Night Stalkers

By Keith Fisher

She only had a minute and she’d used thirty seconds already. She pushed the button to start the timer knowing she wouldn’t have enough time to get clear of the blast . . .

I’ve been heavily involved in edits lately. I haven’t been able to think of anything else for two weeks. The edits have begun to invade my dreams. When I dream at night, I outline. My characters always solicit my attention, but they get it when I’m sleeping. The other day, however . . .

I was dreaming normal stuff. Something to do with my last job and being under pressure. The ever present plot to eliminate my boss. Then without warning, people I know from my real life turned into mythical beings. They were themselves, but my friends had turned into centaurs and elves, people like that.

Now, I wouldn’t mind, but as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t write fantasy. The world my mind created was completely out of character for me. Now you might think that since I’ve been reading Farworld by J. Scott Savage, that’s where my mind conjured the images from, but I had to set aside Farworld last week. I’m back reading it again, but the point is I wasn’t reading it at the time. Therefore, it wouldn’t have much influence over my dreams.

No, the world in my dream came from the far recesses of my mind. From a place I don’t like to think about. The good news though, we killed the dragon. I’m not going to tell you who the dragon was, but suffice it to say, I won’t be having trouble with that authority figure anymore.

Things are pretty much back to normal. If normal is spending all my non-job related time editing. My dreams, (when I have time to sleep) have also gone back to normal. But like all good dreams, I wrote that one down too. I’m positive I’ll never try to delve into the world of a fantasy writer. I have enough nightmares about normal people. I couldn’t deal with dreams about alternate worlds.

The point, if you missed it, is to write down your dreams. I have several first drafts written from something I dreamed, including, the hook I used in the first lines of this blog. Someday I’ll get that story written, but for now, I’ve got edits to do.

Good luck in your writing—see you next week.