Anybody Dream About Their Characters

Gahhk!

 

Only in the sense that I sometimes turn people from my dreams into characters. I think. My dream recall isn't perfect.

 

I’ve never dreamed about my characters after I started writing my novel. I’ve had dreams where I’m running away from bad guys like my characters do, but that’s been the formula for every single one of my dreams since before I started writing. The idea for my novel, however, came from two nightmarish dreams that I combined together. Both had to do with the apocalypse, and no doubt were inspired by the post-apocalyptic book I was reading like there was no tomorrow. A little off-topic, but that book literally kept me awake at night, so much so that I haven’t finished it because I had to put it down and I’m scared to pick it up again. It’s what made me realize two things: I love the apocalypse and I want to be an author. I owe a lot to a novel I was originally reluctant to read.

 

Which one?

 

The book is The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey.

 

so weird that I would see this thread today. I actually had the first dream about one of my characters just this morning. The alarm clock went off before it was over though.
I don't recall what was really going on, but I found myself face to face with the female protagonist of my latest novel. I asked her if it was really her and she replied yes and asked me if she was what I was expecting. She was beautiful and I told her so, but no, I expected her to look different. Small, and the same round brown eyes, dark wavy hair, but the rest of her face was different. I wanted to tell her that I loved her, but she read my mind before I could and reminded me that she was already involved with someone. I asked her who, and all she said was "Oh come on, you know who! You're a cool guy, but you know I'm married so..." Damn! Shot down just before the alarm clock went off.
I wish I could draw, because I would love to accurately depict how my mind envisioned her. It's actually different than I have been all these months of writing her.

 

I daydream about mine all the time, I love them all, I love their personalities. I don't get my ideas this way though. My ideas come to me when I'm sat at my laptop ready to put more hours into their world.

 

Yes, not always in the context of the story.

 

All of the time. I have a villainous character that constantly shows up in my dreams and taunts me. He's self-aware and knows that we know each other by now, and he's always trying to prove to me that he's real. He also tries to kill me way too often. It's turned into one huge battle series in which I lucid dream to attempt to fend him off for good. Crazy stuff.

 

Only when I was writing a story on another message board and the characters were caricatures of some of the more interesting members there. But really I was dreaming about the people themselves rather than the characters. That's a weird thing though, dreaming about people you know only from a message board—you don't really know them very well at all. The ones I dreamed of had shared pictures of themselves though, that helped a lot. Plus they were very active on the board almost every day, so after a while you do feel like you get to know some of them.

 

I don't really dream about them, like in my sleep, but I get what I would consider lucid visions...as in I hear their voices and see the scene play out in my head as if I am watching a television or a screenplay. Sometimes I speak their lines out loud, which elicit some very strange looks from people around me. They probably think I am crazy...well maybe I am

 

Yes.
One of my standalone novels was inspired by a dream I had after re-reading Ghosts of Everest. It was a strange dream, mostly because it took place on K2, not Everest. I don't remember much about the original dream, but it provided the inspiration for the mentioned novel.
That dream aside, I've dreamed more than once about my characters (who's stories all take place before 1925), living in the modern world. For some reason, they also always live either in my home town, or close to it.

 

Shades of Lovecraft and Stephen King.

 

Yes! It's the craziest thing. I'm of Jewish heritage and I was writing a story about a group of proto-Hebrews and I swear they came to me in a dream and were telling me about their lives, wanting me to write their stories. I swear they were my ancestor's spirits.

 

I've never dreamt about my characters. However, my new project is based on two dreams I've had, one from a couple of months ago, and one being a nightmare from when I was around 5 or so.

 

No, but I have noticed my dreams getting distinctly more "narrative" over that last couple of decades. Like, they're no longer totally random, rather they usually follow a sort of logical plot I can kind of keep track of.

Also, I don't really have nightmares anymore. I can dream of scary things, but it's like watching a horror movie: I can maintain my composure because on some level I sense that it isn't real.

 

I will admit to certain unconscious desires regarding characters of my inventions, or dreams, you could say.

Other than that... I rarely remember my dreams - when I rarely sleep!