Now, this isn't the story I'm writing on here, since I figured it would be kind of cheap to start off with a 7 chapter head start. But, I was wondering if anyone else has ever had a story inspired by a dream. The story I'm writing (not NaNoWriMo) was actually fullout a dream of mine (of course, with some added in details so it's not just squeezed into 5 pages..haha). But it was just one of those moments where I woke up and said: "....woah. That'd be a freaking AWESOME story!" and immediately got to it. I guess I was just curious if anyone else here had had that kind of experience.
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51,294 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 09 28
All the time. This year, my NaNo is not actually inspired by a dream, but I've got a list of 52 dreams that are just waiting to be turned into awesome novels. The funny thing is that, while some of them are very deranged, odd, and, well, dream-like, others are pellucid and linear, and you'd never think they came from a dream.
----------NaNo '06 -- 50k
SF '07 -- 20k
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Nov 6, 2007 - 10 02
Just last night I had a dream that was very linear where I was watching the story unfold, rather than it being my POV. I woke up and leapt out of bed so fast it frightened my wife. I scrawled out a page and a half while it was still fresh in my mind. The strange thing was that the dream would be regarded as an urban fantasy and that is not a genre I write or even read. I'm resisting the urge to build the dream story rather than the story I've started for NaNo.
Well, know that I think about it, my NaNo story has elements of a dream I had a long while ago.
128,449 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 10 07
This happens to me all the time! Seriously! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one...
My nano this year is based on a nightmare I had over the summer. I woke up in the middle of the night, freaking out from it. After a moment of sitting and thinking I thought, "Huh, that actually might be pretty good..."
A story I've been working on for two years and is currently 260,000 words also started as a dream. It's where your best ideas can come from!
----------~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Nano 2006 ~ Three Wishes for Sadie (winner!) *
* Nano 2007 ~ Blood Sister (winner!) *
* SF 2008 ~ Flight of the Falcon (winner!) *
* Nano 2008 ~ Sewell Saga II: The Tides of Elphenlan (we'll see!) *
50,119 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 10 20
Well, know that I think about it, my NaNo story has elements of a dream I had a long while ago.
Well, I actually write several stories at once. I get really ADD when writing sometimes and just need a change of pace without screwing over my story. So then I start a couple others. It's fun to change around between characters and voices, too. Or maybe I'm just schizo and didn't know? haha.. I'd say write it anyways while its fresh, even if it isn't for NaNo. If it's that good, it ain't gonna wait.
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Nov 6, 2007 - 11 43
Hmm.. good advice. I'm at a sticky point of my NaNo story, so that would probably help me through it.
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Nov 6, 2007 - 12 41
I have a whole 45,000-word novel inspired by a dream I had. I'm always disappointed when I wake up from a dream, think "that would make a great story," then promptly forget it. :-P
----------http://dragon.ycp.edu/~lmarsden (last updated 12/21)
I do free websites! PM me!
NaNo 2006: THE BLACK HEART - YA urban fantasy - WINNER!
NaNo 2007: THE WITCH BOOK (working title) - MG urban fantasy - WINNER!
11,447 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 20 38
Certainly. My title, Madaalia, is from a dream, and lots of my story is too. I think it enriches the novel more if you thought it up without trying to if you know what i mean.
----------I'm stealing the mic!
57,045 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 21 35
Oh yeah! Dream stories are the best!!! Actually my NaNovel --- Lost in the In-Between--- was inspired by a dream I had about a month before I signed up. It's about a boy who, ironically, wakes up in the In-Between (the place where dreams live) and he has to figure out how to get home. Got to love the plot-lines from the subconscious :)
----------SF '08 -- Open At All Hours
50,576 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2007 - 02 42
I wrote a short story for a competition based on a rather scary dream I had. Not scary as in monsters and stuff like that, just scary because of the theme. I was very very pleased with the story I did and it has to be one of my favourite pieces of work.
So yes, dreams are VERY good for inspiration if you can't find any anywhere else!
----------www.myspace.com/IAmAGypsyGirl
www.lunarclips.moonfruit.com
NaNo '07: Link Me Closely
67,584 / 50,000
Nov 27, 2007 - 09 59
lol And I was worried that I was the only one who did this....
I think dreaming of stories, before writing them, helps a lot. Because you get the chance to actually live in their world. You stop being you, and start really being them in their stories. So I think this is the best way to write a novel: to dream it up first. I think living in their world even for a few scenes, helps me know so much more about the story than I could otherwise.
I think they're also just a lot of fun to write, because you feel like you know the story so much more. You already have a feel of how it will go, and who will do what. It's just fun. ; )
My NaNo was not started by a dream, but I have several dreams turned soon-to-be-novels. The project I took a break from to do NaNo, was started by a dream, and it's currently at 64,000.
*~*Laura*~*
----------Writers are dreamers with good grammar skills.
Psalm 55:22a "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you."
Right now I'm mostly worried about surviving November! (It's my first year!)
