By daydreaming I don't mean that I'm picturing a nice beach or thinking about the movie that I just watched or about what I want for dinner that night. What I'm talking about are incredibly complex daydreams with fully fleshed out characters and enviroments. They all have names, backstories, faces and body types. They all have dialouge styles and certain clothing. Some of them have accents (if their background permits) and families. Whenever I'm bored or depressed, or just have a little bit of idle time..I will drown out any ruckus or people in the background and imagine myself as one of these characters. I'll have entire coversations in my head where I will create the dialogue for both myself (or the character I was playing) and the person/people I was speaking to almost like a puppeteer. Sometimes we have debates on religion, politics, philosophy... sometimes I will use someone elses profile and voice (not normally people I know in real life, I normally create their faces in my head) to voice their opinion. I have characters who are superhero's, fashion designers, scientists, average people like teachers and boyfriends/girlfriends (couples who are together). Normally whilst daydreaming I will listen to music (I am constantly listening to music for most of my day) and sometimes I will be listening and it will trigger entirely new characters to be conjured up in my head. I'll be listening to the star wars soundtrack and I'll create an entire Jedi/Sith with a backstory, or I'll be listening to ambient music and I'll create a scientist. I have a passing interest in costume design for film prodiction so I'll imagine constumes and I'll create entire runway shows. Anyways, basically what I'm trying to ask is do any of you think like this? I'm bi-polar and a lot of the time I'll imagine things in more detail when I'm manic or depressed. (which is most of the time) the images I come up with will be so vivid it's almost like I'm actually experiencing whats happening. (Candid writing, not going to proof read, haha). If you do this could you describe some of the things you think about? Which gets me to me next question, I'll go out at night and talk to myself when I'm on my walks. I actually verbalize everything I'm saying too. I'll walk about 8 miles (there and back) to the nearest store, get a drink and walk home. I don't actually talk inside the store but once I'm a safe distance away and my eyesight is adjusted enough so I can tell if anyone is in the dark walking nearby... I'll start talking to myself again. this time unlike my daydreams I'll imagine people I've actually met in real life... and once again I'll have a full..detailed conversation witht them. Is this weird? I know I hear people talking to themselves too. Once when I was in the 8th grade and I was on the bus I saw this girl making facial expressions to herself when she was just sitting there all alone in her seat. I could tell she was doing the same thing in her head as I was and she was smiling/grinning at what one of her characters had said. This is really embarrassing for me to admit.. as I don't really talk to other people very often... So do you guys have any advice or thoughts/opinions?
I often have highly detailed fantasies when I'm riding my bicycle, and have been known to carry conversations with myself as well. This started way back in elementary school. I discovered I have a powerful imagination, many times my name was called during a lecture and I was millions of miles away. I gotten so good at doing this I would stare right at the teacher but my mind was not there. What I suggest is you write down these things, with all the meticulous details, then find a person you really trust, and allow them to read it, then go from there,
You know something funny that I reaized? Is that we see 'crazy" people all the time, right? People who wear weird/ratty clothing, people who talk to themselves, people who walk funny or say weird things to others. People who stare at everything, people who eat weird food, people who have these really peculiar things about them.. but I don't think they're crazy anymore. I realize that I have been seperating myself from them to reassure myself that I am "normal" when in reality nobody is normal and that some of us are just better at concealing the things that make us unique and different. I think about certain stereotypes in our society. How "jocks" are never smart, never nerdy..never deep. Yet we have people like Chris Kluwe and Ayanbadejo... and we have nerds who like sports...I think we're a lot more complex than we all think we are and that most people are just unable to articulate their feelings in a way that gets the point across that they're "deep". I think of homophobic people and how shallow they "are"... yet I know now that they're not... they just think differently from us. They're not stupid...they're not mean or cruel...it's just that we all walk different paths to the same house. okay I know this is just a big ass ramble post but I think I'm going to hit enter anyways to see what other people think. hahaha
I used to fall into these daydreams like you, there are several different 'worlds' i used to go to frequently. I'd often go to the same situation but see it in a different POV, from a different character or as a fly on the wall. I would follow different characters in their own stories and how they interact with the other stories within the same daydream. I'd usually end up falling into these fantasies when i was in a particularly shit mood. If i was feeling down or bored, it was a way to make the time fly by and get me out of that mood. Like you, Music also helped. It gave new ideas and new insights to the characters. I've tried a few times to turn the daydreams into stories by writing them down. But i have poor literacy skills when it comes to that sort of thing, i can never do the stories justice with writing. I haven't really experienced it recently, for a few years now. Not as indepth as i used to anyway, i occasionally daydream but its for a few minutes and not hours like it used to. I'm usually too busy at work to be able to shut off and escape whats going on around me. ---------- Post added 7th Jan 2013 at 08:10 AM ---------- I also talk to myself, but not really having conversations. More voicing my thoughts, usually telling myself off for mistakes or voicing out my plans as i'm doing them.
I'll have daydream fantasy type things where I'll act out entire scenarios and conversations in my head. Usually involves meeting someone cute then going on a date and stuff.
And here i was thinking i was special Let me guess, they may also pop up in your dreams and stuff? I can also draw well enough that I can depict them and things i think about and include in their little adventure I only have a core group of characters that live in a world, my friends says I should write a book (well, books) but I don't think I write well. It's also fun when i have lucid dreams and they are in it. And when I think I can't add anymore detail into one aspect, something comes along and fleshes my idea put even more.
oh I totally do that! I have over 50 people that live in my head, sometimes I talk to them. You're not the only. Unless you're making pillow cases out of human flesh I think you're pretty normal
I do the exact same thing you do while im listening to music I also talk to myself when im walking in the same way you do but i dont verbalize what im saying. I didnt know anyone else did it haha. I dont see it as a problem
That is totally a gift. You should try writing short stories. Maybe even a novel. I think you would be really good at it.
I used to have a very involved story line / fantasy that I would continue every night when I was a kid growing up - in elementary school. It turned to sexual fantasy though at puberty - and the use of pornography. I see now that for me at least, the fantasy and then the pornography was a form of escapism. So I'm not sure it was entirely healthy or productive. There were perhaps some things that I should have been learning how to deal with instead of ignoring or escaping from them. Even as an adult, before I got into recovery from my addiction, I would fantasize / daydream every night to go to sleep - only then it was alway about winning the lottery and what I would spend the money on or how I would split it up between family and friends. Since I got into recovery, and focussed more on the present and dealing with things as they present themselves, I've found that I don't do that any more. That's my experience.
I do that too. Sometimes I take my phone out so it looks like i'm talking to someone, or I walk the same direction as traffic so people are less likely to watch me. I have ADD, and I think at least some of my daydreaming is ADD related.
Write it!!! The more scenes you can literally pull out of the air, the easier it will be to make a big, cohesive story out of it, which is a massive accomplishment.
