creative writing of dream

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How to Develop a Premise into a Story
How to Describe Setting
How to Create and Develop Characters
How to Write a Scene
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Interviews with Writers

How to Write a Dream Sequence

Paul Yoon's novel, Snow Hunters, was published by Simon and Schuster. It follows the travels of Yohan, a Korean who leaves his country after the Korean War to start over in Brazil.

Paul Yoon’s novel, Snow Hunters , follows the travels of Yohan, a man who leaves his country after the Korean War to start over in Brazil. The novel prompted a New York Times reviewer to write, “One of the gratifications of literature is to know a character in a book more completely than we can know people in real life.”

Some writing teachers make a rule for stories submitted in workshop: No dreams. No dream sequences. They make this rule because badly written dreams are all the same. They “show” a character’s inner torments/thoughts rather than artfully imbedding them into the narrative. But if fiction is, in any way, supposed to imitate life, then dreams are fair game. The question is how to write them well.

Paul Yoon has written one of the best dream sequences I’ve ever read in his new novel Snow Hunters . You can read the first chapter here . The dream begins at the bottom of page 16.

How the Story Works

The passage begin with Yohan falling asleep and hearing sounds through the open window:

“the tapping of the rain and voices and a car and then a ship’s horn. A single chime of a church bell. a door opening. A song on the radio. The steady punches of a sewing machine. He heard aircraft and the dust spraying from trucks and the wind against the tents”

We get a short reflection on this noise from Yohan (“it was faint and calm and he did not mind”), and then the dream begins.

“He was riding a bicycle. He felt a hand on the small of his back. Someone familiar spoke to him and he said, —I can go a little longer, and he lifted a shovel and sank it into the earth. A group of children whistled and clapped. And then he was running his hands through a girl’s hair and she took his wrist and they moved through a corridor where rows of dresses hung from the ceiling. Those dresses turned into the sea.”

Then the dream ends. So why does this dream work? First, it has no clear message. It’s not telegraphing crucial information about Yohan’s interior life. At best, the message is mixed: the desire and need to push himself and the desire for friendship and love. The images are not accidental. They reflect encounters and experiences from waking life. Second, the dream does not predict the future. It doesn’t attempt to move the plot forward. Though dreams sometimes cause us to act (dreaming that someone has an accident and then, upon waking, contacting that person), we tend to be skeptical of someone who claims that valuable information was gained in a dream.

So why does the dream work? Here are four reasons (and lessons to keep in mind):

It’s so beautifully and simply written.
It glides from image to image, never dwelling too long in one place.
It’s short.
The images reflect things we’ve already seen in the novel. The dream feels to us, the readers, the same as it does to Yohan. In other words, the dream feels like a real dream. And that is rare in fiction.

The Writing Exercise

Let’s practice writing a dream sequence, using Paul Yoon’s Snow Hunters as a model:

Choose a character whom you’ve already created and written about.
Bring the character home, to bed, after a long day—not after a life-changing event but simply a day in which things seem to be on the cusp of happening.
When the characters’ eyes are closed, let the sounds of the world drift in. Be specific and precise. You’re describing that odd state in which the mind is both idle and resting and also alert and aware of its surroundings.
Ease into the dream. If you’ve ever heard the voice/sound from the waking world in your dream (a spouse or child talking to you, a professor speaking, the alarm clock), then you know how permeable dreams can be.
Make the dream a reflection of the images of the waking world. Treat the dream’s reflective power like that of an almost-still lake. Remember, the mind is not directing traffic any longer but instead letting images trickle through unfiltered. Move from image to image. End on one that best seems to fit the mood of the day.

Now you have a dream sequence. If it seems inconsequential, that’s good. Beware dreams of great import—unless you’re writing about the Virgin Mary. Let the dream become part of the character’s fabric and, thus, the fabric of the novel.

Good luck and have fun.

31 Responses to “How to Write a Dream Sequence”

Great advice! Dreams are such a tricky thing to write. I love the example you’ve put up. Thanks for this!

Thanks so much.

Reblogged this on Creative Writing School .

Aaaaaah how nice. I was just trying to write a dream sequence into my story (in Dutch, since I’m like yeah from Holland) and Google brought me here. Great website. I was so glad to find that my projected sequence has a lot of similarities to your excellent exemple. But i stil have one question though: if your entire story use active present tense, I what tense would the dream play out?

Good question, Ron. I’d guess that the dream would play out in present tense. In Snow Hunters, Paul Yoon writes both the novel as a whole and the dream sequence in past tense. But there is a marked transition into the dream state, and it comes through a series of images that exist outside of time and tense: “A single chime of a church bell. A door opening. A song on the radio. The steady punches of a sewing machine.” Perhaps something similar would work in your story. Good luck!

Wow Michael, thanks for your quick reply. A transition is a clever trick. 🙂 But what if your story starts with a dream? I just wrote it and used present tense. Felt a bit awkward at first, because I thought that no one could ever do a live coverage of a dream. Your to busy dreaming the dream. But then I realised, this is only the case when you’re writing in first person and I’m not. So I just traveled out my main character’s head and wrote about the dream he was/is having. Haha, I’m getting confused again.

