Background: The dream

So a while back, I had a dream. And the dream was vivid, detailed, and interesting enough that I think it serves as a good story starter. I hope to write a more detailed version of it for my first attempt at creative writing. I thought I had written the original dream down somewhere, but I can’t find it written anywhere. So likely the following will be a corrupted memory of what happened. Unfortunate, but unavoidable.

I have seen one source say that scientific studies show you can’t dream of fantastical things, they must be grounded in reality. But I have kept dream logs before and they definitely have had some crazy fantastical elements. Also I have asked around and no one I know has heard of any TV show with all the following elements. So… I assume it is false.

In the dream, none of the characters had names. So I will simply refer to them by their role. What is to follow is simply what I remember from the dream, and there are some holes in the logic, so when I write the actually story/chapter, it will have to either change these details or give some good logic behind them. For now I won’t do that so there might be multiple iterations of this.

What I remember of the dream

We see a middle aged fat man, the Movie Star, riding on a flying scooter past a large archway. We see a bored teenage girl in a stand by the archway, waving high in a very non-enthusiastic manner.

At this point we are in the head of the Movie Star, who you might guess is a famous movie star. He is very self-conceited and thinks himself much more important than he actually is. For instance, he thinks that the girl by the gate is waiting there just for him, when it is pretty clear she is just doing her job as greeter. From here we enter into the place he was trying to get to on that flying scooter - the Store.

The Store is very busy and bustling. The Movie Star ignores all of this, and goes straight for the movie section, where he sees himself on some of the front titles. He exclaims how great he is to have been in these movies. Some kids run past him, followed by some disgruntled employees chasing them, and we shift from his perspective.

We now see a broader perspective of the store. It is understood within the dream that this is a social center, where people come to buy things, but also to meet, discuss, and hold meetings. The employees chasing the rowdy children are the Almost Couple - in the sense that they are for all intents and purposes dating, but they for some reason don’t want to admit they are dating. They are a young white women and a young Asian man, both either teenagers or young adults.

There is also the Manager, who is a kindly middle aged man (roughly the same age as the Movie Star) who is quite tall, but also bald and fat, with a nice beard. The Manager is the reason this place holds together, and works very hard to maintain order in the store, and is seen as a leader in the community. Then there is the Owner, who actually owns the store. The Owner is a short, also bald, little man with beady eyes. He unlike the manager does not care about the community and is very miserly despite his wealth. Much of the Manager’s energy is spent fighting him to maintain something in the store that isn’t as profitable or such.

Past the main cast of characters, you see people going about their normal lives. The mothers of those rowdy children trying to help catch them, and gossiping among themselves. People browsing the items in the store, and the like. The day passes with little as far as notable events.

We then go back to the teenager who was on greeting duty. As it turns out, she is the Protagonist. She says good-bye to the Almost Couple (who are her friends) and the Manager and goes home (though this was not visually shown in the dream, it was kind of just assumed). She walks up a bunch of stairs. As it turns out, this store is in a City Above The Clouds. It’s easier to draw a sketch than to describe, so a sketch is below.

Yes I know my drawing skills are lacking

You understand a few things just by looking at it. The city is tiered, and the tiers correspond to income levels. However, the bottom is where the rich live, and the top is where the poor are. The shop is closer to the bottom of the city (second level). People do not like the clouds below - they are mysterious and no one knows what is underneath them, so no one ventures there (despite stairs existing).

Unlike in the picture, it is approaching dusk, and the Protagonist is quite poor. The poor people live toward the top of the city, so she has to walk quite a few flights of stairs to get to the top. By the time she reaches there, it is already past sunset, and we see a dark sky, with very little or no stars (can’t remember which) but with two moon like objects, with a glowing aura around them, and images of people inside them playing out. Again easier to sketch than to describe, so here is a rough sketch below.

The scenes inside the moon would be constantly moving and changing

So she makes it to her house. Later she joins her Mother and her Brother for a meal. Her father is absent. Brother is a few years younger than the Protagonist, and in poor health. Mother works as a nurse, and has to work extra to help support Brother. This is also why the Protagonist has the job at the store, to help support her family. Mother doesn’t speak much this dinner, as she is tired from a very long shift. The Protagonist sighs at the situation in the house, but also doesn’t know what to do.

Then the main event.

The next day, the Protagonist wakes up and it seems strangely dark. She realizes that the sun has not risen today. While confused, she knows she has to go to the Store as that is where people will meet to discuss this crisis.

There is pandemonium at the Store. The Manager and the Almost Couple are already there trying to manage the crowd. The Movie Star is annoyed the attention is not on him. The Owner and Manager are fighting as the Owner wants to shut down the store out of fear, but the Manager wants to keep things open so people can rally and talk. No one understands why the sun has not risen.

The Protagonist arrives a bit late, and tries to help manage the crowd. People are yelling and talking and very scared. In a small moment of quiet, she wonders what she needs to do. Then she hears a voice in her head: You need to go find the sun. At that moment, she realizes she needs to go below the clouds to find the sun.

Then I woke up.

Thoughts

The premise in my opinion is REALLY COOL. I really like the idea of the sun not rising in this mysterious city above the clouds. What lies below the clouds? What happened to the sun? Where is the Protagonist’s father?

Some of the things just make no sense. Why on earth are the poor at the top of the city when there are flying scooters? The dream provides no answers. There is also the question of why the Almost Couple doesn’t just get together. I get the impression it is just because they are not emotionally ready to admit that yet but there are other possible reasons. Also the character of the Movie Star, while interesting, seems to play a too important role at the beginning of the dream - if written it would probably be shifted to the Protagonist’s perspective.

So I have also developed some potential ideas to fill some of the wholes. It would be poetic of the Protagonist’s father went into the clouds and never came back, which could have been the start of her family troubles. It would also make sense that she would find him in her search for the sun. I imagine there are whole civilizations below the clouds so there are lots of imaginative possibilities there. There could also be subplots involving the people in the City - I always imagined the Almost Couple would go with the Protagonist below the clouds, but the Manager and the Mother would stay behind. For a more humorous take we could always look at things from the perspective of the Movie Star.

Overall, I feel there should be multiple iterations of this to see what works best. There are lots of possibilities.

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