Dreaming up a Plot

[katiefoolery]

My dreams are mostly forgettable, even the ones that involve my ending up forgetting to dress before I go out or unable to find a bathroom with proper sized doors. Even the one with the deformed budgie that terrified me so much at the age of three has lost its punch. The only dreams that seem to have any impact on me are the ones I have in the morning. Usually, they're fascinating dreams; more like stories than the background workings of my mind. And more often than not, the alarm jerks me out of them just as they're getting interesting.

One of the great regrets of life, is that no matter how detailed or how rich the dream, I've never mastered the knack of waking up and then going straight back to it. Even by accident. In my entire dreaming life, I've never had the same dream twice. I have dreams with similar concepts or feelings, but never the same dream with the same people and the same bizarre backdrop.

Half the time, I'm not even in the dream. Instead, I seem to linger on the sidelines, watching the action take place.

This morning, I was in the dream with a vengeance. Not as myself, but as two distinct characters. The first one seemed to be some sort of spin-off from Firefly. I don't know how I came to that conclusion, seeing as none of the characters were in it, but that's what the dream insisted. It was mostly forgettable, apart from the grief I felt at missing the ship and having to bid my identical twin sister goodbye for an indefinite amount of time.

The next dream was shorter, but it managed to give birth to a story nonetheless. I seemed to be a character called Calwyn, from the Chanters of Tremaris series by Kate Constable (well worth a read, if you're looking for a recommendation). And yet, even though I was Calwyn, I wasn't actually Calwyn. This made much more sense in my dream than it does right here and now.

In the dream, I had failed to complete a rigorous course of musical study and I was walking across a courtyard towards my old music class, feeling a mix of shame at my failure and delight at seeing my old friends again. My hair had grown in my time away from them and it fell across my line of sight in concealing strands. I thought I could hide my bitter disappointment behind my hair.

The dream must have lasted for about five minutes, but it made a lasting impression on my imagination. It begs to become a short story. A very short story, in fact.

But sometimes these short stories have minds of their own and decide to become something bigger.

I did once write a story based on a character in a dream. It ended up with the grand title Saving the World: When and How to do it and was commended in the first story competition I entered in 2002. But I haven't done it since. How many of you have written a story based on a dream? Was it a success or would you never do it again? I'm intrigued to hear if it's worked out for others, too.

Comments

[the-kaytinator.livejournal.com]

Just about everything I write is based on dreams. I am lucky enough to be able to dream in serial, giving me ample inspiration.

The story I have put up on Prodders for critique is based on a series of dreams I had years and years ago. I dreamed these characters so frequently, and everything was so vivid that I often found myself plotting out what happened in the morning, just for the sake of cementing it in my brain for later.
I abandoned it, and the version I am now working on is based on another dream I had, which, though brief, placed these characters in a new setting, and gave me an Idea.

I also have a collection of Medieval/Fantasyesque stories called "Stuff I Dreamt". I often dream about Knights, and Kings and Princesses and other such feudal things. So I combined all these brief dreams into a collection of stories, all set in one world. Some are based on chracters, one is based on the complete serialised dream that outlined the entire plot, two of the stories are wildly different, but based on the same image of a man and a woman.

And of course, there's the Lucid Detective, of which you know.

I find dreams are absolutely the most spectacular source of inspiration. They have so many things; images, people, stories, that you can take from them, and use for your own purposes. You can bend dreams entirely to your will once you wake up, and come up with some smashing stuff based on what you dreamt for five seconds.

[frohike.livejournal.com]

My dreams are always highly disjointed. I don't think theres enough plot, eg a friend and I rushing across an oval to catch a train; attacking dinosaurs with bike chains; doing a large jigsaw puzzle; climbing down a mineshaft of sorts. Each segment last for five to ten seconds, and morphs from one to the next. Very.... tiring.

[naelany.livejournal.com]

sounds like you've had some interesting dreams!

