42

A writer friend of mine says she gets book related dreams all the time. I asked her how this is possible as I have never, ever had a dream that was even remotely related to my books. (Actually, my dreams are very rarely remotely related to anything, including basic levels of logic)

She told me that just before she goes to bed she asks her character a question and then she has a dream in which the answer becomes aparent, in a round-about sort of way.

So I thought I'd try it.

See, my main character is in a bit of a bind. He has been for quite some time and I just can't seem to help him out. He's been told that he can't leave the place he's in. The problem with that is that I don't know why. I don't know why my main character was told by a secondary character that everything has changed and therefore he can't leave. You'd think that if anyone should know the answer to that, it would be the author! Ummm... no. I never know how my story is going to turn out. (I keep trying to convince myself that's a good thing: I mean if I can't even predict what's going to happen, my readers won't be able to either! Well, I suppose it's a good thing when it's all said and done and bound in a nice shiny hardcover, but it's often a terrible pain in the butt when I'm trying to write the darned thing!)

Anyway, I thought I'd try my writer friend's trick. Last night, right after I'd turned the light out, I asked that secondary character a question. It was a brilliant question that went something like this:

"So, uh, why can't he leave?"

I fell asleep with a smug smile on my face, thinking I'd most definitely tricked my subconscious into revealing the answer to me in living color as I slept.

Well, I dreamed all night! Seriously. But it was probably the worst sleep I've had in a while - I think I woke up about a million times. Each time I woke up I thought, "Yes! I'm dreaming and it's all going to make sense in the morning!"

Well, when I finally woke up for real (like when the sun was up) I couldn't remember a blessed thing! Well, besides the fact that I'd been dreaming all night and woke up about a million times.

The only other thing that came to mind was this:

42.

Seriously.

So, there was definitely some subconscious stuff going on in my cranium last night, but it all amounted to 42: hardly original.

I suppose I was asking the wrong question. Which is hardly original as well.