The Man Who Dreamed Too Clearly:

Behind the Story

I recently told my wife about one of my dreams, and her reply in the kitchen that morning was, “I have only one question.  Would you like help finding a therapist?  Or are you comfortable doing that yourself?”

But it’s worse than just having super-vivid dreams like Jasper: my dreams have been keeping me from sleeping.  Or at least, keeping me from getting a restful sleep.  Instead, when I have these dreams, extremely detailed and stupidly complex, I feel that I am always hovering on the borderline of wakefulness.  So much so, that sometimes I feel that I am able to influence my dreams, coordinating them like I’m a director sitting in a canvas chair and issuing commands to the actors.  The dreams are so realistic that the emotions I have within the dreams follow me into my waking hours.  Ugh.

So as a writer, always in search of inspiration, with this month’s story I tried to push this to an extreme and ask what if there was a man that whose dream life and waking life were exchanged?  He believes his dreams to be real because they are so vivid and palpable.  By contrast, his real world seems like a dream because it lacks the extreme detail.

But he has a problem.  He really longs for what he perceived as his dream life to be real (which it is!).  He is missing companionship, routine, and love.  His wires have been switched and we (the readers) are rooting for him–I hope—to succeed.

Well, that’s at least what I thought I was doing.  I have a friend who offers commentary and insights on my writing and has encouraged me to not miss opportunities for making emotional connections with the reader, or increasing the tension, or finding the real “gut punch” in my story.

So that gave me a new thought.  The story might center around Jasper, but that’s not what the story is about.  It’s really about Pamela and how her husband has developed a break with reality and can’t seem to find his way back home.  In that case, this story is for anyone who is a caregiver of someone who suffers from mental illness, and the impotence that one must feel while trying to help them find their way back home from the broken depths of their mind.  Few readers will recognize themselves in Jasper, but many might see part of themselves in Pamela.  To all the Pamela’s out there, thank you for your compassion and love.

Thanks for reading!