Writing A Dream Sequence In Your Creative Piece

During my time at University we were told a number of times to not write dream sequences in our stories, especially if it’s the opening for the novel. The reason for this is because it’s believed to give readers false hope, or false tension. That once the reader finishes reading the dream they would think, ‘Oh, none of that actually happened, what was the point of that?’

However, I personally believe that in some cases, if done well, dream sequences do help with the flow of the story, as well as adding another layer to the novel or movie. It can also be used as a tool for foreshadowing. 

If you are thinking of writing a dream sequence in your creative piece. Most of these tips can be used for a novel and screenplay, but a few may be mainly for a novel. 

• Research: Psychologists have come to a conclusion that dreams do mean something, therefore research is important, as each object represents something else. For example: being chased in your dream tends to mean you are running away from something that is causing you to feel fear when you are awake. Or finding a white unused room tends to mean that you are ready to start a new part of your life.
  Depending on how your character is feeling before this dream, will affect what happens, so remember to research what different dreams mean.
• Create an outline: This stage will normally happen during the planning stage, depending if you thought to have a dream in your piece from the start or after finishing the first draft. Doing this, instead of writing the dream sequence when writing your first or second draft of your story, will help you understand what leads your character into having this sort of dream. It will also help you not end up blabbing along and making the dream hundred of pages. 
• Placement: You need to think carefully where to place your dream, you would think about this part during the outline stage. Just remember to make sure that the dream helps with the flow of the story, and wherever you place doesn’t create the flow to become static. 
• Put a realistic time limit of your dream: This is also something to think about when outlining. Think about how long you want your dream to be? You don’t want it to be too many pages, but you don’t want it to be half a page because then it might mean the dream isn’t needed. I would suggest looking online for examples of books with dream sequences to see how many pages the author wrote for the dream. 
• The effect the dream has on your character: This is important, it’s no point writing a dream in your creative piece for nothing to come from it after. It needs to affect the character in a certain way, which will help them push to do their next action in the book or screenplay. Do they wake up all drenched with sweat and they are stressed with what to come next?
• The look of the dream: By this I mean, is the dream surreal, where everything is bizarre and doesn’t make sense, only for it to make sense later on in the creative piece? Or does your character have control of what is happening in their dream?
• The presentation of the dream: Now this is mainly for a novel. I believe writing in italics is a good idea to show your readers that they have changed settings but it’s not real life. Once again I will advise you to read examples online, to see how authors showed they were writing a dream. 
• Lastly, make sure it is needed: If the story can still flow smoothly without the dream, then it might mean the dream isn’t needed. Don’t just add it in because you like the idea of a dream sequence, it needs to add a layer to your novel. Therefore, if it adds a layer to your creative piece, your story will not flow smoothly if taken out. 

I personally love reading dreams in books, but they only truly work if they have added something to your piece. Remember to experiment, see how your creative piece will flow if a dream is added. But don’t be saddened if you have to edit your dream sequence out, it’s all part of creating a wonderful piece of writing.