We dream. We all dream. We dream everytime we sleep but sometimes we don't remember them all. It's also said that all dreams have meanings however from personal experience sometimes I question this statement as I'm sure we all do. Some dreams are easy to read into to know what the meaning may be while others make no sense at all and are down right bizarre. Then again not all of us are psychologists so maybe we can't really figure out what the meaning is but certainly there is an inner meaning to all our dreams. Since I am not a professional, one must realize that I'm merely basing my words off opinions and experiences. I have found dreams to be a way to sometimes be preminitions as in seeing the future i.e, seeing something before it's happened, a pleasant happening of circumstances we normally would not find ourselves in but nevertheless enjoy seeing ourselves in. It's also sometimes said that what we do in the course of a day sometimes influence our dreams and make them so.
As a writer I get my inspiration from many different sources. One place I rarely get ideas from but when I do I make sure I remember them is dreams. Dreams can make for some really interesting ideas for your next story whether they make sense or not. You could have a dream about an ancient warrior fighting in Rome and decide to write about it or you have a dream about yourself floating on a root beer float in the Amazon jungle conversing with a talking pencil and write about that. The ideas are endless when it comes to dreams but it's more about whether you remember them and deem them worthy enough to write about that's the big deal. Dreams whether the meaning is clear or not make great writing ideas and one thing to do to make sure you remember them is to keep a pen and pencil handy by your bed. Another thing you could do is have a writing app in your phone(because I'm sure your phone is by your side while asleep) and when you awake just go to the app and write down what you remember from your dream. The idea here is not only to remember but not to let a good idea slip away. I can't tell you all the times I dreamt of a great idea for a story but by the time I was up and ready for my day I had forgotten it. So the best thing to do is write it down when you wake up from the dream, assuming it's good but your brain will decide that for you.
Finally, analyzing dreams. I know I said in the beginning we aren't all psychologists but from a writing standpoint we should analyze them. If we are in the dream doing something we wouldn't normally do, what does it mean? As another you not only ask this but you also may is this story worthy? Would people enjoy this? It's one thing to come up with an idea on the spot but dreaming up an idea you technically had no control of coming up with? Just another question. Do your best to make sense of a dream if it's not clear or make it clear and bit through it. In other words you can't explain it so turning it into a story idea as is will only also confuse others so it's best to try and figure it out or take what you can make sense of and remember and go from there. I have had plenty of dreams where I had no idea what I dreamt, I woke up frightened or it was clear and pleasant. You know what they all have in common? I didn't wrtie them down and I couldn't precisely dtermine what the meaning behind me having them was. Not all dreams should be taken and made into ideas, some are best left as dreams and if it's got deep meaning and your meant to know what it's about then you'll likely have it again.
This was just my analysis on how dreaming can make for great ideas. Do you use your dreams as ideas for your writing?
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