Dream A Little Dream Of Plot

Y’know I think this is the first time this has ever happened to me. I’m still not sure whether I should take this as a good sign that the muses approve, or else chalk it up to anxiety and self-obsession about the latest novel.

But anyway, for the first time in my life, last night I had a dream about how some of the rest of the novel is supposed to go. It was kind of freaky, because when I woke up, I still remembered all the details, and when I looked at it in place of what had come before, it all made sense. I think maybe part of the reason this was even possible was because the very last thing on my mind as I went to bed as the novel itself. More specifically the title. It’s been said before and it’s being said again, I totally suck at titles. And I’d spent my waking hours in bed trying to come up with a decent title, and the effort was complete futility.

But I don’t mind so much now that the muses have decided to balance out the creative karma by giving me a critical event to the plot that makes everything that occurs in the second half make sense. I was wondering how I was going to attack the midpoint of the novel, and had only the vaguest idea of “Something dramatic happens.” (I am a literary genius, no?)

The dream last night laid out in very specific details what that dramatic thing is, and exactly how it will lead to consequences that I had somewhat begun to feel about for in the resolution of the novel, and now it is all abundantly clear. The arc rings true, it just needs more lines in between to see it to the end.

I don’t know whether this is a sign or not. It creeped me out a little that it happened. Maybe it means the third time really is the charm, or maybe it just means that because I’ve been especially clueless about how this novel is going, my brain decided to more directly intervene.

And of course, I’m not telling any of you what this amazing plot revelation dream was, because the book’s not done yet, and it would be silly to give away my cards right now.

So there.