We've all heard the story from Stephanie Meyer: 'I had a dream about a girl in a field with a sparkly boy who loved her but also wanted to kill her so I wrote it down and the next thing I knew I was a famous millionaire best selling writer with a movie contract and a mob of thirteen year old girls at my feet.'
What are your thoughts on that? Ok, so I'm being a bit facetious, but I mean about the whole dream to novel thing? Has something like that ever happened for you, if on a smaller scale?
I can't say I've ever written a story based on a dream I've had. I wish I was better at remembering my dreams. I dream a lot, but remember it for only a few seconds in the morning unless I remember to write it down, which I'm usually too tired to do. Then every once in a while I'll have stunningly vivid dreams that I can't shake off for the whole next day. Sorry, rambling a bit, but I find dreams fascinating. What kind of dreamer are you?
Here's what I find writerly valuable about dreams--I've never actually been sliced in half in a school gym by a sword-fighting wolf; or driven through the Grand Canyon in a covered wagon being pulled by a pig; or been jumped in a dark alley by a group of scruffy, creepy men (yeah, that one was petrifying and horrifically real)--But, because of dreams, I have a better understanding of terror, the bizarre, and what it would be like to have my family turn into zombies. Dreams expand our emotional experience in a very real way, and that definitely translates into our writing.
What do you think about dreams and writing? And I'm very curious--what is the most bizarre, terrifying, or memorable dream you've ever had?
Sarah Allen
