We need more uplifting posts like this. 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks, Lily 🙂
LikeLike
Very inspiring, I believe people are mostly honest so it was good to hear of some one actually going out of their way to return the wallet. Dreaming a story is amazing, does it come complete with ending or just the broad outline. I’m sorry to admit I do not have dreams of any sort
LikeLike
You don’t dream? Oh no… 😦
My dream was just the outline – I found myself in a different time and place with quite odd people (no I wasn’t at a family reunion!) 😀 – and the story unfolded from there. There was no beginning middle and end – that is something I need to figure out 🙂
I loved your pictures of the wallabies!
LikeLike
It’s weird about me not dreaming as I’ve heard everyone dreams unless they are dead!!!! Have only ever met one other person that does not dream. My theory is that I sleep so soundly I cannot remember any dreams I might have.
LikeLike
Such a great story – I’m glad the wallet was returned. I think it’s interesting how your novel ideas come to you in dreams. (Maybe this is because the only dreams I remember are the ‘I gotta go to the bathroom’ dreams that wake me up to take care of business. Hardly novel material there :))
LikeLike
Hahaha – that would make a great novel! I remember watching an old movie (many moons ago) where a man and woman were in a car running from police and she was busting to go. She kept seeing mirages of toilets on the side of the road 🙂 I wonder if that movie came from an ‘I gotta go to the bathroom dream’ 😀
LikeLike
When I was in my teenage years, I could actually ‘continue’ a dream the next night and so on and so on. It’s a gift I wish I still had 😦
LikeLike
That IS a gift! I wish I could do that so I could find an ending for my novel 🙂
Do you have any idea why this stopped? or was it just one of those things that drifted away over time?
LikeLike
You know, I honestly don’t remember. It probably was when I started working nights and was so tired in the morning when I finished, I use to just fall asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.
I do miss a particular dream /saga. I was a part of a Celtic tribe way back when. Sometimes very little happened and I was part of the food gathering party trying to fish, other times we would have to hold meetings and decide strategies to keep neighbouring tribes at peace.
Thinking about it now, it is all rather peculiar. But it all did feel very real, I never told anybody about it because I use to look forward to picking up where I left off. A separate place that was just mine and nobody else’s.
Shame really isn’t it?
LikeLike
This is really interesting, Dan. I don’t know if you believe in past lives – but this certainly sounds like one!
It is a shame that the dreams stopped
LikeLike
I wish you all the best with your novel. I belonged to a site called Multiply which had a few writing groups. Unfortuantely the site is closing beginning December, but I do miss the groups. I just have fun writing. Word Press was always a back up but mostly now I am on Blogger. I do dream, but usually forget most when I wake up, although sometimes a few bits and pieces remain. Glad your husband got his wallet returned. I did not have such good luck. A year ago I was in the train travelling to Zürich airport to take a flight to London to see my dad. My purse was stolen from my bag when I boarded the train and I was stranded at the next station with only my mobile phone. I managed to call my husband who organised a train ticket.All my credit cards, money and Swiss identity card was gone, but managed to call around to block the cards. Luckily I had a British passport to rebook the flight a week later. Makes you think differently about other people and I am now careful where my purse is kept.
LikeLike
I am very careful about my purse as well. It was stolen from my kitchen (by some random who jumped my fence) when I was outside feeding the dogs.
I know how you feel – but your incident would have been far worse than mine. I cannot imagine what it would be like being in a foreign country without you purse and identification – this is just horrible! I really feel for you 😦
I don’t know Blogger and will go take a look. It’s a shame about your writing group, they can be such wonderful support!
LikeLike
🙂 Wow! I was like :O when I read that someone found the wallet and made the effort to return it. I’m not sure if I understood how it is related to your dream, but I suppose that the man’s humble act inspired you. And you are right, inspiration feels GREAT!!
