I find that many times in my life, I have been inspired to write something because of something I'd seen a dream. Naturally, I'm not the only one, so I wanted to make this thread so people can share interesting dreams. They don't have to be related to your writing, but if you have an interesting dream and want to share it, feel free to post it here. I don't want to flood other threads and I didn't really see one for this. Hopefully it can be as ongoing as others. Caveat: Please don't post anything you are sensitive about. I don't want anyone feeling uncomfortable about anything they share. I'll start: Last night I dreamt I was in a room with a poet and a linguist. The linguist was reading a book, clearly written in English, but the language she spoke while she read was entirely foreign. Impressed by her rapid translation skills, I said, "Excuse me, but what language are you speaking if the words are in English?" At first she didn't answer, so I asked again, and then again. Finally, she said, "Words. You're still thinking in terms of words. Language is all that matters." Then she went on reading. I looked at the poet, who saw my bewilderment and smiled. She opened a book she had and read a short poem. When she was done she looked at me expectantly, like I should suddenly understand what the linguist meant. When she saw I had no such revelation, she said, "Words and language or two parts of the same whole. As a Poet, I see the words as they build off of each other; they have their own aesthetics, which is what makes poetry art. But words fall flat without language. The words are just a way of carrying language. That's what she see's. If you know the language within the words, you can read with whatever words you want." Then she opened her book and began reading another poem, this one in French. And I sat there listening to her and to the linguist, and I thought about words and language until I woke up.
After I graduated from my BA degree and I feel into a deep depression I started having this recurring dream-setting of being trapped in a giant, Japanese style mansion that I couldn't escape from. Each dream I had of this house was slightly different, and the house seemed to change layout very subtly if I went in new directions, but it was essentially the same place, and there were fixed rooms, like a hearth room that was shaped with one part being a big square where the hearth was over a long rectangle that had various artworks in it, though covered with thick dust and grime. There was a long dinning room that had nothing in but a few upturned plates (how I know it was a dinning room) and lots of boxes full of I never found out what. There was a library too, quite a big one, full of molding and rotting books, often without labels, and what labels I could find were few and far between, but there were a number of books in this library in French, some in Latin, some in English, some in Japanese, and some in a language I could not understand. The house was in a dilapidated state, as I might have already suggested, and sometimes there would be cracks and broken parts of the walls that would allow me to see outside. There was a thick darkness outside (I think it was a foggy night) and it was snowing too. The snow would seep into the house in some rooms, but not in others. The dark fog outside was also inside the house, and it was so thick I could go into a corridor, and walk to the other end before seeing a fire light. It was a very strange series of dreams to be honest. Most of my dreams would be my dream self just exploring the house and finding little except things of mild interest.
Hmmm... that is interesting? Do you think this mansion had any significance? Like it might have represented something in your life? I've always wondered what causes recurring dreams and dream settings. I know I used to have a particular nightmare once a year almost annually and it was always set in a haunted mansion. At the time I could only remember everything being an eerie shade of black and green, and this thick fog. The mansion was huge and made of wood and brick, and it was surrounded by a cemetery. Everything about it just seemed archaic and creepy. It had these huge lion-face knockers on the door that I was always afraid to touch (though I always did anyway ). Inside there were many rooms, only one of which I remember-- the grand foyer. That was where, after a certain amount of time, the organ would begin playing, some demonic howling would begin and the master of the house would appear in a storm of hell fire, ready to consume anyone who failed to make it back out of the front gates... hat dream scared me to death every year, even though I knew what would happen. Then one year, It just stopped.
I'm not sure. A friend who is good with dream interpretations suggested it was a metaphor for my own mental state at that time, and soon after that the dreams stopped. Many of the things about it, I must admit, I find very strange if that is the case. There was a heavy Japanese theme, and I must admit I've never been terribly interested in Japan. I like Basho, I like Murakami, I'm interested in Noh plays, I have played the Project Zero/Fatal Frame games, but other than that I don't understand why that theme would be so prominent. Interesting how both recurring dreams feature mansions. Odd.
This is a cool idea for a thread! I posted a story that stemmed from a dream (more of a nightmare) in the workshop a while ago. I often have recurring dreams about running away to different parts of the UK (where I live). Sometimes I'm caught, sometimes not, sometimes I become homeless and live on the streets. Strangely enough, wherever I go, it doesn't look the way that the place ACTUALLY looks.
