Hey people, I want to include a day dream sequence into a story of mine. One where it flows seemlessly into the real world of the story and an abrupt rip back to realization with someone interrupting it by talking or something. any suggestions, techniques, personal observations. all my attempts dont seem to flow smoothly. thanks for the help.
my main suggestion is to keep the POV of your character. I find it hard to believe in the daydream/flashback/etc. when more than one POV is used.
I'm not a huge fan of daydreams. I guess I don't like the moment when I realize none of what I just read was real. I usually roll my eyes but there have been a few times the the author has pulled it off nicely and it really went with the flow of the story, like someone who was traumatized during war and every loud noise makes them think a bomb is going off. So make sure it really fits with the story and isn't a gimmick you're using to try and make the story interesting or to add a twist.
why don't you show us how you did it?... then we can offer suggestions on how to make it work better...
Well, no, that would be critique, and that is not allowed in this part of the site. This is a place to discuss approaches and techniques. The first approach is to look into how other writers have managed it. Daydreams are sometimes used in humorous writings, due to their tendency to exaggerate abilities. You could start with The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, by James Thurber.
I quite like the advice that Lorilee gave. Keep the POV of the character in question and just make things happen as normal. I'd not write it as though something out of the ordinary were happening. Character is doing something when X says this and does Y which leads to A doing Z to B etc etc. Then WHAM! You're back to reality. Like in a TV program They don't usually let on it's weird it just starts happening as normal.
I think a daydream sequence is more workable if you're writing in a first-perspective, but they come off as a severe case of cheatitus if you're using a 3rd-person narrator. Think carefully about what information you want the dream to convey, and then make serious effort to find an alternative way to tell these. Dreams should never be used to insert an action scene or an emotional moment between your characters which will then be torn from your readers.
