Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I've noticed something recently.

I'll be struggling with a tough line, or a tough transition, and then I'll go to sleep, or even take a nap, and I'll have some new ideas when I wake up!

Sometimes it takes a really nice direction. Good to know my unconscious is looking out for me.

Anyone else have that experience?

Yea, but I'll usually get them on the cusp of sleep. I'll be about to fall asleep, when all of the sudden, BRILLIANCE! I always have a paper and pen by my bed.

Paper!!!

The same thing happens to me. Then it's a mad dash to find out who wins - my brain in its ever present attempt to forget, the stairs, working with the dark, to find a way to pitch me down onto my face, or the noise that will undoubtedly wake my wife or daughter, causing me to tend to them and lose my train of thought.

If I am successful, I make it down to my office, wake up my computer and... wait, what were we talking about again?

Yes! Having it by the bed is a major sleep saver. I also have a waterproof notepad for the shower.

Like scrying a crystal ball, let the subconscious do what it does best, churn and burn while asleep. The sleep state, especially the dream state connects the conscious to the subconscious mind. Autosuggestion techniques, like crystal gazing, scrying, also known as hypnosis or self-hypnosis establish a trance like state which connects subconsciousness and consciousness. Real magic of the mundane realm.

Cookie wrote:Yes! Having it by the bed is a major sleep saver. I also have a waterproof notepad for the shower.

Even better, grease pencil. Write on the walls of the shower. Won't wash off till you want it to, and no paper.

CV

Cookie wrote:Yea, but I'll usually get them on the cusp of sleep. I'll be about to fall asleep, when all of the sudden, BRILLIANCE! I always have a paper and pen by my bed.

Ha ha so do I! It'll be really late and everyone else will be asleep, and I'll be fumbling around trying to write all of it down

Sort of? I know when I am working on a very tough scene and I don't know where I want it to go, I'll sometimes stop staring at my screen and go lay down, then I lay in bed and stare at the ceiling and I don't know if it's becuase I'm very comfortable and relaxed or what, but I always seem to be able to think through the problem. Then I take a nape because thinking is hard work!!!

To be fair, I also sometimes go for drives. Driving helps break out those thoughts too.

Oh god... Driving... There are so many scenes I imagined driving listening to one of the top 4 bands I like.

CharleeVale wrote:

Cookie wrote:Yes! Having it by the bed is a major sleep saver. I also have a waterproof notepad for the shower.

Even better, grease pencil. Write on the walls of the shower. Won't wash off till you want it to, and no paper.

CV

Hmm. Interesting. I like having the paper though, because A.) A lot of the stuff I write down I won't immediately use. Like, if it's for the sequel or a Shiny New Idea. B.) I'll have to wash the shower before I use some of it.
Although, it would look cool with all those scribbles all over the walls.

Actually, not really. My brain will cough up Shiny New Ideas when I'm sleeping every now and then (used to be a lot more often) but I tend to get more epiphany moments when I'm doing something brainless - like housework. Washing dishes works miracles for my problem solving. Showers are good, too, and I keep a grease pencil in there as well. Pretty much anything where I'm moving around but don't have to focus on my task, so my thoughts can wander.

Yeah--showers, driving, that kind of mindless thing helps me. Sometimes when I'm reading or watching other stuff something clicks, too. Sleeping doesn't usually unlock much per se, unless I was just so tired I needed a fresh perspective.

I seem to get ideas when I go to the movies, and my mind starts to wander, and I think how they could have done this or that better, or how that's annoying me, and how I'd love to see a new twist on that....

It happened to me too. But not only during my sleep, when I am sitting in my porcelain throne, looking out on a bus window, just completely everything when I am away from my laptop.

But I manage to write it down by notes so that I can use up that idea eventually. And sometimes those notes reminds me of the entire thing I thought up when I am writing that note down!!

Laying down, whether just waking up, about to fall asleep or just in the middle of the day because I'm so stuck, is my main way to unravel scenes. I do it on purpose now. Sometimes I take walks or talk them through with someone (Sidekick, mostly) but most of the time it's straight to bed or couch and I close my eyes.