Apparently it’s quite common to dream of losing teeth, but this was my first time. I dreamed that one tooth fell out, then the others followed. The first one seemed to leave a gap, but when the others went it was only the enamel that fell off, laving a quite anatomically incorrect flap of tooth-shaped gum behind. Pretty soon my whole mouth was full of these flaps of gum, which seemed to be much more numerous than my teeth (had been), with just a couple of frail, soon-to-be-lost molars remaining. Talking was extremely difficult. It wasn’t until someone else in the dream said they had a sore mouth, and I felt I had to warn them, that I made a very determined effort to speak, and in doing so woke up. In the dream I had already considered that I was dreaming, but evidently decided I wasn’t.

There was a distinct sense of being stifled by the proliferating tags of floppy gum. I’m wondering if there’s a writing connection to the dream, since I’m up to the point in the new story where I have to start drying wet concrete: I’ve written several drafts, it’s 10,000 words long minus the ending, and still in a rather rough state with plenty of small things undecided. I have to decide them, decide what to explain or at least have characters talk about and what to leave wide open, and set the general tone of the story (how comedic or serious, how strange, how much full-throttle fantasy pastiche lingo to allow, etc.), which is proving difficult; I’ve been doing lots of scrabbling and spluttering — so my subconscious might be telling me to get decisive and “bite”.

Anyway, it was quite the most disgusting dream I’ve ever had. If nothing else, I think I’ll be cleaning my teeth very carefully for at least a few days. (For all I know, it was my subconscious telling me to floss, and nothing to do with writing at all!)