So, I'm writing a story with the dreaded "It was all a dream" beginning. Before you start throwing the tomatoes, I'd like to defend myself and tell you why I don't think it's such a bad idea in this specific case. The story is about a man who has nightmares about his past. As time goes on the nightmares start diverging more and more from what really happened and warping his reality. A supernatural being is behind it all. As I'm really bad at seeing the errors in my own ways, please tell me if this way to kick off the plot is still a big no-no.
This implies that his dreams repeat actual events in an undistorted way at the beginning, or that he thinks they do, which of course isn't how dreams work at all. I'm not sure if it's possible to set up a story world in which it's normal for dreams to function just like memories. Maybe it is, I guess they've been used that way in movies many times. But you should make sure readers understand that his dreams have always mirrored his waking reality with almost no distortion. Some people do claim to dream that way, but mine are far from waking reality. But of course, as with so many things in writing or any kind of art, it's impossible to tell if it's going to work or not from just a brief synopsis. Everything depends on how it's written. I definitely believe dreams can work in a story, in fact it's something I've played around with quite a bit. But it all depends like I said on how it's done—on how the dreams are integrated into the story and how they function. The dreams need to function somehow so they're important to the story. And that requires something special, because of course ordinary dreams are pretty weird and mostly pointless, except when we're going through something powerful that stirs the unconscious into action. And even then they work symbolically, but of course that's a matter of theory and there are many different ways to interpret dreams and many theories on how they work and how important they are. But keep in mind the problems Wes Craven had when he was shopping The Nightmare on Elm Street around Hollywood. Not one studio was willing to back it, they all said "Really?! A guy in people's dreams? That's not scary at all, because dreams aren't real." He tried to explain to them that in this case they are real, what happens in the dream happens for real, but they couldn't understand it until Robert Shaye of New Line Cinema grasped it and was willing to take it on. It pretty much launched the new studio and made its fortune. But the reason it worked is because "If you die in the dream you die for real", so the stakes even in the dream world were real and powerful. It doesn't need to work the same way of course, but in some way the dreams need to influence the reality of the character. It sounds like you understand this, since you say:
Great points. I'm not aiming for big success, just trying to create something that works. My intended audience is people who need plain language literature. I worded the plot idea a bit wrong. I meant that the nightmares are mundane at the start and slowly become more insane. Maybe the warping of reality is something that's always there, but becomes more apparent as the dreams become wilder.
This is starting to remind me strongly of an old story idea of mine. I like it. And my point in talking about the Nightmare On Elm Street (why do my hands always try to write The Nightmare Before Christmas instead?) wasn't really about the success, but more to demonstrate how resistant most people are to the idea that anything important can happen in dreams, and the fact that they need to be relevant in some way that they usually aren't in most stories where they're featured.
In fact it occurs to me that you might need to demonstrate somehow from early on that the dreams carry some importance that dreams usually don't.
"Show, don't tell" comes to mind. Have you thought about a way to show the reader, rather than just saying it right upfront? He struggled to divide his daylight reality from a world that came to life after he closed his eyes in the darkness to sleep. However, I'm not sure how that would work with the "plain language" requirements.
Thanks for the advice. I've only just started writing the story and I think the first draft should be bare-bones. But I'll try to remember this at later stages.
These things sound more like devices through which the character's story is told, than his story. All this summary tells me is:- 1. A man has nightmares; 2. His reality gets warped; 3. He encounters a supernatural entity... and the supernatural entity will often reduce to being a plot device or antagonist to explain points 1 and 2. Dream sequences can be a device for any old framed narration, when a character's to be explored via what-if scenarios under stopped time, and we want an excuse for these to be self-contained stories that don't advance the plot. But I think good ones show the reader a privileged insight into the character: when they aren't under social restraint. The difference between dreaming-character and waking-character should be more interesting than differences between the fictional world and the fictional dream. To the reader they are both equally fictional. One thing I think sometimes gets missed is that when we dream we usually know we're dreaming (or at least have a fleeting awareness we are). "It was all a dream" is an unlikely surprise, because of course it was a dream. If our reality gets messed up, we'll expect to dream about it. We move dreams to resolutions, in full knowledge that it's a fiction we create for ourselves to prepare for the next day's challenges. I'd be wary of starting with a dream where the MC wasn't consciously dreaming - but a well-written dream sequence at a story's start might create anticipation for seeing the character's real world.
Dreams in stories can be a challenge. On one hand, because it's a dream, it kind of gives you the excuse to take the story anywhere - even against the main plot - because it's a dream. Of course, you can also use the dream as a way to advance the plot (maybe the dream is a portend, a flashback to an important detail, or just something that makes the character consider something differently.) I recently ran into a situation with an in-story dream in my first collection with a story that, let's just say, turned out goofy as hell. To me, anyway. The whole story was about a recurring dream I had for years about my childhood home. So 90% of the story is the actual dream I had, but the intro and ending were set in real life. I never said it was a dream in the story until toward the end with a line about (paraphrasing here) "...awoke with a start, the cold, sweat-soaked sheets clinging tightly to me..." Essentially, I was writing about a non-fic series of events, but making it all read as fiction. Personally, I ended up hating the story and wish I hadn't included it but ironically enough it became one of the most-liked in the book. A lot of people commented positively on that particular chapter. Go figure. (I still hate it though lol.)
I'm with TJ - why not just state it before you go into details that way the reader doesn't feel ripped off. Rebecca did the same thing with it's opening - Last night I dreamed I went to Manderly again.
