In the cold light of day...

Laying in bed early this morning I came up with just the best idea for a book. It was seriously genius. I was so pleased with myself over it I almost jumped up and started writing right then. But I waited. I tried to go back to sleep, then finally it was time to get up. I brushed my teeth, threw on some clothes, had some breakfast, got Brent to work and me back home, and sat down to start writing up my notes on this fabulous story idea. And....

...well....

...ummm....

It's really kind of weird. And maybe not all that great. And possibly unreadable.

Don't you hate when that happens? When you get what is absolutely the best freaking idea in the world at 2 AM but then in the bright light of day you realize it was only good because you were sleep deprived? I cannot tell you how many best selling novel ideas I have had at 2 AM that when looked at again at 8 AM turned out to be..."And then the fish says what?" How many times I have thought up a PLAN a PERFECT PLAN for life only to be reminded the next day that I can neither fly nor have access to millions of dollars.

Being a chronic insomniac I do spend a lot of time thinking in the middle of the night. And often I really do come up with good ideas and plans for the next day. But these are always just the good ideas the really brilliant ones are the ones that you wake up with in your head. The ones that are coming to you fully formed because you were dreaming about them as you woke up. And because you were dreaming about them they make perfect sense to you. That is until you fully wake up. Then you realized that maybe your idea to market eggs with the bacon inside the shell so you could get a hard boiled bacon egg (though genius for sure) was probably not exactly well...possible.

That's not to say that I haven't had good story ideas come from dreams, I have. But those I always know were a dream when I am thinking about them the next day. I think to myself what a weird dream...that would make an excellent story. But the ones where I think I am fully awake, the ones where I am just coming out from under....those are the ones that I am sure are brilliant but are really whack-a-doodle. It's an odd time that twilight sleep. When you are awake(ish) and asleep(ish) and both parts of your mind are talking to each other. And they think they understand each other but they don't, not really.

It's like two drunks having a conversation. Have you ever been the sober one listening to that? They think they are making perfect sense, they are pretty sure they are communicating and understanding each other, but really it's a lot of:
"Hey, hey, hey, do you remember....."
"Oh yeah....that was....hey, did I ever tell you about that time when...."
"Hey, hey, hey, do you remember....."
"You just asked me that.....we are talking about that other time now...you know with that guy..."
"Oh yeah....that guy."
and both together..."Good times"

That's what that twilight sleep is like for me. When I am just falling asleep and the ideas are coming fast and furious and they get pulled down in to the dreams where my brain then twists and turns them into weird fantastic scenes and schemes. Or when I am just coming out from under and the dream is still clinging to me coming up to the surface of my brain where the awake side takes over and tries to make sense of the hard boiled bacon egg (the more I say it the more you see how brilliant it is right?) and you end up with a really rational plan for a really irrational idea.

Though the more I think about my brilliant story idea from last night the more I think there might just be something to it. There might really be a fabulous story in there...or I might just need more coffee....