Dream a Little Dream—But Not in Your Fiction

Digs into the reasons why dream sequences are almost always a bad choice for your stories.

Historical and speculative novelist K.M. Weiland offers tips and essays about the writing life to help other writers understand the ins and outs of the craft and the psychology behind the inspiration.

http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com
http://www.kmweiland.com

Intro music by Kevin MacLeod: http://incompetech.com/

Category:

Education

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[Lilith1361]

I have dreams in my WIP which is a supernatural. They're not at the start of the start but they do feature as an intro for one of the characters which then leads into a scene were he wakes. The dreams the character experiences are all either real or images of the past. Though I'm still a bit wary of using dreams at all in the story.

[KMWeiland]

@Lilith1361 It's hard for me to comment on whether the dreams you're referencing work or not, without knowing more about them, but at first glance I'd say this is the type of dream that it's often better to limit or eliminate.

[KMWeiland]

@DpwCreative Now days, chapbooks are almost exclusively poetry. But short-ish stories like that are often sold as standalone e-books for a low price. You could absolutely divide it into chapters.

[DpwCreative]

@KMWeiland i get what you mean now. The shorter the dreams, the better, so it doesn't pause the story, right? I have another question about chapbooks. If you'd write a story that's about 40-50 pages, (maybe up to 70), would that be considered a chapbook? If it is, could you divide it into chapters as well?

[KMWeiland]

@Relicangel You're welcome! Glad it was helpful.

[Relicangel]

@KMWeiland Yay. I'm relieved. Thank you so much, and for the video. :)

[KMWeiland]

@DpwCreative I could see dreams being used effectively in such a story, so long as they're *short.* Since the torture isn't really occurring and readers will realize the character is in no real danger, there's no sense in dragging them through long sequences. All you need to establish the character's fear is a line or two whenever he wakes up from a nightmare.

[KMWeiland]

@Relicangel Depends. Those sort of blips can be used effectively, especially since they're short. But I've seen quite a few such segments that ultimately failed to add much to the story. So long as you're certain the dreams are adding important information and ambiance, you'll probably be okay.

[DpwCreative]

@KMWeiland I'm starting to believe that it is. You said that unless it contains conflick or tension. If at the begining there are people to torment the main character, then he goes off somewhere for the rest of the book, and dreams about these people tormenting him and getting even with them, would it be good to keep these dreams in to keep this subplot alive, if the main character meets up with these people again towards the end, and gets payback?

[Relicangel]

If a memory in a story is featured as a dream-like paragrapth in italics, would that count? In my story, there is character descriptions in parts such as memory eclipses at then end or begining of one or two chapters.