Dreams and writing

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

I just awoke from a deep and interesting dream, the threads and details of which were sadly disrupted and broken up by my alarm. But it got me thinking...

I've always enjoyed frequent deep, intense dreams, often, unlike today, retaining a high level of detail upon waking. I used to keep a dream journal, from childhood my mother and I have shared dreams with each other, and sometimes I have dreams that contain such intriguing back-stories, such rich worlds, interesting characters, various themes and moods that they have ended up in my 'ideas' folder for stories I must one day write.

And this got me wondering if this was something writers share; wondering if there is a connection between dreams and writing. If so, do you think dreams inspire creativity, or vice versa? Will focusing on one increase/improve the other? Since this forum is full of either writers and aspiring writers, I figured I'd ask what people thought about this. Hmmm, I guess I shouldn't exclude the artists and other creative types in the group. Do dreams ever effect/inspire your work? Do practical, less creative types dream less, or at least, less vividly?

Discuss! :)

[Björn]

I love dreams in ever variation: dreaming, talking about, writing them down. I used to keep a dream journal too when I was younger. Somehow this helps remembering dreams more detailed in the future (so I was told and can confirm). However they inspired me only on a subconscious level, by e.g. changing/influencing my mood or something.
The worst thing that has ever happened to me concerning a vivid dream was one I thought should be made into a movie. Unfortunately I never came around to writing it down, but it was stuck in my head for a long time. And a few years later there was a movie which was somehow the same tone and story I had imagined in my dream… poor me! ;)

[Christopher]

I don't often remember my dreams enough for them to influence my work. Which considering the dreams i can remember is probably for the best.

[Seawood]

This morning I dreamed Patrick Rothfuss told me off for not putting enough effort into my homework. Apparently 8.8 out of 10 is not up to scratch :(

Happily, a few hours later, I finally found an antagonist with a motive for the story I'm currently working on (not Mr Rothfuss). I don't think the two are connected but you never know!

[Gary]

Ruth wrote: "this got me wondering if this was something writers share; wondering if there is a connection between dreams and writing. If so, do you think dreams inspire creativity, or vice versa? Will focusing on one increase/improve the other? Since this forum is full of either writers and aspiring writers, I figured I'd ask what people thought about this. Hmmm, I guess I shouldn't exclude the artists and other creative types in the group. Do dreams ever effect/inspire your work? Do practical, less creative types dream less, or at least, less vividly?"

Whew! There's about fourteen master's theses in those questions ranging from psychology to literature....

I'll only contribute two things. First, a thought:

Dreaming is such a universal human characteristic that I don't think it is necessarily more or less influential for artists like writers than it is for anybody else. I remember watching a documentary about the mathematician John Nash in which another mathematician reveals that Nash appeared to him in a dream and explained a particularly difficult math problem to him. When he woke, he got up and started writing out his solution. He credited Nash, claiming that he couldn't have come up with the math on his own without help from the superior mathematician. Objectively examined, Nash had really nothing to do with it, of course. That mathematician's unconscious mind was working on the problem, and developed the solution on its own. When he woke, his conscious mind rationalized the inspiration of the dream into a framework he could process more readily, and he attributed it to something outside himself.

Artists do, however, respond differently to their dreams... and that's more or less the crux of what art is. Responding in a way to life's influences that conveys them artistically.

Second, I remember reading about an author (I'm 90% sure it was Robert Louis Stevenson) who had an interested writing technique. He'd doze. He would go into a dreamstate, but still not sleeping, and let his mental theatre take over, and then he'd rouse and start writing what he'd dreamed.

That's a very successful use of the sub- or unconscious mind in the creative process. I've done it myself, and it works pretty well. It takes you off into places that you would almost surely not have gone consciously. It takes a little practice to get there and come back, but it's a very useful way of coming up with inspiration or dealing with a block. I highly recommend trying it out. The worst that can happen is you'll go a bit too far in your sleeping state and get a nap out of it.

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Seawood wrote: "This morning I dreamed Patrick Rothfuss told me off for not putting enough effort into my homework. Apparently 8.8 out of 10 is not up to scratch :("

Aww, I'd like Rothfuss to pop in my my dream, even if he was telling me off!

Gary wrote: "Dreaming is such a universal human characteristic that I don't think it is necessarily more or less influential for artists like writers than it is for anybody else. I remember watching a documentary about the mathematician John Nash in which another mathematician reveals that Nash appeared to him in a dream and explained a particularly difficult math problem to him. When he woke, he got up and started writing out his solution. "

This kind of thing actually occurred to me when I was writing the question. I guess I consider scientist and mathematicians and the like, at least at a high enough level, to be creative types too. I think it must take a creative mind in order to see solutions others have missed. Or perhaps I'm just seeing it that way to match a hypotheses.

I think you are spot on in saying that the way artists respond to dreams being important.

Gary wrote: "Second, I remember reading about and author (I'm 90% sure it was Robert Louis Stevenson) who had an interested writing technique. He'd doze. He would go into a dreamstate, but still not sleeping, and let his mental theatre take over, and then he'd rouse and start writing what he'd dreamed."

I've never really thought about it in those terms, but I guess this is something I've been doing naturally since I was a teen. When I get so stuck with writing that a trip to make a nice cup of tea doesn't help me out, I tend to like to lie down, close my eyes and let my mind drift. Of course, that only works when I don't feel time is limited. I guess if you class that as half-dreaming, then more of my ideas are dream inspired than I thought.

[A.L.]

Christopher wrote: "I don't often remember my dreams enough for them to influence my work. Which considering the dreams i can remember is probably for the best."

Indeed:) We had to record a dream once for psychology and everyone was a bit worried about mine:)

That said I do work through stories and come up with things when I am half asleep. Whether they are any good is another matter.