Thank you for sharing and for visiting my blog 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you so much for coming by and commenting 🙂
I think the stress of losing the wallet was draining and I was probably overly-tired! Then when I looked at Bonnie’s blog it was about animals and quite funny so the mixture of the two must have sparked the strange dream 😀
LikeLike
It may sound wear, but I would like that happen to me, since I’ve lost my wallet so many times! lol. Maybe the next I’ll put attention on my dreams 🙂
LikeLike
The Universe is fun – a sense of humour is lesson #1 of Universal Consciousness, and lesson #2 is deciphering cryptic messages, I’m sure. Sometimes though, the messages are straight forward and I waste time trying to decipher the meanings, then have to go back to lesson #1…
LikeLike
Oh – I love those lessons, Ella! 😀
LikeLike
Diane, thank you for the like on AmyJoyJohnson.wordpress.com 🙂 I’m following your blog now– am really enjoying your poetic words + the look of your blog. Inspiring!
LikeLike
Thank you, Amy! And thank you so much for dropping in to say hello 🙂
LikeLike
Well you know had he not been awakened from his dream Colleridge’s Xanadu might have been much longer though it is fine even so. Thank you for following my blog. I cannot seem to write fiction, though I have ideas for some. Most of that energy goes to poetry as best as I can make it. KB
LikeLike
Your poetry is wonderful – I also love the pictures on your pages. Amazing 🙂
Thank you so much for taking the time to come by!
LikeLike
I love it when I hear stories about acts of common decency (returning a stranger’s wallet) because I hear about the dark stuff far too often. I’m happy for you and your husband, and I’m happy for the honest man because good will come back to him (I believe in ‘what goes around comes around’).
I have no idea if I dream about story ideas or anything that helps me with my writing. I rarely remember my dreams. However, I often have ideas hit me upside the head for no reason. I can usually find no correlation to a new story idea and anything that I have done/said/read/experienced. So, sometimes I have wondered if perhaps a dream (that I can’t remember) is part of the reason. That it is my subconscious that has inspired my ideas.
Love this post.
LikeLike
I love the ‘good’ stories as well – the news if filled with the bad stuff lately 😦 I’m sure the man who returned the wallet will have good come to him, and that’s a really nice way to think!
LOL – I love your comments – how ideas hit you upside the head is wonderful 😀 And you’re right – it could easily be a dream that just comes to you in your subconscious. I am sometimes in situations where I think ‘I’m sure I dreamt about this!’ and it’s not like déjà vu – it’s a completely different feeling 😀
LikeLike
Lovely post, Dianne. Yes, there is more good than bad in the world, and sometimes we are really made aware of this fact. Well done with the writing. It must be so great to be able to remember your dreams well enough to write them down, or at least use them as inspiration to write. I’m suitably impressed. 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you, Ad 🙂 I like to believe there is more good than bad in the world and when things like this happen I breathe a sigh of relief – there are just too many ‘sad/bad news’ stories doing the media rounds at the moment.
I really like that you’re suitable impressed *blushing* 😀
LikeLike
Wow, dreaming about a novel. That’s fantastic. I’m more of an auto writer, I never think of more than one scene at a time and it’s usually when I’m getting ready to write it. The words come to me as I write, never the other way around. Such a wonderful gift you have!! 🙂
LikeLike
That is a wonderful gift you have as well, Virginia! 🙂
LikeLike
Aw, it’s great that your husband’s wallet got returned! I too am a believer in people’s honesty… though some call me gullible for that, haha. And dreams are great for inspiration! I have like five story ideas stored away that have all visited me in my dreams. =D
LikeLike
I’m often called gullible as well 😀 I always believe in the best in people and my hubby is amazed that (for most of the time) I’m right. He, on the other hand, is the type that holds little trust in people…
I love that fact that you are holding stories that have come to you in your dreams 🙂
LikeLike
Wow, I love my dreams, they can be so vivid, but I’d love to have ones that result in books like you, that’s brilliant!! 😀
LikeLike
Vivid dreams are a great place to start! I’ve learned from this blog that some people don’t dream at all 😦 I’m trying to change that! 😀
LikeLike
Isn’t great that ‘inspiration’ and ‘respiration’ are related…it is our dreams that breathe life into us!