@Lemex That could be a reasonable explanation on my part. Maybe the Japanese theme was symbolic? Maybe it related to a past life or something? That is if you consider that kind of thing. I like to think I probably did, and that might influence some of my dreams or dispositions. I've also wondered about the presence of animals as symbols. I remember, I had one week when I was doing a lot of meditating and every night my dream would center around the vivid, sudden, appearance of some animal--a huge, bright yellow snake; an elephant; a huge black bear, which was aggressive but not dangerous; and an owl. I looked up different interpretations for these animals in dreams and the results were interesting and somewhat relevant.
You know, I've also been curious as to why our mind recreates places differently than they actually are. Is it because we don't have the creative force to make it realistic? Do we not have the image solidly in our subconscious? Maybe our subconscious wishes it was something different? These days more than a hadful of my dreams have been so vivid and even realistic, I've had to question in my dream whether or not I wasn't really awake. >_<
Yes. A dream can be the idea of a story but unfortunately, Some dreams are not perfect or meaningful to be useful for writing a story.
As a rule of thumb, I always avoid talking to people in person about dreams. They seem interesting to the person who experiences them but generally you can bore someone to death if you subject them to a detailed account of what happened. You're right, however, in terms of writing it might provide you with inspiration for a story. You can reflect on the dream and then make changes into something that may be interesting for a reader
That's true, not every dream is story material, but sometimes you might see something-- a tree, a person, an animal, something that stands out and evokes some strange feeling-- and you take that feeling and or that image and work around it. Sometimes you see something strange and just feel like telling someone, "Man, this happened in my dream last night. Blah blah blah..." This thread is for either of those cases. You don't need to post story ideas, but if you have a dream that meant something to YOU, feel free to drop it off IF you're open to sharing. Or if you just like talking about dreams or have ideas about a=how and why, share those too.
It's not exactly a dream. About 3 or 4 times in the second half of year 2013, I suddenly woke up and saw a huge shapes of spiders on my walls. But it didn't last for only a second after I woke up, like it was a reflex. Sometimes it lasted for many seconds, even longer as ten. One time, I saw one shape/shadow next to my pillow, now that was quite scary. After I remembered that I might be awake and when I turned on the light, naturally everything disappeared. Now that I think of that, it sounds pretty weird… I have an intent of using this in one story. @Andrae Smith, I'm sorry if this is out of the context, but I heard quite a few times about "controlling your dreams". It starts when you try looking at your hand while you dream. If you manage to do that and see that there's something wrong with your hand (example: it has more fingers), you realize you're in a dream and can control them. It sounds pretty bizarre, anyone ever tried it?
Well I haven't intentionally tried it, but I do fall into consciousness while dreaming pretty often these days. I rarely have nightmares because all the things that would normally scare me alert me to it being a dream and end up subject to my will. Many things become possible once you have control. Often times I end up being able to fly and manipulate forces, energy and space. It's so cool when you can will something and make it happen almost instantly.
Then you're like a Jedi in your dreams, huh? I tried once to control my dreams, but when you're dreaming is quite difficult to remember that you're not awake. I wasn't able to take control and after that I never tried again...
Jedi is quite limiting in this instance. I've never seen a Jedi push and pull the whole ocean, or turn a candle into an inferno, or fly or teleport or stop time ha ha. This was not all in the same dream, but scattered within a handful. Admittedly, it is not easy and can take a bit of focus, but meditation has helped me get into my subconscious a bit more , so I sort of fall into control more naturally.
Most of my dreams are too weird to write stories about. In one I had a while ago, I turned into a bear and hitch hiked to a bear camp. There were loads of people I knew there, in bear form, and I asked my ex if he remembered being human. He just looked at me askance and said, "No." That's not a novel that's coming out any time soon...
