# Starting your story within a dream



## Terra Arkay (Nov 27, 2011)

So I've just about completed the skeletal structure for my story-eth. I've got a great handful of characters, places and events and what not. Though I shall continue to develop-eth my story, I haven't really thought about how I'm going to write it... It shall start within a dream and that's for sure... but how shall I go about putting that into words?


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## TWErvin2 (Nov 27, 2011)

Terra Arkay,

You may read and get advice that starting with a dream isn't a good way to begin a novel. In general, that is probably true. It all depends on how you acccomplish it and the purpose for beginning with a dream sequence.

Of many pitfalls, a reader can feel mislead or 'tricked' when they discover what they just read--began reading, isn't what's really happening in the story, but rather a dream of one of the characters, and they have to 'start' over with the 'real' action/content once the dream has ended. Begin to get oriented once again.

Good luck moving forward!


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## sashamerideth (Nov 27, 2011)

Dreams, real ones rarely make sense, are fragmented, and just don't flow like reality. Maybe if it's clear that the character is dreaming, I won't feel quite so cheated as a reader.


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## Devor (Nov 27, 2011)

Terra Arkay said:


> It shall start within a dream and that's for sure... but how shall I go about putting that into words?



It's really hard to answer the question without understanding why it needs to start in a dream.  Normally people really hate that, and I join a chorus of people who question why writers insist on doing it.  But there might be legitimate reasons, especially if you're writing in a world where dreams have a prophetic or psychic meaning.

Just a thought, but as a dream is a reflection of a character's thoughts, it might work to set off the dream in the same way you would a character's thoughts.  That is, write it first person present-tense and in italics, maybe in the voice of a person repeating it to a psychiatrist.  I'm not sure if this works or not, I'm just trying to brainstorm thoughts.


Thomas was sitting at his desk, listening to the teacher prattle, then mumble, then whisper.

_I'm wondering alone in the woods, when I look up, and I realize my mom is there.  She's laughing at me.  I look down and see that I'm wearing clown pants.  It smells like the sea and I can feel the dirt on my toes.  Why am I barefoot?_

And then Thomas awoke, feeling strange about what he had just experienced.


That may in fact be a horrible idea.  I can't tell right now anymore.


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## Elder the Dwarf (Nov 27, 2011)

Or, you know, you could go with the suggestion from earlier and hint at the dream.

_Jeremy was dying, he knew.  Thomas knew he was dreaming, had to be dreaming, but it all felt so real.  He couldn't escape from this dream world._

Obviously not very well written, but you get the point.


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## Phoenix (Nov 27, 2011)

Or maybe you start out like its reality, then tell that he woke up from it.


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## sashamerideth (Nov 27, 2011)

Phoenix said:
			
		

> Or maybe you start out like its reality, then tell that he woke up from it.



Not only is this a trope, but it is a bad one that serves only to cheat the reader.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Nov 27, 2011)

You could start it explicitly as a dream:

_It began as a dream: Thomas found himself walking through golden fields, places he'd never been, blah blah blah_

I usually hate dream sequences in stories, unless there's some explicit plot reason for it (e.g. Tel'aran'rhiod in the Wheel of Time, or, you know, the entirety of _Inception_). Partly because they tend to go on too long and be very oblique, and I usually have no idea what they're supposed to mean. I understand they're often used as a mechanism for character development, but I think that's a lazy mechanism. Since you can make anything happen in a dream, it's not honestly earned.


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## Lord Darkstorm (Nov 27, 2011)

Maybe start the moment after the character wakes up?  Then he can analyze the dream....better than a dream sequence.


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