I know I am already neck-deep in my current project, but I had this dream last night and need to get this written down so I don't forget! Long story short, I dreamt I was in a used/discount book store at a convention of sorts, and a large book caught my eye while I was perusing the fantasy section. Simply put, it was an epic revolving around a man who begins the story seeking answers for why his world is going up in flames - literally. Whole villages and countrysides are being burned to the ground, and people say it is vengeful dragons. So he undertakes a quest across the charred lands to find the answer. That's when he meets either a firebird or a dragon (since it was a dream, my memory is vague about some details), befriends it, and spends the rest of the story able to ride it and talk to it. And, somehow, for whatever reason, other people in this land follow his lead. That's all that I got from that dream, so it isn't much, but the premise is fascinating to me. I've always liked stuff involving mythical creatures and epic quests. Now the question is how to turn this basic idea into a story that could stand on its own (and it doesn't need to be a multi-volume epic like it was in my dream!). And, to be clear, I did not get any impressions in my dream that it was much like "How to Train Your Dragon", though there obviously is the plot of people fearing these dragons but somehow befriending at least some of them at some point. Maybe in this story it would be a very long process and as the result of further investigation by the country's leaders. Or whatever taming the people end up doing ends up being used to battle the dragons that actually are responsible for terrorizing the land. Again, not very original ideas...but there's always a way to make an overused plot idea original through specific details, characters, and world-building. All I know is that the main character is an adult and may or may not have a family. Not a kid or teenager like many of these kinds of stories tend to be. And the firebirds and dragons have the ability to speak human tongues, so they can speak to humans if they even care to. I know that, if I end up feeling strongly about this story, I won't be able to work on it at all until I get my current project finished. But, still...what do you guys think? I don't think it's too unusual to have been inspired by a dream, though it's quite rare for me.
I love having dreams like that! I think as long as you take that as a basis and don't feel you have to stick to it too rigidly just because it was the original inspiration, there's no reason it couldn't work as the starting point for a new work. You could also consider whether you want to use the part about finding the book - I know this trope may be overdone but it could still work depending on how you tell it! Does a character find the book and decide to find out how it came to be written, or if there is any truth to it? The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas uses this and the book becomes quite surreal and philosophical. There are lots of other examples out there too. Of course, you could just try to write the book that you found in your dream and leave out the finding of it! Good luck
I'm a little scared of people writing their dream ideas because last time anyone did that we got Twilight. I very rarely remember my dreams. And a Psychology I know said it's not possible for a dream to include anything we are not familiar with. I believe this because before I moved into my new house and hadn't seen it yet, I had a dream about moving into it and it was me moving into my old house but treating it like it was the new one weird. When I was about six I had a horrible nightmare. I was in some open hill side area and it was getting dark, in the distance I could hear this noise like fireworks going off. I was in this long pit with other people but I couldn't see who they were, just hear them talking. Not much happened in the dream. But when it went quiet we all climbed ladder out of the pit and ran towards the next pit. It just went on like that. While the sound of fireworks got louder and louder and other noises I couldn't explain came too. I woke up very scared and climbed in to bed with my parents. I told my mother about it in the morning and she was freaked out. It sounded like something from the trenches of world war one yet I had no knowledge of that event at six years old. I had that same dream twice more throughout my children. Weird. I don;t really believe in the supernatural and stuff but it is still creepy.
