I have found that dreams often influence my writing. Dragons in our Midst was conceived by a dream I had about a boy who could breathe fire. At first, I wondered if I just had too much pepperoni on my pizza the night before, but when I shared the dream with my eldest son, he suggested that I turn the dream into a fantasy story. It took eight years for that dream to bear fruit, but it did so and created a wonderful harvest.
Please comment. Has a dream ever sparked a significant change or project?
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Categories: Miscellaneous
I agree. After 20 years of the same night terror, I wrote The Eye of Lies. I never knew what the dream meant but I knew there was a story there somewhere.
I can’t recall any project or idea sparked by a dream. Daydreams, sure, tons. But my unconscious dreams tend to be too mundane or they are scrambled from different pieces of reality or things I’ve read or watched, so they’re too strange to be of use. My conscious mind seems to work better.
Definitely!! Many of the ideas I have for stories come from my dreams.
I think one time when I was little I had a dream about two horses, and that sparked a story idea I had at the time, but I dropped the idea years ago. Other than that I don’t think I had much direct inspiration from my dreams, other than usin the nature of dreams themselves for my stories.
Ironically, last night I had a dream about this little store that has appeared once or twice in other dreams of mine. Maybe I’ll use the idea in one of my stories some day 🙂
There was a time when I had a dream that one of my main characters was sitting next to a hospital bed with a girl laying in it. I had a good picture of how she looked, what accent she had and even her name, Hieley. I got the impression that she was his best friend, even though I thought he didn’t have any friends. She was dying. I ignored the dream for a couple of months and then it came back to me and I decided it to weave it into my story. She added a lot to the storyline. I’ve also had several dreams that I write down, but haven’t developed into stories yet. Dreams are a gold mine when it comes to story inspirations, if you sift out the randomness and just take little pieces, you can make amazing stories.
My graphic novel is the first project I’ve worked on in about 8 years that has not been significantly or completely inspired by a dream. I often have vivid dreams and they leak into most of my stories. The concept for my newest novel came directly from a dream, and I’m really excited to share it at FCWC. 🙂 It has a lot to do with psychological disorders and it’s futuristic fiction. (Set in America in about 50 years.)
Not that it’s been inspired by a dream, but I was entertained once by the idea that what if our echoes actually had the ability to take us captive and drive us crazy? … something of that sort.
Sort of… It wasn’t quite a dream. But you know that time when you are just waking up, and you’re half-asleep? During that I got a very clear impression (word-for-word, actually), of a letter, which sparked an idea for a Sleeping Beauty retelling.
Though I’ve had a number of interesting and even life-altering dreams, none of them have inspired, per se, any of my writing projects. That said, a dream I had around the conception of my current project gave me insight into how to conclude it.
I have, however, read books in my dreams, including one about a man named Peter who had traveled to much of Europe, but not Italy. “No,” the narrator reiterated, “not Italy.” Unfortunately, I woke before discovering why.
Can’t say that I have, although it would be pretty cool. My dreams tend to be very odd. Hmm, then again, I have a story idea simmering in the back of my mind that is intentionally strange, so perhaps I could comb my remembered dreams for inspiration.
Once I had a dream that must have come from your books, Mr. Davis. A dragon was visiting my house (it fit in the hallway somehow), and he told me I was supposed to have dragon wings. I asked how on earth I was supposed to get them, and he gave me some cheesy line about how I should “just believe.” 😛 The next morning (of the dream), I stood on the porch, “believed,” and a pair of dragon wings unfolded from my back. I clearly remember an awesome flight around the neighborhood. 😀 The convenient thing was, the wings disappeared when I didn’t need them. No backpacks for me. 😉
Disappearing wings. That’s convenient.
It is, but permanent wings made for a better story plot, in your case!
I also have had several dreams that could connect and form a story, but I don’t know if it will go anywhere so I have not written it down. I wonder though, if i should try…. hmmm… 🙂 It is encouraging, though, to know that I’m not the only one has who created a story out of a dream!
I find dreams are an amazing thing, I am right now, well trying to write a book all because a dream. My older sister is also writing a book because of her dreams. She started dreaming this certain dream 4 years ago. And its still continuing t this day, all she has to do is write it down. I have a feeling its a newer version of Pilgrims Progress. It just amazing, a true message from God I think.
Dreams can be fascinating, but they can also be weird.
I like listening to the dreams that God gives to me and my family.
When it comes to being inspired for a story; not yet, but if one comes along I hope to capture it.
One dream sparked a story. But I’ve since stopped working on it. I’m unsure about if I can really make a whole story out of it. I need to pull it out again and firm up the characters and the plot.
I haven’t used a dream to create a story. I don’t think… Well, now that I say that I remember that I did have a dream that introduced a strange animal that almost looked like a dinosaur. The weird thing was when I woke up, I looked at a blanked I had draped over a chair and the pattern on the blanket looked like the creature’s head! I drew it, and I tried to write a story off of it, but it didn’t work too well. :}
On the other hand, I have had a dream that was a story in itself. It was a little complicated (like dreams are), but it was a story from start to finish. Strange. Maybe I will try to write a story out of it. TBD.
I’ve had several dreams that inspired stories, and a few that were based on stories I’ve read or seen. In fact, I’ve had a dream with monsters from the TV show Doctor Who where the monsters weren’t behaving like they did on the show, and I was yelling that they weren’t playing fair.
Dreams actually inspired the start of the story I am writing, and then my imagination is developing the story to a whole new level, I just need to actually work on writing it down.
Dreams have inspired several of my projects including one of my favorite ones. They’re a huge tool for inspiration. I try to write most of mine down. 🙂
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