No, actually that is the wrong question. Knowing where something comes from doesn’t make it accessible; we’ve just had a mild drought and knowing where rain comes from didn’t help.

In June 1965 Paul McCartney recorded what was arguably to become the most successful song of all time, Yesterday. Accounts differ, but he says that crucial parts of the melody came to him in a dream. He got up and made sure he didn’t forget it. Then of course the work began. They needed words  – Scrambled Eggs was fun but hardly fitted the bill. Which instruments would be right for it?

Now there’s a possibility. Could dreams be a good source for ideas? Absolutely, but with provisos.

I’m writing this today because last night I had a dream.

Sort of.

I’m working on a novel provisionally called ‘Sunken Star’. It’s almost complete, but a year ago I put it on one side because I needed some distance before finishing it. Recently I’ve been working through the draft making changes, making it consistent. The opening is still wrong because it’s too slow, but the problem was the ending. Why do certain characters take the actions they do? Would I have to drastically alter the plot before it would work?

And there I was at 3 am asleep with my thoughts turning to this problem. At a guess I was on the edge of waking up, but I wasn’t awake. What you need to do, I thought, is write down the exact questions you want answered. Then brainstorm possibilities. No problem, I thought, the main question is why does he do that? Why? Well, obviously …

I had a complete solution.

Trouble is we forget most dreams.

I played with the ideas in my mind, held them up against scenes I’d already written. They worked. They felt right. It would be good to write something down, but for that I needed to be awake. Ah well, hold on to those thoughts if you can. I was in what I call the twilight of sleep, that extraordinary transition between sleep and wakefulness which alarm clocks tend to deny us. I allowed myself to drift. There was a recurring theme everyone is familiar with, the feeling that it would be nice to visit the bathroom. Finally I woke enough to act, and the ideas were still there so I was able to nip into the study and jot them down.

Now of course comes the work. Writing a novel is one per cent inspiration, ninety nine per cent perspiration. Typing 150,000 words into a computer is hard work, and when you finish what you have is a first draft. You’ll have typed more like 200,000 before you get it near enough right. And all the time you have to reassure yourself it’s worth the effort.

Yes I find dreams can be a marvellous source of ideas, and I’m not alone. Kekulé said he came up with the idea that Benzene molecules have a ring structure while daydreaming, perhaps half asleep; he dreamed of a snake biting its own tail. I often find the most productive part of studying a text book is when my mind wanders, mixing bits of what I’ve just read with all sorts of other things.

So are there ways to get the most out of dream ideas? I think so. Here’s my list. It’s a first draft, so please add your own ideas.

Dreams are rarely literal

Kekulé didn’t think that since he’d dreamed it Benzene must be made up of self-absorbed tiny snakes. Dreams are dreams. The trick is to identify ways in which they speak of wakeful life. Someone (sorry, can’t track the quote) once said we should not fear those who dream at night, but instead should fear those who dream in the day. Beecause it is they who make their dreams come true.

The dream is just a starting point

One of the rules of writing is that a dream used literally will not work. It may give the starting point for a story, but it rarely contains all the elements needed to produce good fiction. Paul McCartney still had work to do making Yesterday ready to record; but probably less than with most of his creations. Kekulé dreamed the kernel of an idea but needed to convert it into possible structures for the Benzene molecule, then devise ways to test these options, and finally find a way to convince the science community.

James Dyson came up with the idea of using cyclone technology in a vacuum cleaner in 1978. It was five years before the first prototype was ready, another three before he started to sell it. Now we’ve all heard of the Dyson vacuum cleaner, and he’s worth half a million which if nothing else makes development of subsequent ideas rather more comfortable.

Ideas cannot be copyrighted, it’s what you do with them that counts

You can’t copyright or register an idea. Only a practical fulfilment of the idea is marketable. Dyson tried to interest various vacuum cleaner manufacturers in developing his ideas, which meant his basic idea was there to be taken. Publishers are not interested in mere book ideas unless you have a well established track record, and even then what they want is a finished book.

Everyone has ideas

They say everyone has at least one novel in them, but few people start to write it and even fewer keep going to the end. After that there’s the major task of knocking that first draft into shape, taking on board criticism, and finally finding a way to sell the manuscript. Successful novelists dream their novels in the day, not just at night. Successful developers of business ideas not only have the vision, but also the enthusiasm and determination to do all the hard work needed to reach it.

At least nineteen out of twenty ideas don’t work

I’ve read that successful entrepreneurs make their fortune out of less than five per cent of what they try. A similar statistic is true for publishers: most of their books make a loss. Joanne Harris (author of best seller Chocolat) made about £1,000 from her first novel, and I was astonished it did even that well. Her second did slightly better. The next two failed to sell. Then she wrote Chocolat (Actually I prefer her next publication Blackberry Wine which I think she wrote earlier.)

It helps to build up experience

I sometimes have great ideas for songs. Trouble is I lack the level of musical talent required to really develop them. I can’t even write my idea down or record it because my knowledge of musical notation is too limited and I can no longer play a musical instrument fast enough to make it sound right. Now Paul McCartney, he’d invested thousands of hours in developing his musical talents, both creative and practical, before dreaming up Yesterday. In Hamburg the Beatles were performing live for full working weeks. James Dyson already had some experience of engineering the development of an idea, the Ballbarrow.

In his excellent book Outliers Malcolm Gladwell suggests that truly successful people spend at least ten thousand hours mastering their chosen direction.

Afterthoughts

Okay I’m going to stop there, do a quick check for typos and publish.

This is my first post in six weeks because I’ve been feeling rough, lethargic, finding it hard to doing anything constructive for more than half an hour at a time and maybe an hour a day. Short walks if brisk have left me feeling weak and maybe a bit achy for at least a day. I’m sleeping too much. I don’t think it’s ME (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) but you never know. Maybe I’ll have the energy soon to write about what I think it is: a vicious clash between retirement and chronic depression.

I know this article could be improved dramatically. I know the points overlap. But I need to publish something, and nothing is ever perfect. Maybe I’ll be lucky and some of you will suggest ways to knock this article into better shape. I just need the feeling of having done another post.

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