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

My entire Shashi story (Swashbuckler Files) is based on a very short dream I had involving a stolen ruby and a wrongly accused friend of mine. I wore black leather and velvet and carried a rapier. I was also very nonchalant as I leaned against a wall and swore to clear my friend's good name. Did I mention we were in space?

Eventually, I'll get that story written. At the moment, final papers beckon, and Cassandra is getting irritated at my neglect...

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Yes, but unfortunately, they're few and far between. Of course, it's possible I have plenty of fascinating dreams; I just can't remember any of them.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

If I hadn't read your comment at a time when the library was deathly quiet, I would have been laughing out loud. "Did I mention we were in space?" was the line that caused my mirth. I bet it made sense in the dream, too.

One day I hope to read some of these Swashbuckler Files.

[flippyfrog.livejournal.com]

That katherine one that was up on prodders started off as a dream. But there aren't a lot of dreams that become stories, it's more i take the ideas from them, or certain feelings. i had an extremely realistic one once where i was following a dectective in this city that was all high rise, and you couldn't see the ground. While i haven't found a place for the dectective yet, the city features in one of my other sci/fi stories.
It is mostly locations i take, i dream them so vividly they always stay with me while the rest of the dream might be forgotten...

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I imagine it must be quite exhausting, good Nomes. My dreams do chop and change, but it always much more restful than that. One minute, I'm bigging a teary farewell to my dream-sister, the next I'm walking across a courtyard as someone else. I've never attacked a dinosaur with a bike chain, though. That sounds inspired.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

You're what I'd call an incredibly dedicated writer, good Kayt. Even in your sleep, you're still working on your stories and coming up with fascinating plots. I'm quite envious of all these amazing dreams that you have.

Your point about changing dreams once you wake up is a good one. The dream that turned into a story only actually featured in the character and a couple of scenes towards the end. And even those were changed to fit the story. The sense of my character's desolation remained, though.

I just wish it were possible to arrange fascinating dreams. The random nature of it all is most frustrating.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

The feelings in these sorts of dreams are amazing, aren't they? I felt emotions incredibly strongly in the two dreams I had this morning. It was almost as though I was an emotion, rather than a person.

Some dream-concepts are incredible, too. When I started writing these dreams down, the character and concept of the dream in question was so strong that I found I was writing my account of the dream in the voice of the character who had featured in it, rather than myself.

Perhaps we should be alarmed at all this stuff going on inside our own heads.

[rigel-7.livejournal.com]

I have very vivid dreams as well, but I do have the abiity to control and direct them and I can fall back into them if I wake up.

I like to dream plot, many of my LorF bits and pieces come from hashing out the possibilities in my dreams. It's hard to explain, but I can halt a dream if it's not going the way I want it to and rewind it to the point where it diverged and start over.

It's most useful. :D

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I'm incredibly jealous of you. I wish I had such control over my own dreams - it must be amazing.

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

It made absolute sense in the dream. I had never seen Firefly, but that's sort of what it was like. That and Star Wars. Imagine a dirty, yet London-like spaceport.

One day, I hope that the Files will be available for reading!

[the-kaytinator.livejournal.com]

I also can do that, most of the time, Rig!!!

I'm a heavily lucid dreamer!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I'm so jealous of you both. Why do I have to be one of those people who mostly just goes to sleep and completely forgets most of their dreams?

If I hadn't posted about these ones, I probably would have forgotten them too.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

It sounds fascinating! A bit like spacey, piratey steampunk.

[naelany.livejournal.com]

I think that's the case for most of us. I'm glad I don't remember most of my dreams, because the ones that do stick, usually creep me out

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

Very much so. I've changed it so that it's not in space (though that may change back, depending), but the jewel theft and the wrongful accusation stayed. I also wound up cutting my cast down significantly...and it may be pruned further. A lot of things got added that don't make sense now. Time to reboot, methinks.