30. Talk to me about the role dreams play in your writing life. Have you ever used material from your dreams in your writing? Have you ever written in a dream? Did you remember it when you woke up?
[from this meme]
The most direct example of the influence of dreams on my writing is one that I mentioned in the director's commentary for Reincarnation Blues. These lines:
Stamped into the starry void around them like an artificial horizon was a massive ring, parallel lines glowing red like gashes cut into the dream to reveal an inferno on the other side. And between those lines, all around the horizon, burned familiar symbols.
Were based on a nightmare that I had actually had, that involved Bill Cipher, while I was in the middle of writing RB. It was a deeply weird experience, because that dream was one I had shortly prior to the release of NWHS, and it was extremely meta. I was having a different unrelated nightmare, and then realised I was dreaming and tried to wake myself up. At that point, the whole horizon of the dream lit up with this glowing red circle of arcane symbols which rose up, wrapping around the entire sky like seeing Saturn's rings from a position standing on the planet, and Bill Cipher's awful cackle echoed over the dream the way sounds you can hear in the real world sometimes do while you're asleep, as the whole dream started to disintegrate. And then I woke up, scared half to death...to see the shadow of a four-fingered, noodly black arm splashed across my ceiling, reaching toward me, outlined in blue light.
...it turned out to be the shadow of a tangle of power cords in the light from the power bar they were plugged into. But that is probably the third closest I've ever come in my life to having a very real heart attack.
(Also, when NWHS came out, the ring of symbols around the portal looked extremely familiar for some reason I couldn't place. I don't remember what they actually turned out to be, but they weren't invented for the show, so I'd probably seen them somewhere before NWHS came out and forgotten about it. But I am still at least 75% convinced that I also saw them in that red ring around the horizon of that disintegrating dream.
Brains are weird.)
Oh! And the original idea that sprawled into the road goes ever on was inspired by a snippet of a dream about Shit Going Extremely Wrong in the secret evil Russian mall basement. Be grateful I left out the bit about batwings.
Usually I'm not quite that directly and literally inspired by dreams, though. I'd say the most frequent way dreams influence my writing is when I'm trying to capture a sense of unease or dread or unreality - I often go back to how nightmares feel.
I don't remember ever writing in a dream.
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oh... oh dear! OH DEAR— chise.... chise no. do not make another wip... do not add to your to do list...
waaa,,, lewis and alice,, i have yet to polish their bond and ability ( or would it be abilities? ) ever since i made them...
all i have is this flimsy piece of unfinished draft as a reminder of what i originally intended them to be, too. It's... quite an embarrassing reminder.
i bet it's quite easy to deduce as to where this was written, yes? author notes of that particular variety... they used to be oh so abundant. This one in particular... I don't remember who the friend is anymore. I have an inkling but, ah... i don't have enough evidence to support that idea.
I refuse to read through this, the small blurbs i've accidentally seen has already made too much damage for my brain. I do hope you like the "cringe" though.
>X<>X<>X<>{-T H I R D P O V-}<>X<>X<>X<
~<>+<>+<{ A L I C E }>+<>+<>~
The rhythmic sound of the falling droplets of water and the occasional soft breaths were the only thing to be heard inside the dimly lit room. If you ignore the chattering of lowly mafia gunmen that is. Their voices echoed inside Alice's cell, it's rusty bars the only thing stopping her from ripping their heads clean off. Nevertheless, she quietly observed the room she was in, ignoring the stupid bickering on which mafia executive was the coolest. The room she was in was rather small. A metal chair in the middle (where her hands and feet are tied up) and stone walls.
"I wonder..." Alice thought, looking straight towards her guards. "Do they really think I can't escape this place?"
At first it was a chuckle, a couple more, and at last she was full blown laughing at them, inside her head anyways. For now she had to remain calm, even a small laugh can trigger suspicion. But she would've still done it, fortunately her mouth was being gagged by a piece of cloth.
There must be a reason as to why she was taken here. She knew their boss wouldn't just order someone to kidnap her, so there must be a important reason.
"Surely even Higuchi isn't stupid enough to kidnap someone witho- never mind..." Alice said to herself, smirking a bit.
Slowly, she glanced up the stone ceiling. Her eyes trailed to the single light source, a yellow tinted florescent lamp. Her thoughts wandering to her only companion, Lewis. Sighing, she looks towards the bars again to see that the gunmen had left. This intrigued Alice, knowing that they wouldn't just let someone like her alone.
