Comments on Writers Workshop: How do you write a dream?

Go to Kitchen ShenanigansAdd a commentGo to Writers Workshop: How do you write a dream?

Well you just say, I had this dream,' Actually I find dreams pretty boring when they keep intruding into a story. Well and everything else that deviates from the story line.Although I am sure your dreams are worth a chuckle or two.

posted by C_C_T on March 16, 2014 at 12:50 AM | link to this | reply

I actually haven't written about a dream yet....maybe one day soon and then I suppose I would italicize it

posted by Annicita on March 15, 2014 at 5:15 AM | link to this | reply

I don't think I've really written a dream.  Actually, I don't really like reading dreams.  I usually skip over them in a book and go on to the next part.

posted by TAPS. on March 12, 2014 at 10:23 PM | link to this | reply

Re: FormerStudentIntern.

How did you write it? What problems did you see in writing a dream that you needed to solve?

posted by Ciel on March 12, 2014 at 12:36 PM | link to this | reply

Re: Pat,

I love your metaphor!

At first I thought you said going to seven/eleven when we sleep.  

posted by Ciel on March 12, 2014 at 12:35 PM | link to this | reply

Re: dsm tchr,

Fiction isn't determined by length. And a dream sequence doesn't have to be fiction, either, now I consider it. The question is more about how to write a dream so it comes across as a dream, without (as in a letter or non-fiction) coming right out and saying it's a dream. 

So... if you were writing a novel or a short story, how would you do that?

posted by Ciel on March 12, 2014 at 12:32 PM | link to this | reply

Re: Sometimes a dream is one of many on a theme - like being in a
I haven't written anything long enough to qualify as fiction. And i seem only to relay dreams in short conversations and letters.

posted by dsm_tchr on March 12, 2014 at 11:26 AM | link to this | reply

Sometimes a dream is one of many on a theme - like being in a

big office building or mall, walking with someone or trying to catch up with them as they proceed ahead of me through the crowd... They always feel like familiar places at the time, but in thinking about the dream sequence, they're usually surreal and from another dimension - which might be where we go, to one of the eleven the scientists are debating about these days, when we sleep. Sometimes a dream is the answer to a question I had the previous day, some question I had as I was dropping into sleep. But the writing of a dream is like crocheting with trailing spring clouds - not so simple.

posted by Pat_B on March 12, 2014 at 9:54 AM | link to this | reply

I myself have written a fictionalized dream scene. Now that I think about it, I do like your method.

posted by FormerStudentIntern on March 12, 2014 at 9:34 AM | link to this | reply