Why do I dream in Southern Accents

I don’t know what it is, but the more tired I get, the more my imaginary characters in-brain develop Southern accents.

Specifically, when they’re angry.

I have a handle on these characters when I’m awake. When I’m awake, they all have bonafied West Coast Canadian accents, no issues. Everyone’s behaving themselves. However, the more tired I get, the less control I have over my nightly mind-movie. Eventually, they stop obeying my line reads. They go off script. They get belligerent, like frustrated actors. They begin fighting with each other over the smallest issue. And — for some bizarre reason — they develop those darn Southern accents. They go from Abbotsford to Texas in two seconds flat, and I cannot, for the life of me, get them out of that state.

I’d be fine with it, but the problem is when these characters are very much real people — they’re actors, or people in my life. I’ll have a posh, well-respected Brit suddenly speaking like a Dale from King of the Hill. It’s ridiculous, truly, and I don’t know where it comes from. I don’t come across many people from the US south, and if I did, they’re never angry. I have zero reason to apply this stereotype in my mind. And yet, there it is. There they are, causing trouble.

Yet, there’ s not a thing I can do about it. Sometimes, as in writing, your characters do their own thing, and you must simply be the vehicle for the unwieldy inspiration. So all I can do, all I ever do, is lie back and enjoy this bizarre AU brewed from the late hour and 10mg of melatonin.