71,384 / 50,000
Nov 30, 2007 - 12 01
i got a series from a dream which is currently five books long and will probably be about ten, maybe more, when it's done. the basic idea came from a dream anyway, which kind of developed a lot, and now it's my escape from the real world as well as being just about my favourite thing to write. when i get stuck with it, i have a tendancy to either come up with a random twist, throw in a few demons and a nice big battle (my MC in those ones is an angel) or fall asleep and dream what the next bit should be. some of my dreams should never be turned into stories (being attacked by gel pens?), but a lot of the ones i do remember will get thrown in.
----------my Nano isn't based on a dream, but i'll probably start dreaming about it at some point now that i'm nicely into the story and the world and everything.
NutmegAngel
Inspired by chocolate.
Fuelled by tea.
50,358 / 50,000
Nov 30, 2007 - 12 38
Dream writing? Absolutely!
A few years back I woke up from a dream, typed it out and sent it off. With a few minor changes (had to add some *not made for YA* scenes) I sold it. It is my only published work that got reprint requests! Dreams are awesome for finding chocolate covered plot bunnies and marshmallow stuffed characters. Lex
----------~Lex
50,009 / 50,000
Nov 30, 2007 - 18 20
A few years back I woke up from a dream, typed it out and sent it off. With a few minor changes (had to add some *not made for YA* scenes) I sold it. It is my only published work that got reprint requests! Dreams are awesome for finding chocolate covered plot bunnies and marshmallow stuffed characters. Lex
Wow, that is really cool! What was it about?
---
http://dragon.ycp.edu/~lmarsden (last updated 9/29)
I do free websites! PM me!
NaNo 2006: THE BLACK HEART - YA urban fantasy - WINNER!
----------NaNo 2007: THE WITCH BOOK (working title) - MG urban fantasy
http://dragon.ycp.edu/~lmarsden (last updated 12/21)
I do free websites! PM me!
NaNo 2006: THE BLACK HEART - YA urban fantasy - WINNER!
NaNo 2007: THE WITCH BOOK (working title) - MG urban fantasy - WINNER!
93,698 / 50,000
Dez 2, 2007 - 13 28
I had this dream where it was the future, but no one knew anything much baout the past- no one knew about the U.S. Constitution or anything, and the world was ruled by the richer class. Well, the rich could only have certain things, and a lower class girl drank some water from the ocean as old as time- the Pacific Ocean, and she began to remember things. In the end, she discovered her society was flawed, and a woman asked her to come with her. The girl did, and they arrived at this buidling. The girl asked what they were doing, and the woman said she was removing the flaws in society.
Right now it's a short story. :/
----------To Solve the Cube- A romantic comedy about a girl who declares she'll only marry a man who is determined enough to solve the infamous Rubix Cube.
50,119 / 50,000
Dez 2, 2007 - 18 08
oo...sounds very interestting! ^_^
50,154 / 50,000
Dez 10, 2007 - 17 51
Heck Yess!!! I got my first, initial idea from a dream, but decided to change it... and what i came up with in the short 30 days that i had..... became my Nano novel! so, yes... i'd say i had that experiance.
----------♥ always
50,062 / 50,000
Jan 2, 2008 - 18 12
I started out writing from a dream I had about 7 years ago when I was in fifth grade. I would emblish the stories forever and it was about a year before I actually started writing any of it down. My original story is now completely different from what the dream was and occasionally I consider whether I should actually write it out but then I get caught up in one of my other little five page story pieces and work on that instead. I have over 50 some little pieces and most of them came from dreams. That's where most of my inspiration comes from. I would never have become a writer if it wasn't for dreams.
----------"A story is a letter the Author writes to himself, to tell himself thigns that he would be unable to discover otherwise." -Julian Carax
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Jan 4, 2008 - 14 31
I'm a chronic sufferer of long and painfully complex dreams... I told one person about a dream I'd had, and he asked me what drugs I take before I go to bed O.o I've written several into short stories [[but, frankly, one of them should just have never left my head... it was complicated and confusing. Villains that are never actually seen, randomly appearing herds of neon-coloured unicorns...]]. I've gotten out of the habit of writing down interesting dreams, but I really ought to start again. I'm lacking inspiration these days =P
----------"Life soggies too fast when you put milk in it."
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Jan 16, 2008 - 05 01
Oh yeah dreamed up stories are the best! So much more inventive and original and unrestricted than anything your conscious mind could think up.
How interesting that this thread came under the YA board and not the fantasy/adventure/etc. I'd never written YA before I had the dream that inspired my Nano story.
I love the idea of "Villains that are never actually seen, randomly appearing herds of neon-coloured unicorns" I'd love to read about that!
I too am feeling somewhat dream-deprived these days, which is a shame, because the vast majority of my story is dream-based: I've dreamt the weapons, creatures, names...
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Jan 16, 2008 - 22 19
Right now it's a short story. :/
I think you would really enjoy a book called 'The Giver'. It paralells your story very well. I can't remember the name of the author. Sorry.
As for creating stories from dreams, I'm all for it. I've never actually taken the time to do it myself, but I'm thinking i probably should. I have some pretty messed up dreams, but the basic plots usually make decent stories.
