Dreaming a Story

I have heard other writers say that it’s as if they are just writing down something dictated to them. I never could fathom the idea until it began happening to me. I don’t know that I can still fathom it.


There is an interesting discussion taking place at a web writing group I belong to. It’s about getting ideas and working out the next scene of a story. The group seems split into two extremes. One group outlines the major plot elements, designs characters and works out much of their story in advance of writing. The other group creates as they go.

There have been interesting comments from both groups. I find it fascinating that many of the “work it out first” group writers use Tarot cards or something similar to work out the characters, how they will relate to other characters, if they are good or evil, etc. That’s something for another day.

The “as you go” group had a surprising number of writers who dream their way to the next scene which is what I do. I never know what is going to happen next. I do have a vague idea of the direction of the story, but it can be very fluid, changing as new events come to me or as other events change in unexpected ways.

Nearly all the “dreamers” work out a scene in that hazy time of falling asleep. I wonder if they are visual thinkers like I am. My experiences go a bit farther and I will actually have deeper sleep dreams about my works in progress. For many years I’ve been able to remember dreams. I can come close to having a lucid dream, which is one where you can control the dream to some extent.

When I begin to dream the next scene, the process or “event” usually follows a familiar pattern. I go to bed and think about where the story was on pause. I visualize the scene and situations an, as if I released the “pause” button on a movie player, things start happening. I can’t really say that I control or have thoughts about what should happen next. I can’t really say that I’m not having some influence. I can say that I am almost always amazed and pleased with what the characters start doing.

The scene keeps repeating as I fall deeper asleep. Each time it repeats, more details fill in. Dialogues take place with me just listening. Eventually I fall asleep. The next evening, the scene repeats itself. Sometimes more details fill in. Other times the scene repeats like an endless loop, not really changing much. It will haunt me each night until I finally write it down. If I don’t write it down, I can’t go on to what might happen next. So far I’ve written all my books this way.

I think it’s also interesting that this is how my very first book began. I didn’t sit down one day and decide to be a writer. I started having a recurring dream that nearly drove me crazy until I wrote it down. It’s more like some spirit world story teller picked me. She or he filled my dream with a chapter and kept pushing it at me until I finally wrote it down.