Ya know, sometimes it surprises me what my subconscious comes up with. Most of my stories come from my conscious imagination, though sometimes I have to question how my mind thinks up these things. However, every once in a while, a dream brings me an idea that’s just too good to pass up.

The problem, of course, is remembering it long enough to actually write it down. Which I don’t always. Sometimes I forget the dream before I have a chance to at least make notes about it; sometimes I remember the dream and just forget to make the notes. Yeah, I definitely have memory issues. Mostly caused by things like the books I’m working on already.

The other day, I had a fragment of a dream. An injured man with mid-back-length reddish gold hair that was all tangled, and a woman trying to heal him tentatively asking him if she could comb his hair for him. I thought it would make a great scene in a romance… then I read just a little farther in the Anita Blake novel I was reading and found an almost identical scene. Yep, my subconscious had apparently read further in the book than I had, and had created a scene between Anita and one of her wereleopards.

So much for that idea… Though it did entertain me a bit that I’d dreamed a scene I hadn’t read yet.

Not all dreams make good stories, of course, despite what I might think when I first wake up from them. Some dreams are just too fragmented for me to be able to make them even remotely coherent. Others don’t have as much of a plot as I think at first. And some are just dumb ideas.

Every once in a while, though, something comes from a dream that really works for me. Saplings, a novella that’s on the back burner awaiting revisions so I can submit it, is one of those. I was still writing for a certain free story site when I came up with the idea, and wanted something to submit for their Earth Day contest. I couldn’t think of a plot, though. Then one night, in a dream, a man and woman were bickering about planting trees. I woke up and had my story. I’m looking forward to getting Saplings revised and submitted, because the interplay between Jared and Cassidy makes me laugh, and if I can laugh at my own story I know it’s pretty good.

I’ve been tired a lot lately due to health issues, and I’m about to go take a nap. I wonder if I’ll wake up with any new plots?

Let me know if you’ve ever written a story based on a dream, or read one. I’m in a contesty mood this week, so one commenter will receive a free copy of my novella Deep Down. I’ll draw names for it on Sunday, February 28.