Outsourcing the Creative Process to Dreamland

I was going to start a thread about this, but decided not to. Now that someone has made a dream-related thread...

A few days ago, I had a lucid nightmare. I knew I was in a nightmare. I couldn't stop what was happening to me. And I couldn't wake up. My eyes were "already open" and I simply couldn't command my real eyes to open.

It was quite possibly the most frightening thing I've ever experienced, and I've had brushes with death before. I only got through it because I knew I had to wake up sometime and the horror would eventually end.

Nicole, I envy you

SP - I used to have lucid dreams, but my personality is so strong that I'd start controlling the dream and have it do whatever I wanted. Yeah, that went for nightmares, too (though generally it was one of those snap-self-awake-if-I-can't-control-it things). My subconscious stopped giving me dreams, either that or it found a way to block my awareness of them.

Sass, who never dreams anymore

I thought a lucid dream was, by definition, one in which you're aware you are dreaming and can therefore "control" (or at least direct) the dream. If you're aware you're dreaming but can't do anything about it, can that be considered a lucid dream?

I had the fortune to take a college psychology class (years and years ago) from one of the most amazing dream interpreters ever, Jim Fregia. He wrote the book on the topic, taking an approach far beyond a list of "dream symbols" and really getting to a personal level of dream interpretation. Worth checking out. Completely changed the way I look at dreams.

--Q

I've gotten a number of plot bunnies from dreams. The dreams I love the most are the lucid ones in which I'm exploring some strange urban landscape filled with golden light, or some strange underground complex that goes on for miles, or a single strange house with endless rooms and nooks and crannies.

Maybe from some combination of landscape and underground and house, I'll eventually create a Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath for myself.

My dreams greatly inspire my writing, and dreams figure heavily in my writing itself (well, I write on Jungian themes, what do you expect? ), but I've never had a clear-cut story idea manifest itself in a dream. Only bits and pieces and scenes...more like, an interesting dream that I will use in the story, not as the story.

I am so jealous!! My dreams are so detailed you think I'd be able to turn them into stories! But no. Feh.

Regarding lucid dreams, I believe all that's needed is the knowledge that one is in fact dreaming to consider it "lucid"--you don't necessarily have to (be able to) take any action to change the dream. Some people can change the dream, some people can't, but it's still lucid if you know you're dreaming. That's how I always heard it explained, at least.

I have lucid dreams every once in a while but the only thing I can control in them is myself and even that takes a bit of effort.

About a year ago I started reading books in dreams. Part of it was looking at words on pages, the other part, actually visualizing what was going on, no matter how absurd it was.

tehuti88 said:

My dreams greatly inspire my writing, and dreams figure heavily in my writing itself (well, I write on Jungian themes, what do you expect? ), but I've never had a clear-cut story idea manifest itself in a dream. Only bits and pieces and scenes...more like, an interesting dream that I will use in the story, not as the story.

I am so jealous!! My dreams are so detailed you think I'd be able to turn them into stories! But no. Feh.

Regarding lucid dreams, I believe all that's needed is the knowledge that one is in fact dreaming to consider it "lucid"--you don't necessarily have to (be able to) take any action to change the dream. Some people can change the dream, some people can't, but it's still lucid if you know you're dreaming. That's how I always heard it explained, at least.

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That is a common definition- but from personal experience, I strongly disagree. There have been many times, while dreaming, somewhere in the back of my mind, I've thought: "I'm dreaming". But things may still be a bit hazy and I have no control.
In 100% lucid dreams, I am as fully conscious as when awake in "reality". Can control things, can sense everything 100%. The first time I ever had one- I really thought I was awake. And then I realized I was finally having my first lucid dream. (I'd been trying for awhile). It's a mind blowing experience.

callalily61 said:

I've had lucid nightmares. *brrrr* Fortunately I've also had some lucid dreams. Odd, eerie, but WAY cool.

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In the other dream thread, you mentioned having nightmares involving dragons. Next time you do- try to fight the urge to run. Stay and talk with it. It could be trying to communicate with you. Some totems use fear as a way of getting one's attention. There might be a lesson it's trying to teach you.

You never know.

And you could even get a really cool story out of it.

NicoleMD said:

I've had lucid dreams for as long as I can remember. When I was around four years old, I had a dream about this nice little girl, and I wanted so badly to be her friend. I tried to bring her through dreamland to reality. Didn't work.

Nicole

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You can bring her to life in a story.

related - Everybody needs to see this:

http://xkcd.com/430/

I used to nap as a form of entertainment when I was a freshman in college. My dreams rock. lol

gypsyscarlett said:

<<<
In 100% lucid dreams, I am as fully conscious as when awake in "reality". Can control things, can sense everything 100%. The first time I ever had one- I really thought I was awake. And then I realized I was finally having my first lucid dream. (I'd been trying for awhile). It's a mind blowing experience.

