Quick Fire Questions (A Place to Ask and Answer)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Annoyingly, I've heard several people on TV failing to pronounce the final "s", presumably because they're reading an autocue which leaves it off too. So they would just say "the empress tiara".

But every time I go behind the TV to put them right, they've gone ...
 
Anybody get the thing where just as you're drifting off to sleep, or waking up, you hear voices/noises?

It's called 'hypnagogia.' The reason I ask is, I just want to know how common it is/how many people are aware of it? I've got a character who's describing it (not using the actual term, because he doesn't know it) and I don't want readers to think it's anything specific... it's more of a comparison.

Ack.

Quick version of the question: Are you aware of hypnagogia?
 
Yes. And everyone I've ever asked has it, too. My sisters, my bro-in-laws, my folks, my partner... :)
 
I get it with images rather than voices. It's just dreaming where you're not quite asleep.

I suspect most people experience it, but I also guess most people won't know the word (though reading your post again, you're not going to use it, so, er, as you were).
 
Oh yeah, I know it's just dreaming - I just wanted to know if other people knew that. Looks like they do, so I'll carry on with it.

Thanks, both! :)
 
Mouse said:
Oh yeah, I know it's just dreaming - I just wanted to know if other people knew that.
Click to expand...

Actually, a lot of people regard it (or used to regard it) as a kind of magical state, where you can trip off into the astral realms and so on. The first time it happened to me as a kid, my face was buried in the pillow and I suddenly saw this incredibly vivid London street scene, red buses and all, and I was all OMG THIS MUST BE IMPORTANT WHAT IS IT TRYING TO TELL ME???!!!!11

(It was probably trying to tell me that having my face in the pillow was starving my brain of oxygen.)
 
Ha!

When I Googled it, a lot of clairvoyance pages did come up. What it is, is my character has just been woken up by a shadow standing over him (the shadow was real). He's just pondering it and thinking it's like 'that time he woke up and heard a voice say hello.' I don't want readers thinking he's had spooky experiences before, I want them to go 'oh yeah, I get that.'

I'm guessing some people will know what I'm on about some people won't, I suppose.
 
Oh, I had that exact same scene in my novel! Except it was a ghost-like apparition in mine. It will still be in the new version I'm writing, but I dunno whether the MC will consider it a sleep hallucination or whether she'll get scared of it and whatnot (I'm still deciding what personality my replacement MC will have). Possibly she'll be terrified, cos the poor lass has will have had some bad things happen to her by then...
 
My guy was briefly terrified, then dismissed it. He's not had anything really weird happen to him (yet) to get freaked out by it! :D
 
I've heard of similar called Exploding Head Syndrome, which I get a mild example of now and then. Just as I'm falling to sleep - it happens on the cusp, not when you're dreaming - some weird-ass noise will wake me suddenly.

I say mild - very - because full on EHS sounds terrifying!
 
Mouse said:
Anybody get the thing where just as you're drifting off to sleep, or waking up, you hear voices/noises?

Quick version of the question: Are you aware of hypnagogia?
Click to expand...
No and no. Either I'm nowhere near as psychically aware as some people here, or I'm not stupid enough to try and suffocate myself... :p

Anyhow, if I'd read that Ambrose had previously woken up hearing someone say "Hello" I'd assume he'd had another spooky experience. If it's not an important part of the book that he suffers from this hypnagogia, can't you simply have him think he's still dreaming?
 
It's not important really, it's just him trying to convince himself that nothing spooky happened. So he was asleep, woke up to a shadow which disappeared, then dismisses it.

I have:

[FONT=&quot]Sleep was a strange thing, did strange things to the mind. He remembered having heard a voice before now, saying, ‘hello,’ just as he woke up – as if the dream hadn’t stopped in time. A scientist could probably explain it.
Click to expand...
[/FONT]
 
I'd be careful Mouse, I'm with the Judge on this. I hadn't heard of such a thing and I'm not aware of having experienced it myself. I would have read the passage very much as though "He remembered having heard a voice before now, saying, ‘hello,’ just as he woke up " would have some important significance to the story.
 
Bum. I kinda thought it was something that happened to pretty much everyone. Good thing I asked!
 
Do you need the bit at all, Mouse? How about something like: Sleep was a strange thing, conjured strange things in the mind during that half-asleep, half-awake state.
 
If (as it seems) you're wanting him to ignore what ever it was that woke him, then I would have thought you could just say something like "he awoke abruptly feeling like a shadow had passed across him but just put it down to an echo of his dream" (only better worded :eek:).

Edit: your post snuck in whilst I was typing this Mouse!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
Toby Frost Quick question on titles Writing Discussion 7
Mouse Quick question about fire Writing Discussion 19
David Evil Overlord A quick question about FIRE Writing Discussion 14
David Evil Overlord A quick FIRE question Writing Discussion 16
T Quick Poll - Will Firely fly again? Firefly 3

Similar threads


Back
Top