When Characters and Writers Dream
I have it on good authority (several writing books, an agent blog or two, etc) that starting a story having the character wake up from a dream has been done to death (and so they please ask us to refrain). We mostly self-educated writers look to these authorities for guidelines. Are they just guidelines or are they rules carved in stone?
So, I’m sitting at my desk yesterday and this dream pops into my head…not my dream but that of a character. I pick up a pen and start writing because I have finally learned to do this. Life is so much easier if I just take dictation when told to.
The dream sequence is brief, and even as I am writing it I think it might make a prologue or something. And then the story starts with the character waking up, and the plot is off and running.
And of course this character and plot must be filed away in the concept file , which I always think is too bad, but I haven’t successfully cloned myself yet. I want the model of myself that actually possesses balance and grace, please and thank you. I’d like the payment plan, if you don’t mind.
Anyway, the story is about fifteen girls from all over the world who are trained in their dreams by people who exist outside of the boundaries of time and place. They will use their dreams to track each other down, to probe for clues, to identify one another as friends, not enemies. Dreams would be a vital part of the story, and it would be very hard to start it anywhere but when it did…waking up from the first dream to repeat itself in two decades.
I so hate being passe. Sigh.
The story I am just finishing came to me at the tail end of a dream. Perhaps I’ve just been sensitive to such statements since I started it?
My fascination with the human mind and our subconscious processes just makes me more curious. What are your experiences with dreams and inspiration or writing events and issues? Do you dream about your characters or their lives?
I’ve dreamed situations that become manuscripts, maybe I have dreamed about a character, I must have at one point or the other.
My novel Dream or Destiny begins with the main character waking up from a dream. Guess I’m passe!
Sounds like a good and interesting story! I think there is nothing wrong with using dream in fiction, as long as it’s part of a unique concept.
I’m actually working on a story right now that involves lucid dreaming. I also have a deep fascination of the mind, sub-consciousness and so forth. I’m starting to utilize meditation to explore the depths of the mind as well.
I think that the ‘bad’ stuff about waking up from a dream is when it’s not identified as a dream. Like, all kinds of stuff happens – and then it was just a dream, onto the next thing.
When the dreams are integral parts of the story, then I say it can’t be a bad thing.
I’m a fresh face to the world of writing. My first book (Not yet published) opens up with Aden (A main character) suffering through a reoccurring nightmare. Poor guy.