The Role of Dreams in Writing
Get inspired to write your best stories yet with a look into the role dreams can play in creative writing.
I’m often asked where my source of inspiration comes from. In all honesty, I don’t think any writer can name a single source. Often it’s a mixture of experience, passions, and what types of media we consume. I love a good fantasy book, particularly paranormal romance and dark fantasy along with a splash of crime fiction which as influenced the way I write profoundly.
However, I can’t deny the role of dreams in writing and how its impacted my own. In fact, the entirety of the Tompkin’s Supernatural Academy Trilogy was based on a single, reoccurring dream I had during college until I just had to write it down. You should’ve seen the notebooks involved 😅.
Dreams can help inspire worlds which leads to better fantasy writing. The more detailed the dream, the more likely it is to inspire your writing. You can use dreams to create vibrant character descriptions and vivid settings. By recording your dreams and using them as reference material while writing, you will be able to craft stories that are full of depth and imagination.
They’re also useful for sparking creativity when facing writer’s block. And, unfortunately, dreams can also be useful in creating distractions from your current writing endeavors as mine was last night.
I had the most vivid dream that I had to stop and share it here. I think it will help my current world building within the Forbidden Fae Realm, but I think it’ll be mostly useful for a different series than the one I’m currently writing in.
Let me tell you about the dream I had last night.
I was in a world shrouded in an eternal darkness like a never ending night. The sky was black with a crimson red horizon. A massive city sprawled across the land for as long as the eye could see. It wasn’t very well kept. I was in an abandoned building where two people spoke. I was in one of the people’s POV and the other was talking about some kind of mission to me.
We were both dressed in black leather with huge guns, but the other person with me wielded this long, heavy metal chain with a long curved blade on either end that looked kind of scythe shaped, you know, the blade a grim reaper carries? Only on a chain. Yeah, terrifying, I know.
Then, high above the city on the top of a dilapidated building there was this boxing ring lit up with red lights and surrounded by gargoyles where people would fight.
If you’re wondering right now what kind of movie I watched the night before, would you be surprised if I told you I only watched one episode of Love is Blind on Netflix?
It was so random and out of the blue, but when I woke up I remembered it this clearly. Then I started thinking about my current world building and the Hidden Realm, which is sort of like the Fae’s Underworld. I realized this might’ve been my mind helping me fill out and create more depth to my world building.
There are plenty of possibilities that I can use this dream for inspiration, though I’ll have to write it down and folder it for future use since I’m still finishing up the Beast Hunting Mage Chronicles, the first series in the Forbidden Fae Realm.
But this got me thinking about how dreams can play a part in inspiring creativity and how helpful a dream journal can be. Not just for learning more about ourselves, but to better ourselves as writers. Dreams give us a chance to explore our own minds and let our subconscious lead the way. I’ve started writing down my dreams in a dream journal and it’s been amazing to see how this can fuel creativity when I wake up.
It has also made me conquer writer’s block by giving me ideas on what to write. I’m able to quickly note down my thoughts and get them out of my head. That way I can focus on my current projects or use them as fuel to get more words on the page.
Our dreams are a powerful tool. I believe their role in the writing process is to help writers discover new frontiers within their own talent.
What do you think? What do you think the role of dreams are in writing? Let me know in the comments below!