Using your dreams as material for stories?

[katdad]

Last night I had an extremely vivid dream (no, not an "effective" dream -- I'll leave those to George Orr).

I normally have incredibly vivid dreams anyway -- I sort of entertain myself with them, I suppose. The dreams are detailed, in color, sound tracks, characters, and all that. So I have used my dreams as good resources for my stories in the past.

Anyway, in my new dream, I was, it seems, my protagonist private detective Mitch King. I was called to see a murder scene at a flophouse. The whole thing was in stark clarity, even for one of my very realistic dreams.

I remember the entrance to the "hotel" -- a simple glass/metal door set in the wall of a big cruddy building. The "lobby" was a small cheapsawn wooden counter, the clerk as shabby as his surroundings.

I went upstairs (the homicide cops let me pass). The stairs were narrow and the steps shaky. At the top of the stairs the stench of a common toilet room was intense. Narrow ill-lit hallway. Rows of cheap doors to "private" rooms.

The room was coffin-sized. The door was simply plywood with a latch any child could force. The bed was dirty and ratty, even without the dead man lying in it. He'd been shot twice, in the head. Blood everywhere.

Many, many other details in this dream, but I just wanted to illustrate the complexity of this dream to you. I'll now write up the entire details in a summary for me to keep till later.

After I woke, I realized this dream is a PERFECT chapter for my upcoming novel "Turf" where the addict & informant Jimmy Landon phones Mitch to give him info, they meet, Jimmy is spooked, and now he's murdered.

Do any of you use your dreams as plot or character resources?

[James D Macdonald]

Do any of you use your dreams as plot or character resources?

Yes.

Also news stories, replies to novels that I don't agree with, and playing games of "what if?" and "If this goes on...."

[maestrowork]

I use my dreams all the time. Some would end up nowhere. Some became short stories. Some became part of my novel.

Dreams are your friend.

[Gala]

Sure. A recurring dream was catalyst for my first novel years ago. What's really scary, is I still have the dream. It's the only recurring dream of my life.

I use street signs if they inspire, anything that works. Ghost sightings evolved into spooky stories.

Like you Katdad, I dream in full color and sound.

[evanaharris]

Yes. Anything's fodder for the story mill.

I've been having this recurring dream about shopping for a pet squirell. Thoughts, anybody?

[maestrowork]

It means you should get a pet squirrel and shop for it.

I've been dreaming this "house" for a few years now. It's a recurring dream about a house -- maybe once every few months. What happens in the house differ everytime I have the dream, but the house is the same. The thing is I have never seen that house before (not even in movies or books). It's very weird.

I wonder if our past life experiences creep into our dreams (if you believe in past life experience, that is)?

[reph]

I wonder if our past life experiences creep into our dreams (if you believe in past life experience, that is)?

If I don't believe in them, am I allowed to answer anyway?

I don't believe in them. Our present life experiences creep into our dreams. They include experiences we're not aware of.

[macalicious731]

Reph, out of plain curiosity, do you believe in dreaming about the future?

I have those. Usually just one or two a month. I don't remember the dream at all until the actual event happens - which is usually nothing more outstanding than a conversation. Somewhere in the middle, I realize I've dreamed about this instance, like deja vu, and I know what I'm supposed to say and what the other person will answer with. I even dreamed a question on that millionaire game show once. Too bad it wasn't the million dollar one.

From what I've heard, this is fairly common.

[maestrowork]

I think I have dreamed about "the future" as in I dreamed about something, then months or years later that something happened and I had this weird deja vu feeling, before I realized I dreamed it before.

Can't really explain it.

[Ivonia]

I use things I dream of as well. Sometimes a lot of my dreams are just non-sensical for the most part, but other times I seem to find important clues in them, which I then try to apply to my story.

