It was a grand idea. One that would tie all the threads together and lead to an unexpected place. I thought, “I must remember this solution when I wake.”
In the morning, it had scuttled away into the wainscoting, and all I was left was a sense of the colour red and a cross-hatched pattern.
Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here
Neil MacDonald Author 
Always makes sense in a dream. Not so much upon waking if remembered at all. I can relate!
LikeLiked by 2 people
It was a pre-sleep drowsiness I was thinking of. I get many of my best problem-solving ideas when my brain’s in this state
LikeLiked by 1 person
I sooo can identify with this. Well done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’ve all been there
LikeLike
I have to say, Neil, that I entirely relate to your world
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think any writer will. Indeed probably any creative of any kind.
LikeLike
Definitely ditto
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Anthony
LikeLike
Dear Neil,
Who among us can’t relate? Now what was I going to say?
Shalom,
Rochelle
LikeLiked by 1 person
It would certainly have been memorable. Thanks so much, Rochelle.
LikeLike
I am a creative genius in the middle of the night. Unfortunately that power eludes me as soon as I wake the following morning.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s like looking in the mirror, Iain
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happens to me many times.
I must wake up and write everything down when I get any future ideas, else will have to land up with a poor version of masterplan!
Take care.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I keep a notebook by the bed
LikeLike
My dreams always run through my fingers like seawater. There have been a few exceptions, but more and more they are lost to me. Well done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Joshua
LikeLike
Been there, done that!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Susan
LikeLike
A telling episode. You may know of the famous film director who kept a notebook beside his bed so that inspiration could be made celluloid. One night he woke up with the best and most incredible idea. Of course, he took pains to note it before he settled back to sleep. When morning came, he read what he’d written: boy meets girl.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks, Jilly. At least it made sense.
LikeLike
They say we can train our brains to work on solutions while we sleep… guess it doesn’t always work!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It seems to work great at night
LikeLiked by 2 people
That it does.
LikeLike
Maybe those dreamcatcher doo-dads aren’t such a bad idea 🙂 Liked your VERY short story so much.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Linda
LikeLike
so familiar! Great stuff, had to look up Wainscoting!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much
LikeLike
You captured the frustration of a great idea that slips away. In this case it was a dream, but it can apply to waking lapses as well. Fingers crossed it will return 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I found a new one. SInce I forgot the old one, it may indeed by the same one
LikeLiked by 2 people
🙂 lol
LikeLike
If I had a dollar for every time that happened to me, I wouldn’t need to have good ideas. I’d be rich.
Hitchcock told a story that was converse to yours. A guy’s sleeping. He has the greatest idea. He jumps up and makes a note. Goes back to sleep. He wakes up in the morning, excited. He can’t wait to see his now forgotten idea and expand it. He looks at his note. “Boy meets girl.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
He forgot the crucial “boy loses girl, boy gets girl back”
LikeLiked by 1 person
it happens to me sometimes. it can be frustrating. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
Absolutely
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, the sneakiest dream ideas are those that trick you into thinking you’ll remember them in the morning because as part of the dream they ‘reassure you’ you’ll SURELY remember THIS by morning …
yep.
those usually are the first to poof.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s exactly it
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂 I know … I have ‘met’ those sneaky ones … up close and personally … more often than I care to remember that I was convinced to not get up and write some notes down … 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha! I’m sure I’d be a millionaire by now if only I could remember all my dream ideas.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dream ideas are almost always terrible. It’s the ideas that come during those moments of semi-wakefulness on the edge of sleep that are gold dust
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is a rare thing for me to rememeber a dream for more than a minute after waking, and it always irritates the fool out of me!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You can train yourself to do it. The trick is to keep your eyes closed and swiftly reiterate the key facts of the dream before you get up. I did it for I while until I realised my dreams were narratively confused
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll try to remember to give it a try. What’s the worst that could happen, my subconcious tells me a bad story? I’ll take that chance.
LikeLike
Red cross-hatching – fabric, perhaps? a tablecloth? of just mental doodling.
LikeLike
There are red objects outside the window and there’s a crosshatched pattern to the windows
LikeLike
A neat, pleasing and agreeable rendition of the way the muse can tease us!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Penny
LikeLike
I did once remember a name I’d forgotten in a dream – so I could contact that person. Mostly though my dreams slip away just as you describe. Sleep well!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Miranda
LikeLike
Heck, many times I can’t remember why I left one room and entered another. Pre-sleep ideas are goners unless I write them down.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Writing them down is essential, no matter how clear you believe they are at the time
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aha! Waking answers to all the problems are so fleeting. Imagine all the solved issues that fade away in the light of day
LikeLiked by 1 person
True. But imagine how much worse it might be if we remembered those fantastical ideas and tried to implement them
LikeLike
Pen and paper can be seen all over my home.I really should have a dictaphone
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, but do you use the pen and paper to write anything down?
LikeLike
Like a dream when you wake up … it was a fantastic idea! Then reality sets in and you realized the drunk guy in your dream who showed up at your door you hid him away in the local bank.
Wonderful writing as usual, Neil.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, William
LikeLike
Yep, that’s all of us. They tell you to keep a note pad on your bedside table. Never worked for me 😛
LikeLiked by 1 person
Works for me when I remember it’s there and I have the energy to sit up and write
LikeLiked by 1 person
Terribly relatable. I love the last line.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much
LikeLiked by 1 person
Like you Neil, I get a lot of good ideas in my sleep and then others, some of which I jot down in the middle of the night, which in the cold light of day, are absolutely pants.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Michael
LikeLiked by 1 person
How relatable! True story?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Magarisa
LikeLiked by 1 person
Clever idea! Writing a piece on the fabric. I have vivid dreams that I sometimes remember for days.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much
LikeLike
A fascinating subject Neil. We wouldn’t want creativity to be easy would we ?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or intelligible, It should be shrouded in mystery
LikeLike
I would not be able to remember anything… but it will get back to you when you go to dinner and see the table-cloth.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimes. And sometimes it’s gone forever
LikeLike
I have said this to myself in a dream before, and I forget what I was going to writer! Nice story!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Nan
LikeLike