"I wonder why they decided to abduct someone like me," She wondered, "Do they want to replace me with Q?"
Light purple orbs widen with realization. Rage run through her veins as she struggled to get out of her restraints but it proved useless as it only bruised her wrists. Alice started to scream, only to be muffled by the piece of cloth. Her eyes darken, her body slouched forwards, as she glared at the bars holding her inside. Thoughts about them hurting Lewis entered her mind and it just angered her more.
Yet all she could do was wait, until they had decided to release her.
Or if a bloodied up Lewis frees her as he loses consciousness.
>X<>X<>X<>{-T H I R D P O V-}<>X<>X<>X<
~<>+<>+<{ L E W I S }>+<>+<>~
His mind was in a mess. The persona of a calm and strict individual slowly fading, which was a rare occurrence. Clenching his fists, he glared to the ginormous building that currently hosts Alice. Lewis knew it was reckless for him to just go inside. Growling under his breath, he remembers what she had told him days prior her abduction.
"Try to find a open meadow, for that is where the sheep like to graze," She instructed as she cups his face, her voice laced with pure seriousness.
"The help of a cunning fox is nothing necessary, for he is nothing but trouble to the likes of me, us even."
Amidst his anger he wondered what Alice had meant. So he decided to return to their living quarters to see if she left behind anything. He went straight to her white room and to his luck, he found a note placed on a lonely white chair. Observing the room he was currently in, the white carpet was littered with glass shards with traces of blood on them. Alice's room brought unwanted peace to him, calming him down even without it's owner's presence. His thoughts wandered to her riddles, and importantly what they meant.
It was hard. Her riddles we're always quite challenging. To him at least, and there re always people smarter than him, the infamous Dazai Osamu is one of them.
>X<>X<>X<>{-Author's Memo-}<>X<>X<>X<
The story idea is given by one of my friends. I asked her what i should write about and she said to write Alice being kidnapped, while Lewis comes saves her. Its a simple concept really. I just hope she goes online by the time I finish this.
Her idea was Alice being kidnapped by the Port Mafia, and Lewis had to save her, with the help of the Sheep. Which is kinda hard. The Sheep in my eyes were a mystery. They wasn't enough info about them in my head. I can read about them in the wiki but yeah. Ok i read about them a few minutes ago after writing this sentence and. Still an enigma it seems.
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I just found your ST fics and I love how much you play around with plot and characters to create a fully fleshed story that feels like it really stands on it own. I love both of Powers!Steve and how different they both are and reflect the two different aspects of his character:the muscle and the charmer. I know you’re still working through the second part of TKAA but do you think you’d ever write a follow up to the road goes on? I think Steve’s changing relationship w/ humanity is so interesting and shows how well he just compartmentalizes everything (want to eat Conners’ face? Shelve that for later). Also I can’t imagine what it was like for other characters to hear about his brief time as essentially invincible demogorgon human. Or being a lab tech and already knowing there’s psychics only to see his face thing(which I love that you specifically kept it vague and instead chose to leave it up to the imagination and other characters reactions) . I’m so excited to get to follow along with your writing and see where you take each character!
Anon you can't see me pressing my hands against my cheeks and doing a little chair-dance of joy at this ask, but please know that that's exactly what I did. I am absolutely delighted to hear you're enjoying my fic, and it's really interesting to me to hear about how the different takes on '#Steve Harrington Has Powers' do different things for you, character-wise. (I do worry sometimes that I'm a bit of a broken record. I just like giving fictional people superpowers. It's what I do best.)
I'm sorry to say I don't have any plans to follow up on the road goes ever on. I'd want it to be in the same vein as the road goes ever on, with multiple conjoined mysteries tied to the characters' arcs, and I don't have even the beginnings of an idea for a plot, or character arcs for most of the characters. I think I said pretty much everything I had to say with the road goes ever on, and I'm happy to leave it where it ends, on a hopeful note with the possibility open for the characters to have future adventures. I won't make any promises that it'll never be continued, but I don't have any plans.
With that said, though, your thoughts about Steve specifically in that fic's 'verse are really interesting! If you ever wanted to write something in that vein, either continuing on from the road goes ever on or as something original to you, I hope you'll go for it! (I particularly like the mental image of some poor schmuck who was used to working with kids who can move things with their minds getting saddled with Captain Body Horror here. You think you're in Firestarter and then all of a sudden you find out you're in The Thing. Horrific. I love it.)
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