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The scariest lucid dream I've ever had happened to me a few months ago.

I was on my way home from work. Really mundane. My wife was with me as she usually picks me up. We start driving when I notice we're taking a different way home. I figured it was alright since it's a different way. I ask her where we're going and she says "Home". I don't question because I enjoy a nice drive and a different way home sometimes...when along the side of the road I notice my sister. I thought it was strange since she lives halfway across the country. That's when I realized I was dreaming. So I wake up...

...and go to work...have a normal uneventful workday...my wife picks me up at work and we take a different way home. I thought..."Wow! I think I just dreamed this!" We end up turning down this rural road that I've never been down before and I ask her where we're going. She shrugged and said "home." We go down the road and there's a carnival along the side of the road and tons of people there. We drive past and I realize that something isn't right...then things get weird (i.e. the car turns into a rollercoaster) and I know its a dream...

...this cycled through two more times before I actually woke up for real. Each time, I noticed something subtly different about my real life and that's when that world unravelled. They were so realistic that for awhile part of me thought I might still be in a dream.

But that's been months ago, so far so good. I'm confident I'm back...but with gas prices...I wish it was all a dream.

speaking of dreams, mine are too bizarre and based on my real life to put them into a plot.
but quite recently, i had several dreams which i know i dreamt a long, long time ago. the dreams were repeating themselves and i found this to be really...intriguing
any comments on this?

creamofmushroom said:

speaking of dreams, mine are too bizarre and based on my real life to put them into a plot.
but quite recently, i had several dreams which i know i dreamt a long, long time ago. the dreams were repeating themselves and i found this to be really...intriguing
any comments on this?

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Well, for me at least, when I have recurring dreams it's either because my subconscious is trying to tell me something or they turn out to be prophetic.

Can you be more specific about the dream?

NicoleMD said:

Many times I have dreams that inspire short stories or novels. No big deal, right? But I love it when this happens, since it saves me the hassles of coming up with "my own" creative ideas.

But last night, during a dream that I thought would surely make a great story, I actually wrote a mini-synopsis, carefully constructed...DURING MY DREAM! All I had to do was wake up and write it down.

Nicole

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Buy cheap little notebooks and keep one at your night table. I use the Moleskine little black cahiers, which are a bit pricier than generics but I'm of an age where I can afford to indulge myself a bit. They're a lifesaver for situations like that. You drag yourself up out of sleep, scribble down enough to fire the synapses again in the morning to remind you about your idea, then you slide back into sleep. I've dragged two short stories up from Dreamland this way. One's making the submission rounds, while the other -- bizarrely -- got picked up by the first place I submitted it to.

As a writer, the subconscious is a great place to mine for material. A little notebook is the "net" that snags your "prey".

gypsyscarlett said:

Well, for me at least, when I have recurring dreams it's either because my subconscious is trying to tell me something or they turn out to be prophetic.

Can you be more specific about the dream?

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well, one dream was where i was late for an exam which everyone had expected me to do well in.
in the other dream i was with my high school classmates. we were having a good time but i kept having the vague suspicion that everyone was laughing at me

creamofmushroom said:

well, one dream was where i was late for an exam which everyone had expected me to do well in.
in the other dream i was with my high school classmates. we were having a good time but i kept having the vague suspicion that everyone was laughing at me

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Sounds like you just had things on your mind that you were worried about.

I've not used dreaming with any reliability, but I've found that meditation techniques are very useful.

steveg144 said:

Buy cheap little notebooks and keep one at your night table.

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Yes, if you write down everything you remember every morning, you'll gradually remember more and more of your dreams.

I did that years ago for a while, but to be honest, I didn't find it very useful for writing.

VGrossack said:

I've not used dreaming with any reliability, but I've found that meditation techniques are very useful.

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Meditation is great, though technically I probably just do deep relaxation that segues into some pretty freestyle woolgathering.

I get a LOT of my ideas from dreams. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to get a narrative from a dream and rarely even a good enough ending to use (instead of just waking up when it starts getting good XD). I dream very vividly and once in awhile lucidly. They are often rather entertaining so it's like watching or being in a movie sometimes. XD

My trigger for lucid dreams is a mirror--when I look in a mirror in a dream it makes me realize I'm dreaming. (like on Voyager, Chakotay's trigger was the full moon.)

I've come up with some doozies in my time though, and I really like dream analysis...I often have reoccurring ones about traveling down a river--journey of life I suppose , tornadoes--means some kind of upheaval or problem in real life, traveling to a warped version of all the schools I've attended 'cept college (and usually can't find what I'm looking for)...one particularly weird reoccurring one is warped stairs in some building (school or office or mall) I try and go down stairs and they're backwards, or lead me right back up to where I was, or halfway broken, etc.

I keep a dream journal and I get nice tidbits of stories from there. It's fun to go back a few months and years to see what I was dreaming about.