We writers get asked all the time: “Where do your ideas come from?”
The answer to that is easy or hard, depending on your POV, the time of month, whether you’ve had your daily infusion of coffee… Okay, so they come from everywhere, and sometimes, from mysterious dream demons.
Can you tell it’s 2:42 in the morning after I dosed myself with Tramadol for a killer backache? So, I’m suffering from insomnia and a hazy fugue. I was lying there in bed, thinking about inspiration, and wishing my mind would just stop working because I really need to sleep, but this idea I had today wouldn’t leave me alone. Why today, you ask? Because I was invited to be part of a box collection with a very short deadline, and adrenaline works wonders for stimulating the muse!
I’m rambling. I know it, but right now I don’t care, because the idea I had wasn’t a new one. It was an old one I stalled on and killed over a year ago, but which now feels alive and well. Ready for another SEAL story? How about a SEAL helping a woman with PTSD? Not a soldier, a cop.
She dreams about her dead ex-partner every night, and wakes up after having experienced a change to the memory of that horrible day she lost her love. She can’t move past it, because it feels fresh every time she closes her eyes.
So, what’s a girl to do? Screw a SEAL. Well, of course, it’s not quite that easy—well, she is, because she just doesn’t give a damn and wants to feel something again. Plus, maybe if he exhausts her she’ll get some sleep. Okay, so maybe my needs and my PTSD-suffering cop are getting confused here. I really should try to go back to bed.
The only thing I know for certain is that I want to use this photo as a backdrop for the cover. Because hey, a girl can only move on if she goes island-hopping, right? Again, maybe I’m confusing my needs with hers.
So, want to help me with a title?
I thought “In Dreams” would be nice and very relevant to the story, but that’s been used quite a few times.
Then I thought, “In Her Dreams”, but again, it’s been used a time or two and very recently. So, no.
I started thinking about songs with “dreams” somewhere in the title, and came up with “Dream a Little Dream”—but it’s too sweet, too used, and now I have that Mama and the Papas song playing in my head.
This story is the next in the Uncharted SEALs series, following Watch Over Me, Her Next Breath, and Through Her Eyes. I did think about “SEAL in Her Dreams”, but I didn’t use SEAL in any of the previous titles, and hell, SEAL this and that has been used-used-used! And I guess for very good reasons!
What do you think? Should I chunk “dreams”? Do you have an idea for a title? Don’t be afraid to just put something out there. You may have the perfect title, or your title might spark an idea!
