Thread: Writing from Dreams

Has anyone else tried it?

There is a recurring dream I've been having for years where I explore this old place and just recently I had it and then the next night had a dream where I visit it many years in the past, when it was in its prime. I found it to be a very inspiring writing topic and it's exciting because it's a fictional place but real to me.

It's a tricky thing to do because dreams are disjointed, they have no rules or boundaries in reality, so you have to fill in those parts, unless you want to make it surreal, which is fine as long as it stays readable.

But if you found a spot to write, then write

I have taken many story ideas from my dreams, but not always the whole thing. More just the idea of the whole thing =] The piece I'm currently working is partially linked to a dream, and I have posted a full short story on here that is a complete description of a dream I had when I was young, a recurring one like yours. However it actually took a lot of courage for me to re explore that dream as it was more of a very real nightmare in which I often sleep walked. I love dreams and the inspiration they can give, its like stealing story ideas from yourself.

=]

I understand what you are saying. I'm kind of thinking I will just use it as a base idea/setting for my story. It's just nice to have an inspiration because I've been kind of blocked creatively lately.

Yup, that ole writer's block. I used to advise people to turn off/cover their monitors so they didnt' second guess their words/thoughts.

That's an interesting idea. I've never based any writings on dreams, but I've definitely had some scenarios in dreams that would make good story material. And hey, a popular example of a dream turned into a novel, particularly the scene where they lounge in the meadow and he sparkles, is Twilight, and we all know how that turned out.

Here's some food for thought (heh): cheese is reportedly rich in an amino acid product called tyramine, that, as the old wives tales say stimulate a person's dream habits. I looked it up because I had this minor phase where I was having grilled cheese on toast before bed time, and it seemed to work. The dreams were all nightmares though, but I'm not sure there's any correlation there.

I'd love to write a story that was inspired by a dream. I have some pretty profound dreams; however, as Sync said, they are pretty disjointed, inconsistent, etc. But, make do with what you can!

AEP

If I wrote based on my dreams, I'd likely be in a padded room.

Ahh Twilight.. can't say I'm not happy she had that dream

And cheese? I believe that... and I think I'll be trying it tonight.

Luckily when I dream, it tends to be realistic and coherent. My nightmares on the other hand, are of the disjointed, trippy variety. I would certainly be in a padded room trying to write from those, not that I have any interest in it.

I think nightmares are cooler to write about. I should like to have more nightmares.

Originally Posted by AmandaC

Ahh Twilight.. can't say I'm not happy she had that dream

Speak for yourself .

I got no qualms with Twilight itself. It's is a cute teenie fad, but when I see the odd girl on campus with reading those books... yesh....


I definitely wouldn't write about my latest dreams.
Ever dream about monotonous bits of the day? They make for a very boring read...

I've gotten many story ideas from dreams. They can be a great catalyst to condense all the other ambient ideas you're being bombarded with and crystalize them into a useful hunk of story to build upon.

I haven't gotten a lot of my ideas from dreams, but I do seem to think up a lot of ideas for my online writing right when I wake up. I keep a pen and paper by the bed so I can write them down before I start getting ready for the day.

The closest I've ever come to writing based on my dreams was a flash animation I had set to music based on a nightmare I had (I never finished it). I have written about my dreams plenty though. It's a wonderful thing to do and I would recommend it to anyone who can hold a pen. When you start writing your dreams, over a very short period they become much more memorable (not cooler, but you actually remember far more vivid details) and they become much more narrative like. They still get weird and illogical, but while in the dream state the narrative feels completely right. This also helps you remember your dreams in detail for much longer. I'm positive I could relate ten dreams just off the top of my head, and some of them are 15 years old. I think this is mostly because I wrote them down.

Originally Posted by Tom88

Here's some food for thought (heh): cheese is reportedly rich in an amino acid product called tyramine, that, as the old wives tales say stimulate a person's dream habits. I looked it up because I had this minor phase where I was having grilled cheese on toast before bed time, and it seemed to work. The dreams were all nightmares though, but I'm not sure there's any correlation there.

So, what you're saying is knock-knock jokes before bed.

The biggest thing that stimulates dreaming is poor sleep. We dream all night long (erratically, off and on), but when we start to wake up, the logical filtering mind starts to interfere and tries to impose some sort of order on the sensory chaos. We start to interpret. We're waking up, but our mind-proper is still in the dream state. A good example of this is when you scream in your dream but make no sound or stifled grunts, or when you run and your legs are bound or sticking, or just heavy. Your logical mind is attempting to react to the sensory information, and commanding your body to respond. But your body is like "screw you man, I'm sleeping."