Due to it being very late in the day where I'm at, my memory of last night's dream is very fuzzy... but there are a few key things that I remember that shook me up. I was being pursued by a group of feral kids who could see better in the dark than I could down a mountain side. The only thing protecting me from them was this fellow... who could turn into this sandworm ABOMINATION with a human like face... and I watched in paralyzed horror as he began devouring one of the kids on the spot. Even worse was that, once the boy was out of fight, he asked in this deadpan voice: "Well, aren't you going to devour me? It's in your nature, isn't it?" He smiled icily after that, asking him if he'd starve to death if he didn't eat him. The abomination thing spat him out, but... that didn't change the fact that that was creepy as all hell. What is WRONG with me lately? I've been having dreams about indescribable abominations lately... ick...
You're right, that is strange as all get out... Still I wouldn't chalk it up to anything being wrong with you. I'd say there may be something in your subconscious that you're ignoring--a fear or anxiety, something you might be expecting, something going on that makes you nervous, something you're not expecting that may shock you. Or it could just be that your imagination is getting away from you. What have you been reading, watching, and listening to lately? Sometimes the Subconscious has the strangest ways of downloading and processing these inputs.
Yeah, I guess that I have been filled with some anxiety lately, and I guess that it really doesn't help that I've been surfing youtube lately for let's plays of horror games, though none of the ones I've watched thus far have creatures that are quite like the ones I'm dreaming of... and then I have a book called Infernal Angel... My imagination probably has been running away from me...
The imagination is a powerful thing. It doesn't take but a seed, a kernel of an idea, for you imagination to make something new. You watch horror games; your mind makes monsters for you. Have you ever had a dream featuring people you've never met with faces you're sure you don't recognize? I have. I've seen enough faces (with all their combinations of shapes and colors) that my mind has no trouble fitting together pieces to make a new person. It is the same. And as I said, he subconscious has a strange way of processing (and playing back, I should ave said) the input we record. Just try listening to music while you sleep and watch how, at some point, the music seeps into your dream like it belongs there. Half the time I don't notice any music that's out of place until I'm waking up and want to turn it off ha ha! It does strange things to my dreams though.
I think I read somewhere that Stephanie Meyers wrote Twilight based on a dream about a girl and a sparkly vampire hanging out in some meadow. For the record, I've read that scene in the book. It was positively nightmarish, so yeah, don't disregard an idea no matter how dumb. Your dreams know more than you think. And since that didn't make a morsel of sense, moving on to what I was supposed to say. Yes, I use dreams as an inspiration for stories every now and then. Sometimes they're too stupid, though. Last night I dreamt of having a family of Afro-Americans come to visit me in my playhouse. I had baked cookies, but I forgot the word 'cookie' and called them 'crackers', and I was horrified they'd think I was trying to be funny what with me being pale as pancake... or a cracker, in this case, I guess. I fumbled, and quickly called them biscuits. Anyway, the guests didn't mind. They had come to warn me about a murderer on my tail. So yeah... Well, I guess if I wrote a crazy self-conscious affirmative action all the way kind of a white chick with a German surname, who comes from the smalltown of Everwhite, and all that, yeah I guess I could whip up a short or something out of that dream, too. @Wild Knight Sandworms, yikes!
@KaTrian I think Twilight is the only movie I've heard of that is bad and still better than the book... I'm past the days of making stories out of certain dreams. I know I have had dreams based on stories I was writing. And say whaaat?? Dreamin' about black people??? Woot Woot! The word "cookie" doesn't make that big of a deal; to my knowledge, most of us will eat cookies, crackers, and biscuits (biscuits and gravy, anyone???). It's just great that they were cookies because I love cookies. Also, I've never heard the expression "pale as a pancake." I thought you're supposed to cook them until their golden, which seems like a desirable complexion for fair-skinned folks.
The gist of it was that I had American guests and I had baked cookies. I would've wanted to use the word 'cookie' in a conversation, but I had fogotten the word, so I said 'cracker', after which the dream-brain of mine thought the guests might think I was trying to be funny in a totally non-funny way. So I called them biscuits, except they were not biscuits, they were clearly chocolate-chip cookies, so I was certain the guests now considered me an utter idiot who can't tell a diff between pastries, lol. I think I heard 'pale as a pancake' in a Primus song. Come to think of it, it should probably be pale as pancake dough? Maybe someone could be as freckly as a pancake... ETA: It wasn't a Primus song, after all. It was in the song 'Buckethead' by Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains (the most godawful band name ever), sung by Primus's Les Claypool, and the lyrics went "with his face as pale as pancakes and his posture in rebellion with his height."
