Use Your Dreams in Your Writing
It is challenging for some writers to use their dreams to write, but it can be a powerful tool and inspiration for writing. Some research says that dreams can be instrumental in problem-solving. An article in Psychmachanics says that Jack Nicklaus came up with his golf swing in his dreams. History shows dreams have famously solved problems.
When they suffer from writer’s block or are stuck on a problem in their story, many don’t know they can turn to their dreams for inspiration. We are speaking here, of course, of the literal dream (that you do at night), not the dream you have of becoming a famous writer.
I have used dreams for inspiration, and I was shocked at how much they affected my writing. Two problems stop writers from using dreams. The first is they do not recall their dreams, and the second. They forget their dreams after a while. Everyone dreams every night; some people don’t remember their dreams. It’s scientifically proven.
Problem 1: Finding dreams
I can’t recall my dreams! Or I don’t dream. It is frustrating when trying to use your dreams to solve a problem. If you wake up you do not recall your dream, meaning it does not feel like you even had a dream, then you need to do some dream setup. Get more sleep if you can. The more rested you are, the better you can recall your dreams. You dream in 90-minute cycles. These cycles begin when you go to sleep. To remember a dream (many times), you must wake up at the end or during a dream cycle. The best way to do this is to set an alarm clock. You want to set the alarm at the end of one of these dreams. The dream stages on Webmd are a good starting point. The first dream of the night will be the shortest (about 10 minutes), and as you sleep, the dreams will get longer. The best thing to do is catch yourself after you have been to sleep for an extended time, so if you go to sleep at 10:30, wait three 90-minute cycles or about 3:00 in the morning.
When you wake up, don’t move! Don’t do anything else. Just hit the alarm, stay still, and concentrate on remembering the dream.
Problem 2: Holding on to the dream
After you are awake and still and recall the dream, please write it down. During sleep, people forget their dreams because of different chemicals or lack of chemicals in certain brain parts. Keep a pad and paper by your bed and take quick notes about your dreams. Just write down reminders. Only be as detailed as you need to be to remember the dream later after you wake up for the day. You want to capture the feeling of the dream if you can. This feeling and the oddities of it are usually the things that help you solve the problem. I heard once (and I am trying to remember where) that dreams are the answer to questions you have yet to ask. It’s true.
In my dreams, I find new ways of looking at old problems. I find solutions and inspirations for issues in my writing that I didn’t even know would come up.
What to do with the dream
Take the feeling of the dream and write it. Use the sense, the setting, and the complications of the dream to point you in the right direction. Sometimes, like in Stephen King and his Four Past Midnight, you can’t help but pull yourself out of bed to write down an idea that comes to you. These are some of the best ideas. Using your dreams or finding that inspiration is fulfilling in some way and a statement that haunts you so much you pull yourself out of bed to write it. I wrote the following poem when it pulled me out of bed. It’s about being pulled out of bed by a dream/idea:
When Haunted by Poems
Your eyes jolt open. “It’s so late,”
she whispers. Rubbing one eye,
you can see that she is mangled. Half there,
her car-wrecked apparition
floats beside your bed in a sliver of moonlight.
“Is now the time?” she asks,
and you do not know if you
can help her, put her back on the road
or in the real world. You only
want to sleep, stay warm, but she
is mouthing something to you and pointing
toward the next room. She’s trying to draw you
into the light where something might happen
to both of you, resurrect her
and send you back to bed
sleeping lightly listening to the darkness.
Danger
Well, not danger, but as a subheading, I couldn’t resist. Don’t completely disrupt your life for this. I have a friend who started using dreams to write; after a few weeks, he looked like a zombie. When I asked him, he woke up 4 and 5 times a night to catch every dream. It turned out to be counterproductive. He was seeing some of his dreams and then falling asleep on his keyboard. Try this once or twice a week! If it doesn’t work, adjust the time for the next night. We a little luck, you will be able to use your dreams in your writing.
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