If you'd like any new ideas... I co-sign to what @Xoic said about dreams not occurring as undistorted memories, but I have suffered with sleep paralysis, waking dreams, and memory-based nightmares for going on three years now, some being caused by trauma and others by stress compiled by the fact I started working a nocturnal schedule when the paralysis episodes first started but I could better explain the difference for you to utilize in your stories. Waking dreams are probably the closest to reality you will experience. Often they manifest in a way that makes you think you're living your normal life - for instance, your room is identical to how it actually is. You're waking up in bed or going about your normal routine but there are still signs you're consciously sleeping like that veil or hazy filter is present. For me, these dreams do not last long and I am shaken out of them by a small inconsistency, like a houseplant being out of place or a piece of furniture missing or I cannot locate the other person whom I live with or even the fact there's no sense of time, or responsibility such as the need to eat or get ready for work. Sleep paralysis has actually been used for decades to rationalize what some people consider paranormal experiences, and for anyone who's lived through them personally, I can see why! Scientifically, they're caused when the hormones your body released to "paralyze" your body when entering the deepest state of sleep, REM in which dreams occur, does not wear off when your mind is waking up. So your body is still stuck in REM but you're conscious. Sensory, auditory and even visual hallucinations can occur when sleep paralysis is happening. Personally, when I experience sleep paralysis, it's a range of severity. Sometimes I can feel myself falling into it and know when it's happening but it's no less disturbing. Light episodes generally look like this: I will be lying in bed - normally on my stomach or back - and feel a presence, I cannot move anything but my eyes, and I try to twitch my fingers or toes to which feels effective but for anyone sharing the bed is just manifested through heavy breathing and panic. Sometimes, it feels like something is touching me or laying on top or under me. In one of my least favorite episodes, I could feel someone laying under me and I was moving with the rise and fall of their chest until long dark arms wrapped themselves around me and started smothering me. Other times, I will be experiencing a disturbing dream and think I have woken up only to see the figure standing in the corner of my room or foot of my bed or even hovering over me. In particularly unpleasant experience I remember a combination of a waking dream and sleep paralysis. My mother used to get me up around 8 in the morning when I worked second shift to provide me my medication (unrelated to any of these experiences.) Well I had a series of 4-6 waking dreams in which I would try to sit up in bed but was unable, I could feel a demonic presence in the form of a woman who's haunted my dreams for about seven years. She'd get closer to me every time, starting in the corner of my room and climbing up the wall and onto my ceiling before dangling over my body. Every time, I would scream and my mom either could not hear me or would rush in and I would think I've woken up, before finding this cycle repeating. When I did finally snap out of it... my mom was in my room around 8 as always, I started screaming bloody murder and required a good 5 minutes of rest before realizing I actually shook out of my dreams. Trauma or experience based dreams are more self-explanatory and closer to what we see in movies and stories, and they can resemble the actual event but sometimes they manifest in other ways, such as, the person who caused your trauma appearing in different settings or your trauma happening to a loved one. On a darker topic, you can find yourself killing your attacker or even victimizing someone else, which can be even worse than a dream in which you're reliving your own trauma. In terms of how all these could tie into your work... I do not think including dream sequences are cliché, but I get tired of seeing scenes that show dreams that occur just like reality. For anyone who experiences vivid and disturbing dreams, despite the fact dreams are "meaningless," someone can be terribly impacted by the waking thoughts and recollections of their restless mind. I also sign on to the idea of showing rather than telling - try focusing on the character's feelings; the struggle to come to terms with consciousness, feeling the paralysis wane, being eternally tired or fearful of going to sleep, the moment they realize they're actually awake... I feel like your best bet would be taking the route of sleep paralysis as it has been long-thought to be supernatural despite having scientific explanations, but another fun fact regarding sleep paralysis is, it's one of the primary symptoms of narcolepsy and can also occur within minutes of a person falling asleep - which is unusual because the average person requires at least 90 minutes of sleep before reaching REM.
I can personally say this isn't necessarily true. When I was practicing lucid dreaming I learned to pay close attention to my dreams and to all near-sleep experiences, and I noticed that if I was sleep deprived, or sometimes for no apparent reason, I would go immediately into REM on falling asleep. I later learned that the REM cycles actually continue for a while after you wake, and can begin before you go to sleep, I think especially if you're sleep deprived or in certain other conditions. One thing I noticed repeatedly is that a particular kind of uncontrolled flying or falling from a great height dream would occur and when I woke from it (they're the kind of dreams that usually wake you) I could feel a subtle sense of acceleration or spinning movement inside my body, as if I just got off a ride at an amusement park. I then noticed that sometimes I could feel this sensation before felling asleep. Not until I was really close to sleep, when there's no sound or movement and I'm extremely relaxed. What you call a waking dream I know as a false awakening. And I believe I experience some of this stuff because I spent a number of years not getting nearly enough sleep, with extreme insomnia. That can have a long-term effect that causes strange sleep-related experiences (such as I believe falling into REM sometimes even before sleep, and possibly the acceleration feeling leading to the nightmares about uncontrollable high-speed flying or falling from thousands of feet). These days when I find myself falling from a thousand feet (happened a few nights ago) it doesn't bother me at all, I always know I can't be hurt by it—either I'll wake or something strange will happen just before I hit the ground.
I used to attempt mastering lucid dreaming when I was a teenager, but I never got the hang of it. It only happens if I fall back asleep after already sleeping for a long period of time. As for the REM stages, I think I said 90 minutes is average, but you're right and it varies from person to person. It sounds like you're pretty well versed in sleep mechanics! It's genuinely a mystery of science in a lot of places, I am both fascinated and disturbed by the human mind to be honest but I am thankful we have more resources available now. I cannot imagine what people who experienced these episodes thought of themselves centuries ago.
Yeah...I kind of imagine centuries ago these episodes became religious experiences more often than not.
