Do you use your dreams as inspiration?
I don’t usually have inspiring dreams – at least nothing I could write about but a few days ago I woke up after a long event-filled dream.
I had gone to bed early as I was feeling under the weather.
Instead of the sleepless night, I feared I might have had, I actually slept for almost ten full hours.
This is not like me as I usually get about six – to seven hours and any occasional early night is usually spent wide awake reading, or listening to audio-books.
This night was different and I woke up with my earphones still in my ears and my kindle under the covers with me.
The book I had been listening to was a non-fiction book and not particularly exciting as it was something I was reading for educational purposes rather than entertainment.
The book had simply played on until the end.
FULL-LENGTH DREAMS
I frequently have quite long drawn out dreams, but the dream I remembered after this night was like a full-length movie.
What was a bit strange was that I personally was in the dream.
What was even stranger was that I was watching the dream at the same time.
But, what was really, really strange was that the ‘full-length movie’ I was watching in the dream was a dystopian one.
I DREAM OF DYSTOPIA
The people in my dream society were divided into two distinct types with a large majority of one very particular type of person (in appearance and personality) and a tiny minority of others.
I was part of the minority of people and was trying to get to a place that I personally have never visited in my life unless you count television and movies, in which case I have visited this particular location quite often.
The dream was a lot more detailed than I am describing here, but I won’t get into those details because since that dream I have been experiencing a very strong urge to write a book based on the dream.
PLAYING TO MY STRENGTHS
Except for a film treatment which never actually got made I have never before written in the dystopian genre, having decided long ago to play to my creative strengths.
I don’t feel as experienced, or confident in this genre as I do in others, despite the fact that it is one of my favourite genres – to read.
Yet my dystopian dream story is turning into one of those ideas that never quite goes away.
My thoughts keep turning to this dream, even during swimming, which is one of the activities I use to ’empty’ my mind and relax.
In fact, I am thinking that another few hundred lengths down the swimming pool just might finish this story…
So what should I do? Take a chance and write something completely different? or not?
While considering the idea I googled ‘books based on dreams’ and found this site which lists Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, Stephen King’s Misery, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein among other books which were inspired by their author’s dream.
These authors seem to have been very inspired and highly motivated by their dreams and I must say following their dreams has certainly paid off for them.
I am still not sure – my gut is telling me I should write it but my brain is telling me not to waste my time on a project I may not be able to finish. I usually go with my gut, but…
Given my current indecisiveness what I will probably do is write a short outline and see how far that gets me. In the meantime, I will dream on…
Best wishes
Grace
If your dreams don’t inspire you, click here for some other ways to be inspired.
For some quick and easy creative writing exercises to help you get new ideas click here.
If you are feeling a bit blocked click here to learn how to beat the block.
PRACTICAL CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISES
Suffering from writer’s block? Stuck for ideas?
You won’t be able to stop writing because these beautiful and inspiring exercises will banish your writing block right now.
Never Be Stuck Again!
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