ARGH.

[agilebrit]

I had a plot bunny last night right before I fell asleep. And I thought "Maybe I should write this down." After all, I keep a pen and pad in the headboard for just such occasions. And then I thought "Nah, I'll remember it." And fell asleep, fat, dumb, and happy.

And I can't remember it.

*bangs head on keyboard*

I can't remember a damned thing about it. Nothing. At all. It's GONE.

DAMMIT.

I need to start a new story, like I need air. The blank fic doc, and the blinking cursor, they mock me.

Comments

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

You could write a story about someone who receives warnings of impending disaster in his sleep but can't remember them when he wakes up. The person/being delivering the warnings becomes more and more frustrated night by night and tries to get the dreamer to sleep-write messages, tie the sheets in knots, etcetera, but nothing works. Eventually the dreamer gets a tooth out under full anaesthetic, receives the message, and remembers it when (s)he comes round - but can't talk properly because of the extraction and fails to pass on the message to the authorities before the aliens invade/zombies rise from the grave/supervolcano erupts or whatever.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

I hate it when I do that! Yet somehow, it doesn't stop me.

[rhfay.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this happens to me sometimes. This is why I keep a notebook and pen near the bed. If I'm too tired to get up, I may forget the idea in the morning.

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

Start writing a Regency romance novel - the kind of thing Georgette Heyer could do in her sleep, what she'd start scrawling if she were galvanized out of her coffin.

Do this, and you will immediately start twisting it in your head, and better stories to tell will fall out like nuts from a piñata.

[lady-moriel.livejournal.com]

Well, I've generally found that if something's important enough, it'll eventually come back to me--not always, but most of the time. That's especially true if you can remember any of your other thought processes from around the plotbunny, even if they were totally unrelated.

Otherwise, I'd say try browsing back through your LJ for other plotbunnies that didn't go anywhere, like--well, the only one I can think of is the Bad Books thing, but you might have some others that never got finished or started, and maybe now you can get inspired. There are always writing prompts online, too.

And then you could start with some very vague and work from there. Ghost stories are fun, for instance. Steampunk is also fun. *shrug*

ETA: And the Return to Luna contest deadline is in just over a week. Maybe you could work on something for that?

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Oh, I could never have anything proper for something like that done in a week, even if I hadn't lost the Bunny. *sigh* This'll learn me. Write stuff down.

This was a brand new plot bunny, too. Nothing in the hutch or the WIP list is inspiring me. *cries*

[neo-prodigy.livejournal.com]

I may or may not post about this but I figured you would appreciate this story.

So a year ago I submitted to a magazine and never heard back from them. I then submitted an inquiry and still nothing.

Over a year has passed. I finally get a response from them Wednesday. Saying that somehow my submission was lost (then how in the hell did they know to reply) and to inform me that they were going to pass on my submission but to submit to them again.

I'm sitting here thinking why so I can wait another year? I so wanted to reply and rip them a new one but I didn't because I'm classy.

Oh and by the by: IT WAS AN E-SUB!!!!

Go figure.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

*is gobsmacked* I can see if a snail mail sub fell behind someone's desk or something...but how does that happen to an e-sub?

Yeah, if someone takes a really long time like that to respond, then they get crossed off my list. There's plenty of markets out there that respond way quicker than that. This is why we have The Black Hole.

[mermaidrain.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid my dad had these joke books he would use as references for sermon illustrations. At one point I kidnapped them to read through them (for some reason I can't remember) and stumbled across this joke/story about a writer that has stuck with me to this day.

This writer has a dream and wakes up in the middle of the night. His dream was a BRILLIANT and fantastic plot for the greatest story he could ever imagine. He scrambled to find a piece of paper on the table beside his bed to write something down so he could remember it when he woke up the next morning. He wrote a quick note and fell back asleep. The next day he wakes up and remembers that he had an AMAZING dream but can't remember a single thing about it. Then, thankfully, he remembers that he wrote the idea down on a piece of paper. He finds the paper on his bedside table and picks it up and reads his note: "Remember your dream."

LOL! Okay, that sorta illustrates what I want to say. Susan Goldsmith Woolridge in her book "Poemcrazy: Freeing your life with words" says that the moment right before you fall asleep and right before you wake up is a VERY creative/fertile time for your brain. It's when you mutter those crazy phrases or words that make sense to no one but your brain. She suggests keeping a journal and pen beside the bed so that when something rises up through the oceans of your consciousness that you can capture it. I've done it and it's quite fascinating. Of course, I always keep a journal and a pen on the nightstand beside my bed. I've done so for years. After all, you never know when inspiration is going to strike. (And if it does, be SURE to write good notes!) ;)