I noticed something the other night, and not for the first time either, and it made me wonder how many other writers out there experience the same thing: I'm a brilliant writer in my subconscious!
When I'm in the middle of writing new chapters for my books, I tend to fall asleep at night thinking about the upcoming chapters. While hovering on the edge of sleep, I often see the chapters unfold much like watching a movie, and it just amazes me how great the dialogue is. I know that as I'm 'watching' the chapters I find myself thinking, 'Wow, this is going to be an amazing chapter!'.
The problem is that this doesn't translate well into real life! These episodes always occur when I'm nearly asleep, so I can't force myself to wake up and immediately write down what I just experienced. Instead, I wake up the next day and a much vaguer version of the chapter ends up being written. They are never bad, but they lack the magic that was there the night before, especially when it comes to dialogue. The dialogue is so amazing and witty and funny just before I fall asleep...and so pedestrian when I type it out the next day.
So, does this happen to you? And what is wrong with me that I can see a brilliant writer is buried inside of me but I'm incapable of drawing him out while fully conscious?