Questions about writing

One of the things I’ve been asked about is where my ideas come from. Another is what is my genre.

So, I usually answer the second one first, saying that my chosen genre is science fiction – space opera style, but not necessarily.

Then I explain. A lot of my ideas come from my dreams. Sometimes my dreams take me to places I haven’t been before. Sometimes they’re quite detailed, sometimes not.

Some of them are adaptable to stories and those I definitely write down. Mind you, some of them I start to write down and realise they really are ridiculous and I wipe the file out.

But this means that my genre is now all genres depending on my dream. Usually there is a lot of action, like take the one last night – although, if you have arachnaphobia, maybe not. There were spiders in there and they were unusual. There were two species – one a vivid lime green and black and the other vivid lemon yellow and black. Not very big but you could certainly notice them.

That was only one dream, though. The one after that was about a road trip – but it wasn’t about the trip, it was about the overnight stay and how complicated and complex it can be to have about 10 people staying in different apartment-type accommodation in a motel by a lake. Oh, and did I mention it was a learning trip, where you had to attend lectures? I’m sure I’d rather the spiders in real life – in fact, I swear I saw one of them at the motel. I swear I saw one of the green and blacks in the souvenir shop of the motel …