Do you use your own dreams in your writing? I just had one.

[Quantum]

A half an hour ago, I woke up from a nap--and a dream. As is usual in dreams, I was at my aunt's home as well as in the old linoleum kitchen at my grandparents' house on their farm. I was craving a snack and remembered that a danish pastry was stowed in the cupboard.

Two or three isolated spots of light gray mold topped the pastry, which was actually the leftover half of a pie-sized turnover. I was surprised, not by finding a turnover in place of a pastry--nor by the mold--but by finding edamame mixed in with the other fruit chunks inside of the turnover.

This dream might make it into one of my horror stories. It's at least worth recording.

Have you had dreams that you've worked into your stories?

[Bernard]

It's funny you mention this. My novel My Ripper Hunting Days is based on a dream I kept having during weeks and the only way I managed to get rid of it was to write it down and turn it into a storyline!!!

[[deleted user]]

I use my dreams all the time in my stories.

[Marie Silk]

I dream about pastries too, Alex :D

[Quantum]

Bernard wrote: "It's funny you mention this. My novel My Ripper Hunting Days is based on a dream I kept having during weeks and the only way I managed to get rid of it was to write it down and turn..."

ah well, good thing you decided to write a story about your dream rather than act on it. ^_-

[Bernard]

Alex G wrote: "ah well, good thing you decided to write a story about your dream rather than act on it. ^_- ..."

The thing about this dream is that in the third and final draft, I turned it around. It went something like this: a man was observing another one staring at women in a bar and writing notes about them. The first man said to the second one, "I know what you are and what you intend to do." I had to place the scene somewhere and decided it would be in a London pub and the story would cover Jack the Ripper. The man taking notes was the Ripper and the observer was the main character. In the final draft, the encounter was preserved but treated quite differently. The man taking notes became the main character who would pursue the Ripper and his observer, his eventual protector.

[Laura]

Definitely. I once heard that you shouldn't do that, but I've had other people refute that, and several short stories, and my second book were all based on dreams I had. So, I highly encourage it. Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" was based on a dream, and look at how well that turned out.

[Quantum]

Laura wrote: "Definitely. I once heard that you shouldn't do that, but I've had other people refute that, and several short stories, and my second book were all based on dreams I had. So, I highly encourage it. ..."

ah, totally didn't know that!

[Matthew]

Yep! Not that long ago, I had a really vivid dream about being back at my old university. I was walking around inside, and ascended some stairs to a big old auditorium. The screen was bright from the floodlights, and hundreds of students were lounging about in the theater seats reading books or looking at devices.

And then, we moved to another room where we seemed to be playing an augmented reality game. My team and I opened a door into a dark room that had bright blue lighting on the walls. And we started shooting at the enemy team inside and quickly overtook. We then learned they were playing as Samurai and lost because they had no ranged weapons :)

Once inside, a lady who was a sort of museum director told us that the room's theme was medieval Japan, and we settled down to listen to her tell us about it and show us the exhibits. I also felt bad for ruining the exhibit (in spirit anyway) by opening fire (metaphorically) on the people in character.

When I woke up, I thought that these scenes would work well in a book I am planning about a generation ship moving between star systems. The entire dream seemed to take place in a massive structure, where the rooms were all themed and technology played a heavy role in setting the scene and keeping people entertained. I figured if you're inside a massive ship with generations of travel time, this is what you might want.

[Quantum]

Matthew wrote: "When I woke up, I thought that these scenes would work well in a book I am planning about a generation ship moving between star systems. The entire dream seemed to take place in a massive structure, where the rooms were all themed and technology played a heavy role in setting the scene and keeping people entertained. I figured if you're inside a massive ship with generations of travel time, this is what you might want."

very exciting. i think that Rendevouz with Rama was a ghost generation ship, right? i forgot.

[Matthew]

Alex G wrote: "Matthew wrote: "When I woke up, I thought that these scenes would work well in a book I am planning about a generation ship moving between star systems. The entire dream seemed to take place in a m..."

It was indeed. They thought that the aliens were there, just reduced to some chemical form that would be recreated once they got to where they were going.

[M.L.]

I love pastries, not the one described above though!
Stephenie Meyers "Twilight" started with a vivid dream, so that's good news.

[Roger]

My books are not based on dreams, but while letting my mind drift while lying in bed waiting to go to sleep or just after I wake up. Maybe I'm in a semi-asleep (semi-awake?) mode. Either way, that's when my imagination seems to work best.

My dreams often involve characters and plots from TV shows.

Don't ask.

[Quantum]

Roger wrote: "My books are not based on dreams, but while letting my mind drift while lying in bed waiting to go to sleep or just after I wake up. Maybe I'm in a semi-asleep (semi-awake?) mode. Either way, that'..."

Which tv shows? Star Trek would be cool.

[Roger]

Oh, nothing at all cool. It's usually corny stuff like Hogan's Heroes or Cheers. I think it's a sign of dementia.

Star Trek, or The Expanse, or even Battlestar Galactica would be interesting. But noooo! I get goofy Germans and people named Norm.

[Philip]

I have done the wake up from dream or half asleep and rush to write down the outline or first few chapters of a story. Happened two Saturdays ago, had to get up and write - 7500 words later I realised it was still only 8 in the morning but I have the start of a new book. Probably nothing will survive from that but the ideas are down.

That's my favourite writing experience when I am just lost typing as fast as I can - I'm dreaming then but wide awake.

[J.J.]

My novella Plantation came about because of a dream I had about looking up at an electric purple light shining from a window on the second story of a house...from that I developed a rather brutal ghost story...

[J.J.]

Roger wrote: "Oh, nothing at all cool. It's usually corny stuff like Hogan's Heroes or Cheers. I think it's a sign of dementia.

Star Trek, or The Expanse, or even Battlestar Galactica would be interesting. But ..."

USS Krakowski came about as a re-imagining of the TOS episode Doomsday Machine. When it hit me the idea of a planet-eating entity wasn't exactly original to Star Trek (think Unicron from Transformers) I took the trope and wrote my own story. The Freedom Reigns series came about from the concept of Star Trek technology taken to the absurd (well beyond "extreme").

When TNG started ripping off popular movies toward the end of its run, I really don't feel bad about taking inspiration from them...

[Graeme]

On a related topic. A couple of weeks ago I mapped out a plot problem I was dealing with just before I went to bed. Next morning I had the solution.

The easiest piece of problem solving I've done in my life, and the solution worked in my story and is still in place.

[Ian]

None of my stories are based on dreams, but years ago I had several extremely vivid and surreal nightmares after a traumatic family event, and I worked one of them into my first novel as part of my MC's reaction to events in her own life.