Hi all, Just something on my mind - I don't normally have nightmares / bad dreams, but when I do, they normally keep me awake the entire night and I wake up sweating, too afraid to go back to sleep. I would be too tired to get up to note down what the dream was about and will try to do that in the morning; I don't remember my dreams thereafter. Nightmares can be potential horror short stories. Sweet dreams can serve as a happy ending or a happy beginning, character personality traits can be inspired by the people / things you dream of etc. Does anyone here share similar thoughts / experiences as myself ? As they say, dreams serve as a reflection of your subconscious mind, so getting fresh ideas from this part of the brain can be refreshing !
I have certainly thought that certain dreams I've had would make interesting stories. I've not actually written any of them though.
Yes as a matter of fact I do get ideas for my short stories or novels from my dreams and my nightmares.
No with one exception. My dreams are not nearly as interesting as what I normally come up with during the day.
Lots of the terrifying creatures I have come up with come from nightmares... and many of my characters and stories have come from dreams -day or night kinds.
@Wreybies : Wow cool! Is the story available for us to indulge in? The next time I have an interesting dream I'm definitely goanna note down key points! Too good of an opportunity to give up!
It's in the Workshop, here. It's really old writing. The first post is the original short story that I was trying to flesh out into a larger work, but the work finally convinced me that it was not meant to be a novel, it was meant to be a short story. I've learned a lot since posting that story back in 2008.
I get writing inspiration from nearly everywhere, but not usually from dreams. Why not? Because although everyone dreams, I almost never remember mine when I wake. The few times I do, they aren't often cohesive enough to extract anything of value. But if your dreams give you intriguing thoughts, by all means use them!
I never do for the same reasons as Neil Gaiman: In my case, they also want to know if I get them from my dreams. (Answer: no. Dream logic isn't story logic. Transcribe a dream, and you'll see. Or better yet, tell someone an important dream - 'Well, I was in this house that was also my old school, and there was this nurse and she was really an old witch and then she went away but there was a leaf and I couldn't look at it and I knew if I touched it then something dreadful would happen...' - and watch their eyes glaze over.)