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Jan 16, 2008 - 22 28
The Giver was written by Lois Lowry. I love stories like that - kind of distopia sort of places.
----------http://dragon.ycp.edu/~lmarsden (last updated 12/21)
I do free websites! PM me!
NaNo 2006: THE BLACK HEART - YA urban fantasy - WINNER!
NaNo 2007: THE WITCH BOOK (working title) - MG urban fantasy - WINNER!
57,046 / 50,000
Jan 17, 2008 - 10 11
My final degree project was prompted by a dream. I got an A on it. Sometimes it works.
----------NaNoWriMo 2007: This Place Called Home - WINNER AND COMPLETE
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Jan 25, 2008 - 22 44
That's how Stephanie Meyer got her idea for the Twilight series, I believe, and see what a success that has been for her!
I have once. I chose to use it as a plot because it had such extreme emotion in it, it deserved to be on paper. It was a West Side Story-ish thing. A Puerto Rican girl around the mid-20th century marries a gang member almost twice her age because there were no more men in her family to protect her, her aunt, and her sister. There is a fight between his gang and a white gang on the Puerto Rican gang's property (not like 'turf' literally the girl's family's property, outside their house) and in all the commotion, she and her sister and aunt go outside and her sister and aunt get shot and she sees her newly wed husband about to get shot so she panics and tries to save him but gets shot in the arm with a bullet that kills him anyway. Basically, it is about her going to live with her dead husband's mom and sister and going to the school her sister-in-law goes to and meeting a white boy she tries not to get involved with but ends up falling in love with, etc.
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Feb 13, 2008 - 14 43
I just recently had one of those! It was a mix of space cadets, ancient japanese history, with a modern and futuristic twist to it. (Now don't let the Space Cadet thing mix you up. This wasn't like astro boy or something. Remember, a Modern and Futuristic twist.) The plot, characters, and the way it all layed out was really great! In fact I am planning to write that story for this years Novel Writing Month in November. :3 But it has a tie with something else... But still. :D
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Jun 2, 2008 - 18 13
Mine was almost dreamed up.
One night, right before I was about to sleep, images flashed in front of me, as if someone had put a pictue in front of my face. It was a blonde boy with angel wings, crying over a girl with auburn hair and green eyes. She girl had a large cut on her left arm, it was bleeding wildly. She went limp just as a tear fell from the angel's face. The cut vanished when the tear fell on it.
I'm not sure if I was alseep or not. I probably was.
Anyways, I further developed the plot. Why was the angel wih her? How did she get the cut? Why was she so at ease with the angel?
It turned into a very complex and (hopefully) captivating storyline. Lots of secrets, memories, and pain. I really like the heart-wrenching books, so mine is aimed to jerk tears.
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Jun 2, 2008 - 20 23
One of my stories on HPFF was inspired by a dream. It's only 800 words long, but it's basically the entire dream. Another story I'm writing has some parts in it that I dreamed about. I couldn't decide which house to sort one of the girls from my story, and the next night I dreamed about her being in Slytherin. It kind of creeped me out.
----------No NaNo wins yet! This November will be my first attempt!
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Jul 10, 2008 - 07 32
Oh, ya, I always dream up storylines. Most are kind of warped or fantasy, but hey, I did start out as I fantasy writer (I have branched since then). My favourite, in fact was in third person, as though I was reading a book about it (I always picture what happens as I read). I still haven't written it -- only got through the prologue because I'm afraid of butchering it.
Actually, I tend to ask my characters for information. Sometimes plot lines, but mostly information about their world, their family, their background, etc. In fact, I just met this very helpful water sprite (for lack of a better name -- that's not what she-it is) who told me everything she knew about all the different cultures in her city. I don't think I'll be using her in my story (she probably wouldn't talk to my MC), but she sure was helpful for ironing out some of the rough parts. :)
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Jul 16, 2008 - 09 56
I've actually dreamed an entire short story (speculative fiction, no less) from beginning to end! I got up in the morning, and wrote it out in three hours (about 3,000 words or so). I've even entered it in contests because it's so different from what I typically write!
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"the only page you cannot edit is a blank one"
Title: (working) Hazel
Mood: Anxious to write
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Jul 24, 2008 - 22 14
Well, I have l bunch of dreams that are on hold for story writing right now. The thing is, most of them are just scenes and don't really have a beginning, middle, or end. I am actually collecting a bunch of my dreams and I am going to combine them and make one (or several) stories out of them. Btu yes, I do have those dreams, almost every night! :D
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Jul 25, 2008 - 09 15
Mmmmmmmmm dream stories. Those are the best ones for me to write, but end up cliched and Mary Sue- filled. Sort of a Catch 22 for me. They sound really good, but end up stinking when they are written, and yet those that don't come from a dream I have a hard time sticking to. Gnar~ Ahh well. Kalie will forever be my baby.
---------->~< * >~< * >~< * >~< * >~< * >~<
~Novelista~
NaNoNewb (but I write A LOT)