Dreaming Up Writing Ideas

We dream. We all dream. We dream every time 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 downright bizarre. Then again, not all of us are psychologists, so maybe we can't 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 premonitions, 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 enjoy seeing ourselves in. It's also sometimes said that what we do in a day sometimes influences our dreams and makes 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 could 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 on 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 also 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 over 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 bite 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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