LikeLike
Oh so true!!!! 😀
LikeLike
Cheers to positive endings and a great new beginning (of your novel)! Oddly, I just wrote about a night where I didn’t dream at all, but I still found some inspiration. Your post was lovely. I have dreamed poems, the occasional short story, but never a whole novel! May it continue to flow and basically write itself!
LikeLike
Cheers to you too! Amazing – I’m interested in the inspiration without the dreams 🙂
LikeLike
What a lovely heartwarming post… to have faith in humanity is not easy these days, how wonderful to have it returned… so inspirational… love this blog…
How I’m missing my all day connection of the city… but it’s the little time I do have and reading blogs like this, that make my day… thank you…
LikeLike
Aww – that is so sweet – thank you 🙂
LikeLike
Inspiration – you are really paying it forward with this post!
LikeLike
LOL! 😀
LikeLike
Dianne, that is so great that someone so decent found your husbands wallet!
I am rather envious that your stories come to you in dreams.My dreams are always weird and confusing and to me never seem to make sense!
I hope this week is less stressful for you.
🙂
LikeLike
Hi Georgie, Thank you for wishing me a better week (so far so good!)
Most of my dreams are weird and confusing as well. It’s nice to get one every now and again that has such clarity! 🙂
LikeLike
What a beautiful post! more than a few novels have found me in dreams, and now I’m smart enough to get up and write it down with few grumbles about the lost sleep. 🙂
How lovely that your husband’s wallet was returned! Little things like that restore my faith in humanity.
Congrats on the new novel; nothing feels better than a wonderful idea put to work. Looking forward to hearing how it evolves!
I love reading your blogs too… 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you, Anna! I love that the novels have found you in dreams – I know it’s hard to get up (or roll over) and write it all down (particularly if you have to be at work early the next day) but it’s really worth it in the end 🙂
LikeLike
Agreed. I find inspiration in others work often and am thankful the sharing. 🙂
LikeLike
It’s fantastic to find inspiration! 🙂
LikeLike
Nice story with a nice ending 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you, Alistair 🙂
LikeLike
No worries Dianne 🙂
LikeLike
I’m looking forward to reading that novel! 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks, Rick! It’s certainly interesting 🙂 I think you’ll like it…
LikeLike
I’m sure I’ll like it! 😀
LikeLike
Wow–so things like dreaming novels, having characters come to you at the grocery, or plots streaming to you in the car on the way to work actually DO happen???? I’ll start paying more attention!
LikeLike
You’re right, Ly – they’re everywhere 🙂 🙂
LikeLike
I was reading this yesterday at work… wow! Who is that kindhearted fellow? I’m really touched as if I was the one given the favor. Awwww. I get inspired with people who do such acts. It reminds me that people are good, we gotta believe 😉 Thanks for sharing this, Miss D! 😀
LikeLike
Thank you, Miss Sophie! I’m so glad you liked this post 😀
I wish I could read these at work 😦
LikeLike
great post ! I could use a little inspiration…(:
LikeLike
Thank you. I’m really glad you liked it 🙂
Why the sad face? 😦
LikeLike
I was trying to make a happy face (: as I am in need of some ‘surprise goodness’ – so happy all worked out for you and your husband – and a new book underway too – Yeah!
LikeLike
Your sound inspired, Dianne. Good luck with your new novel. I gave ‘The Everything Theory’ a plug in my latest post. A compelling read. Well constructed.
LikeLike
Thank you so much, Richard. I’m heading that way now to take a look 🙂
LikeLike
Amazing! – the only word to express it 😉
LikeLike
So true! 🙂
LikeLike
How amazing. I’ve dreamed scenes and liked them when I woke up, but never a whole novel. I’m going to have to open my mind more. I plan to delve into my fiction writing much more after June.
LikeLike
Best of luck with the fiction writing in June 😉 I was going to start up writing again in February, but ideas are flying around my head at the moment so I’ve gotten stuck into it a bit earlier…
LikeLike