On dreams and inspiration:

I had been sitting on my bed, trying to think of an interesting prospect to write about, and ghosts of past stories had flashed through my brain- the ones I had forgotten, given up on, or simply lost interest in.  One such story lingered in my head, though.  This was an idea from a couple years back that I had sketched out a few chapters for.  The reason I had dropped it, however, was fairly unusual.  Since the idea had come from an odd dream I had had, I knew exactly where I wanted the plot to go, until the point I had awakened.  The problem I was having was bringing my convoluted dream to any kind of logical conclusion.  If I could come up with a good ending, the story had potential to be excellent.  But to this day, ideas pertaining to that particular plotline elude me.  And ironically enough, that's what inspired me to write about inspiration.

I'm sure you've heard this before, but I'll say it again: inspiration strikes in many ways.  Personally, I come up with my best ideas when I bounce things off friends, adding to them as we inspire each other.  But it's different for everyone.  Maybe it helps you to talk it out, or sit somewhere quiet and meditate.  That's awesome.  Maybe you carry a notepad with you, because ideas pop into your head randomly.  That's awesome.  You're awesome.  No matter what, don't let anyone tell you you're 'doing it wrong'.  There is no 'right'; there is no 'wrong'.

Now that that is sorted, more about dream inspiration.  

I consider dreams another resource for myself.  Their stories often go places I would never have thought of in my waking hours, and the imagery is incredibly vivid because I've lived them.  The only problem is that they rarely have conclusions, and when they do, they never make that much sense.  But such is also the beauty of inspiration through dreams; they don't write the stories for me, they simply help me open my mind to broader things.  They let me experience an idea, so I can later flesh it out into something more concrete.  In this way, I've found that dreams are yet another tool one can add to their writing toolbox, another thing to help one's stories be the best they can be.  I hope you all can find as much inspiration in your subconscious as I have.  

Sincerely, Abby.