Inspiration!

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

I'll admit that this past week hasn't been a good one for me. I've been ill through most of it, honestly (likely having caught a bunch of things while traveling from the US, or due to the cold I got on the plane my immune system dropped) and only really just recovering now. So admittedly, I've not really been 100%. Still, despite the fact I've not managed to get much work done this week, I thought that I would focus a bit on the Dreamwalkers universe a little.

So far, I've spoken of three of the main characters in Dreamwalkers, a bit about what Oneirology is and how S.O.S fits into the study, and a little bit about the main antagonists of the series, the Oneiros. So, what does that leave us with?

Well, this time, I thought I would actually get a little deeper into Dreamwalkers - not in the story itself, but rather into what made me create the comic in the first place.

Inspiration comes from many places and in many forms. For me, the beginning inspiration for Dreamwalkers came from music. Weirdly, not even really from the lyrics, but the sounds of the tune behind it. Indeed, one of the tunes that inspired me was a Sweedish lulaby, Byssan Lull, and I'll admit here and now that English is the only language I know that I can actually read and write proficiently in (and even then I can get tongue tied or my dyslexia gets in the way), so I actually began coming up with concepts for Dreamwalkers waaaaay before I actually found an actual lyric translation for the song. In this version of the song, the clock pendulum sound in the background, the slow beat and the soothing, almost mystical sounds to it seemed to me to have an underlaying mysticism to it, at least in my head. Coupled with the fact it was a lullaby and it was what gave me the basis to create a story that involved sleep and dreaming.

Researching dreaming on sides such as dream interpretation, as well as the actual concepts of sleep, along with the more mystical aspects that I used to make up the enemy in the story were interesting as well. I always find that if you have a personal interest in what I'm going to be drawing or writing about, it helps to keep my focus and also makes the whole process enjoyable, rather than a chore. And honestly, there is a lot of interesting things about dreaming, sleep and the effects on the mind. Some concepts such as lucid dreaming also made for interest to me, in how the Dreamwalkers can actually function while in the dream worlds.

Essentially, using dreams as the main plot point to a story, rather than some kind of 'And it was all a dream' twist ending means that you have a lot of room to play with. Each dream could even be considered a new world, with different laws and physics, and as each dream is formed from a different mind, new concepts, or even art styles can come into play. The dreams of a child, for example, are not going to be the same as those of an adult. And likewise, as dreams can be influenced by a character's waking self, the lives of each individual character could also effect the events of their dream worlds. All in all, considering it that way, each mission would be new, while still retaining a connection to the overarching plot.

The limits of what could be done, while conforming to the basic plot, of course, is still very much only limited by imagination: that of myself as the creator, and that of the characters 'living' within the Dreamwalkers world.

For me, even now there is a lot that I can still research, and so much potential I can bring to the story, just by looking into actual scientific research as well as dream interpretation which in and of itself could actually grant information about the characters who's dreams the team enters - you would essentially be seeing the character's state of mind without even needing to use words.

Essentially, in Dreamwalkers, even the most 'boring' seeming dream would still have some interesting information, I feel. Of course, that's assuming that they hadn't just ate something funny before sleep. lol

Still, all in all, its interesting where you can go from just a bit of inspiration. And I do hope my spark of inspiration will, at least, make for an interesting series, even if I currently only have the first chapter completed currently. Make sure to keep an eye out for more Dreamwalkers info as I bring it to you.

Hoping that I'll be in a much better state of health, until next time!

Tara