I'm back to revising my YA gothic, MOONHILL. One of the first things I
needed to do was cut a comparison and replace it with a new one that would put
the same spooky image in the reader's mind, but not give away a story element.
It didn’t take me long to discover that sleepwalking would work just
fine. In fact, I was left wondering why I hadn’t thought of it to begin with.
Sleepwalking is pretty spooky--whether you’re the walker or the person
watching.
As a child, I was a sleepwalker. Normally, I was petrified of walking around at night in the hallways of our huge Georgian house. I didn't even like to have my toes dangling over the edge of the bed when I slept. But when I was sleepwalking, the
dark didn’t bother me at all. I’d wander
down the halls and the winding staircase, through one living room to the other, and startle my older sister and their boyfriend (I suspect I broke up more than
one romantic session). Once, when I was
in my teens, I sleepwalked out to the front yard and lined up as if a fire drill was happening. Luckily, my friend dragged me back
inside. It was a hot summer night and I
wasn’t wearing much.
How about you, have you ever sleepwalked? Have you ever seen anyone do it?
Personally, I find it quite creepy.
