Last night I had one of those dreams where you are with someone else, married this time I think because I was giving her a surprise party for her like 40th birthday. This morning I began to wonder how people in a happy marriage respond to these types of dreams. As a single person I tend to feel depressed and extremely lonely all day (I have a great day to look forward to, yay!). However, does this happen to married people too? Or do they just wake up next to their spouse and wrap their arms around that person and forget all about it because they already have it? Or do they wish they had a wife like that instead of the nagging wife they currently have?
I put a lot of stock in my dreams though. More than one story idea I’ve had has been influenced by dreams. Either directly by giving me the idea, or adding to the idea that I originally had. For instance this dream I had may not seem like much right now to anyone, after all many people have these ideas, however I can now use this dream to work into a story that involves a romance in which there are people of that age and types. And yes I have one that this fits perfectly into.
See sometimes it is difficult just figuring out the everyday life stuff when writing. The easy stuff is the big stuff, wife cheated on husband, someone dies, etc. The hard writing is really the little stuff… what did the wife do today before she cheated on the husband? What was the morning like for the person who died? These are more difficult questions. Often we can pick out the big events and describe it really well but can’t do the smaller steps that surround them. One way I cope with this is to use my dreams as best I can. Dreams have an innate ability to look real to us and thus are often easier to describe in writing than just coming up with the idea out of nowhere.