Vivid dreams have always been a part of my life, even before I had the dream that started my writing career. I used to have dreams that felt so real that when I woke up, I wasn’t sure if they were a memory or not.
They were based in places that I thought I knew, alternative versions of my hometown or a holiday destination. I also had dreams where I returned to my sea-going career and voyaged again on ships that had never existed in this reality.
As I dreamed, as well as the physical sensations, I had a full range of emotions. In fact, the whole experience was as real to me as anything I’ve ever lived
When I awoke, I could always remember enough about what had happened to compare details. The settings were just different enough from the real world to make them stand out. The people in the dreams were ones I’d known, a jumble of old friends, shipmates, ex-girlfriends and dead relatives.
Nothing special happened in these dreams. I lived the same sort of life in them as I did when I was awake. Weeks passed in a single night.
The strangest thing about them was that when I had one, I woke feeling disoriented and unrefreshed, as if I had actually been living them and not sleeping.
This gave me the sort of idea that only a Sci-fi writer would get.
What if I were really living in another dimension at the same time as I was living in this one? Then, the dreams would be actual events from that life? Perhaps they were somehow leaking through across the gap between the dimensions?
It sounded like a good premise for a story. But I needed more, something to make it interesting.
Back in 2017, I was researching Mars, for one of my Andorra Pett stories when I went down an internet rabbit hole and discovered a whole lot of interesting information.
It gave me a scenario that I could incorporate with my dreams to make a story.
I can’t tell you more than that, it would give a large chunk of the plot away.
I wrote a tale about Rick. Living in the here and now, he was having vivid dreams about a life he was apparently living on another planet, years in the future.
His problems started when people and situations from his dreams appeared in his waking life.
It made him question his sanity, amongst other things.
Life and Other Dreams was eventually published in 2019 and initially attracted good reviews. People compared it to the movie Total Recall and the story that inspired it, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, by Philip K. Dick.
Who are you when you dream?
Rick isn’t sure anymore…
Is he Rick, living in the here and now? Working a boring job, married to Cath.
Or is he Dan, living six-hundred years and half a galaxy away? Exploring an alien planet with Vanessa by his side.
Two worlds, one man. While he’s awake in one place, he’s asleep in the other.
Simple enough, until people from Dan’s world start turning up in Rick’s life.
Confusing? But then it gets worse. Dan is accused of a crime he didn’t commit. Rick’s wife leaves him and both realities are falling apart.
Which life is real? Will either go back to how it was?
If you had a choice, which would you choose?
“a masterpiece of fiction”
“Fast-paced, edge of your seat stuff!”
You can find a copy, including an audiobook version, by clicking HERE
Life and Other Dreams had a satisfactory ending, but I had an idea for a sequel. I even wrote 25,000 words of it and had a cover concept designed.
Then I encountered negativity about some elements of the story, which made me pause.
It all got quite nasty for a while.
In the end, I left the sequel in favour of some new projects. And it has sat there ever since.
I’ve added a few words to it now and again, but I’ve never got it to a point where I thought it was finished.
This year, as part of my New Year’s resolution, I’m determined to actually get it done. Then I’ll probably get new covers for both parts and republish them together.
However,
Now that I’ve taken a read through what I’ve written, I’ve realised just what a mess it all is. Even though what I have has its good points.
The best way of dealing with it is probably to deconstruct it and rebuild it in a new document. I’ve found a lot of repetition, where I’ve rewritten the same scene several times, as well as a whole load of scenes in the wrong order.
Not only that, I appear to have several characters whose names keep changing. So much for what I thought was going to be an easy job.
The good thing is that it’s all salvageable. The basic structure and plot are sound. It needs around 60k more words to join everything together. It will give me a challenge, but I’m hopeful I can wrap my head around it. I’m just going to start at the beginning and find out where it goes.
We’ll have to see how I get on.
If you want to know more about anything to do with my writing, just drop me a comment. Until next time,
Happy reading.
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