Handling Dreams in Life and Fiction

Should Dreams Be Used as a Device in Fiction?

In an earlier blog, I talked a bit about journaling and writing down dreams as a way to stimulate your creativity and keep a log of your creative life. In this blog, I discuss the possibility of using dreams in my novel. At a workshop on writing fiction that I attended this fall, I was perplexed when the speaker said not to use dreams in a novel. Because dreams are definitely an essential experience of our lives, I find it hard to accept her statement. Every culture discusses dreams and the interpretation of dreams. In my home, dreams are often the topic of discussion over the breakfast table. My husband and I are both vivid and creative dreamers. As an artist, his visual and symbolic acuity make him a fantastic interpreter of mine. I like to use my dream book to interpret his. Novels are based on lives; living people dream. I think fictional characters should be able to dream as well.

Dreams as a Narrative Device

In “Dreams and Narrative” in Psychology Today, Patrick McNamara discusses the similarity between dreams and narratives. He states, “Most of us experience dreams as stories…or at least dream reports are very much like stories.” According to him, research on dreams reveals reoccurring content which reappears in multiple retellings of dreams. He also notes that neuroimaging of the brain during REM sleep suggests dreams are indeed “real experiences.” He sees dreams as social “communicative devices or signals whose target is the waking self or other members of the social group.” McNamara concludes by calling for more serious research on dreams and their social nature.

Dreams as Prophecy

Dreams can be interpreted in various ways. I did a count of dream interpretation books advertised online. At least 20 are published per year. Some see dreams as prophetic. I have, in fact, had prophetic dreams myself. I know this because I have kept a dream diary. For example, once I dreamed that I had to go to South Africa to take care of my brother. My brother did live in South Africa, but I had no intention of ever visiting him there. Several months later, my mother telephoned me. My brother was extremely ill. His partner had called her to tell her that my beloved brother was dying. Mother panicked. She begged me to go to Cape Town to take care of him. She felt vulnerable because she was terrified of flying and refused to get into an airplane. At first, I resisted because the trip would be long. I would miss too many days away from work. I would have to leave my daughter and husband. But because her helplessness was palpable, I went. While there I documented everything via photos, so she could see the whole environment. Her son, although normally 180 pounds but at that moment 120 pounds, was thin and weak, but alive. Happily, the situation ended on a positive note. My brother recovered. He is currently an active composer of music in Cape Town, almost 20 years later. Several years after my trip, I was rereading my journal and rediscovered my dream entry. It made me stop and think about the potential authenticity of premonition.

Dreams as a Connection to the Collective Unconscious

Carl Jung discussed the phenomenon of the collective unconscious, which I have experienced on multiple occasions. Back in the year 2000, I dreamed I was standing on a two-wheeled vehicle. I was moving down the street, maneuvering it with controls on the handlebars. It was propelling itself with some kind of motor. It was a marvelous ride. Waking up laughing, I grabbed my dream journal to record a drawing of the strange vehicle with an explanation of how it worked. I wanted one! Over breakfast, I recounted my dream to my husband, showing him my drawing. He responded, “It would make a handy-dandy vehicle to drive to work.” A year or so later a national company came out with what we all now recognize as the Segway—the embodiment of the means of transportation in my dream. Since I am a writer instead of an engineer, I missed the opportunity the universe was sending me to become an inventor. Someone else did not just laugh when they had their dream but rather turned it into a money-making project.

From Dream Life to Fiction

My own relationship with dreams has helped me to build a character whose dreams meld with her daily life. My protagonist is in transformation. She doesn’t know exactly where she is going. She is confused by whom she thinks she is. Strange experiences keep happening in her life. I have decided to handle some elements through the intrusion of dreams in her narrative. The dreams are at times a signal of something to come or at others a result of what has happened. They may even serve as what I am going to call a “plot motor.” They move things along. They suggest to the reader that another level of consciousness is occurring for my heroine.

Update on My Goal Setting

 This month I am restating specifically the goals I set in January 2018, followed by my monthly update.

1. Focus on my creative writing and do the research to support it: Ten months have passed. I am learning by experience what an economist friend told me once, “Always plan for a three-month lag.” She was correct. The month of October has been a challenge. My husband, the artist Bill Border, was in Open Studios for three weekends. I served as a planner, advertiser, greeter, accountant. Then to make matters worse, I hurt my shoulder. I couldn’t type for more than a week. I have a friend who suggested using the dictation function on my computer to write, but I am definitely a hands-on thinker. Consequently, I am short of reaching my November 7^thgoal for pages written.
2. Complete a draft novel by the seventh of December 2018, writing 30 pages per month:  On November 7th, my page counter should stand at 334. Right now, it stands at 273—my goal for October 7th. As I was reviewing my chapters, I realized I had renamed and copied Chapter 4, but it was the same chapter as Chapter 3. Boom, I was down 20 pages. At first, I thought it was a disaster, then I realized I needed the empty chapter because I needed to build in some missing character development. The lack of this information was causing me problems as I tried to write later chapters. So, I sat down to write an entirely new chapter. It has helped. Things are starting to flow a bit better. At least I made it back up to my end goal for October. Now I am a full 31 pages behind.
3. Document my progress through a blog to be posted on the seventh day of each month, writing 12 blogs in 2018: Today, November 7, 2018, I am posting my eleventh blog. Blogging is beginning to feel like a friend. Recording my process regularly truly helps me sort through the reams of material on my desk. It also helps me verbalize my frustrations and challenges.
4. Develop a network of kindred spirits who are willing to share their own goals, progress, and observations with me: This month I was unable to attend the Boulder Writers Alliance meeting because the workshop was during Open Studios. Nevertheless, I did host a dinner party with a novelist friend, Bill Liggett, who discussed his work and showed slides about the site of his climate-fiction novel, Watermelon Snow. Bill has asked me to write a review of his book. As a result, I now have before me an unexpected challenge because I have never written a book review on a novel. Since I am a novice at reading “cli-fi,” writing this review will force me to expand not only my writing skills but my reading canon, as book reviews require comparisons with similar works.