I also use dreams in my story in order to progress the plot, since I have a lot of fantasy elements in it, despite mostly being sci-fi (space ships and stuff). And yes, I have a master plan to combine the two together so that hopefully it'll make sense later to people (I don't expect anyone to "get it" right away, I just want to tell a good story for now, and then let people discover those connections later when another character reveals them to everyone).

[reph]

Reph, out of plain curiosity, do you believe in dreaming about the future?

I believe one can dream about the future. I don't believe dreams are prophetic, which is probably what you were asking, except when a dream represents something about one's own development–a personality change–which later comes to pass.

[arkady]

I wonder if our past life experiences creep into our dreams (if you believe in past life experience, that is)?

Sometimes, yes. Most dreams, I think, are just what they seem -- fantasies based upon our everyday emotional experiences. But yes, I do think that bits of past lives float to the top now and then.

And yes, I have used dreams as the basis for fictional scenes, especially the frightening ones.

[katdad]

>>Like you Katdad, I dream in full color and sound.<<

I'm pretty amazed sometimes at the detail of my dreams. I can populate my dreams with extras, characters with non-speaking roles, people of all sizes and age and race, dressed in all types of everyday clothes, and so on.

I also cast real actors in roles. Go figure.

[macalicious731]

Well, katdad, since you started this thread I just thought you'd like to know:

I had a dream last night, at some point when I was starting to wake up, where one of the "characters" was hanging around reading a book from the Mitch King series. Now, I'd say that's just weird.

[reph]

Do people have a reason to believe in past lives?

[katdad]

dreaming about the future?
Interestingly enough, I've occasionally had very vivid and specific dreams about events, but they have never happened.

[macalicious731]

I don't. But I have heard some really out-there stories (there's this one especially about a ten year old kid, whom ever since he was born was showing over-the-top knowledge about military, fighter planes, etc., and his parents believe he was a WWII fighter pilot who was killed in combat. He's met the pilot's family, claims to know them, etc.) that just make you wonder. But I'm also not against the possibility that the entire thing is a hoax, either.

[maestrowork]

I have had "past life" memories. I don't know if they're really past life, or just my imagination, or simply mixed up memories, but they're very vivid, to the point that I physically react to these memories. I don't normally physically react to my imaginations.

I can't prove past life experience, no more than I could prove the existence of God or the Big Bang theory or aliens, but somehow I do believe it could be true. I mean where do people go when they die? Do they just become part of the universe as particles? Or does their consciousness continue in some form, including part of a future human being? I don't know. I'd rather not disregard something because I don't know if it's true or not just as I can't disregard some people's faith and experience of God...

[reph]

. . . somehow I do believe it could be true. I mean where do people go when they die?

The question doesn't arise for me, because my world view is different. Specifically, I don't believe in a principle of conservation of people, analogous to the principle of conservation of matter or energy. I find it harder to believe that the essence of a person goes into somebody else (how on earth could this happen, anyway? through some strange event during the pregnancy that produces the new child?) than that the person just doesn't continue.

[Gala]

Not quite like Haley Joel Osment, but nevertheless.

It started after my dad died, those, "why did you have to die" conversations. Then even more when Mom died. I started doing this in writing, and the spoke back. You know I wrote down what they said.

I've become atuned to ghosts, spirits, whatever you'r comfortable with calling them in the last few years.

I believe in the afterlife or I wouldn't bother to spend more time here.

Past life, not sure, despite deja vus and other events.

A friend tells me I'm psychic and should explore it. I consider myself extra intuitive. I know w/o doubt some of my writing is to speak for the dead who can't do it the usual way. Not channeling or anything like that; whispered inspiration.

Dreams have come true, but always the bad ones. I don't like that and don't encourage it. (I've learned lucid dreaming.)

Good questions.

[katdad]

reading a book from the Mitch King series.
Hey! Did you pay for that book? I expect my royalty, buddy!

[macalicious731]

Did you pay for that book?

Hm, I think it was library copy. But I think my subconscious is trying to tell me something.

[Thekherham]

Do I use my dreams?

Definitely.