I think it was probably a smart decision to travel out of your character’s head to describe the dream. As for the tense, there’s no penalty for trying out another tense and seeing which one works best. You might also try making the dream as short as possible. Usually–but not always–dreams are not as interesting as the reactions that characters have to them. So, if you have a dream that makes you leave your spouse and kids and join the crew of a whaling ship, then that was a pretty interesting dream.

Hi Michael, I am 15 years old (turning 16 in 4 months time). I am currently trying to write a book by having a past dream and going into the future by the character waking up from the “past dream nightmare” but I don’t know how to do the past dream in 1st person. My opening dream starts off in a fictional world and then an unknown force takes over the planet but my main character gets rescued by some people who look after her and from then on she wakes up in a space ship and describes her mission and what she has to do but yeah I was wandering how you can describe a dream in first person past tense sort of thing you know? and transitioning to the present. Please can you give me an example as well as that would really help. Im sorry if all this text is all over the place but I hope you can understand what im saying. Thank you for taking your time to read my comment.

Thanks for this! I’m attempting a dream sequence in Chapter 2 of my novel I’m writing on my blog, so check back tomorrow if you want to see the fruits of my labour. 🙂

Thanks, Peter. Hope it goes well!

Brilliant! I’m so glad I did a quick search on writing dream sequences to find this, it helps so much for what I’m trying to do!

If you have some dream and you want to write about that then don’t think so much just do it. Love your post very nice it was. http://www.imantra.org/terms.php

Reblogged this on The Creative Kitty .

So right now i have an assignment in science to write about the arctic tundra and i chose to write it in a journal form, the main character (Evalynne) has a nightmare and i cant figure out how to write it. I want it to have something to do with her 8 year old sister (Gwenie) and her 10 year old brother (Theren) plz reply asap and thx

“Evalynne” your sister called. “Evalynne!’ you heard again and again. “Yes Gwenie.” you replied. Your sister’s voice sounded as if it was right in front of you but all you saw was an old house.

thats what i have right now but i dont like that part of my story. if it would help i can also post the rest of the story for some context. 🙂

Hmm, Riley. Intriguing assignment. The post above includes an exercise for writing a dream sequence. Perhaps it will help.

What if the character is dead and she’s looking back on her life in a dream sort of way?

I know my comment seems kind of late. But, I am really thankful I managed to land in this blog. I am currently writing a story in Wattpad. Somehow, I’m stuck with a bad case of Writer’s Block. I am trying to write a dream scene of a man who lost his memory. I wanted him to dream about his past conversations with his girlfriend. I’m not sure if i have to write so vaguely like what a dream should really be. Or, maybe if i should write the whole conversation clearly like a real scene in a waking life.

I’m thinking…..if the character has lost their memory would it be more interesting to have bits and pieces of conversations zinging through his view of the dream? Bits of conversations with greater significance that can be redressed in more of his dreams until the bits and pieces converge to become mostly whole conversations that eventually surface during his times being awake. He might hear someone having a conversation and connects with something said that resembles the dream sequence bits and pieces jogging his memory of past realities. I’m Rosalie. I got excited and created a run-on conversation. I hope your story turns out great!

I love it so much

Thank you, well written. Your example from Paul Yoon’s Snow Hunters was clear, to the point, and beautiful like poetry. I understand now.

I am writing a short story for a college creative writing course. I want to start the story with a dream sequence. Any ideas about how to start???

The playful momentum makes this writing exercise seem to be one to be accomplished with ease….what fun it is going to be. Thank you very much….Rosalie

Hi Michael – How does a “vision” sequence differ from a dream sequence? My college-age protagonist begins having visions as if she’s seeing memories/experiences through someone else’s eyes. Someone very significant (but she doesn’t discover this until much later in the story). These episodes hit her unexpectedly and have a dream like quality but she’s wide awake going about her day. Her reaction is vital to the story plot as it propels her on a quest for information about her past. Is the approach to writing a vision similar to writing a dream? How do you think they differ?

Sounds like they’re a little different, Dana. When a dream ends and a character wakes up, it negates everything that we learned in the dream (unless the dream can predict the future). But if the vision is a sight of something that is real or that will be, then it carries story weight.

Thank you, Michael. The visions do carry story weight but the protagonist doesn’t initially understand what is happening or what the visions mean. I want the reader to experience them alongside the protagonist. I used a modified version of your exercise (my protagonist isn’t sleep walking through the university library) as a guide to write a first draft. The sights and sounds drift in as they would before a dream and then the vision happens. I kept writing short and simple but sensory-rich. Her reaction brings her back to the present moment. Thanks again.

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Writing About Dreams and Nightmares

Dreams and nightmares can play a large part in people’s lives, but because of their unstructured and confusing nature, it can be difficult to include them in a story. To make it even more difficult, the majority of a dream is forgotten within the first few minutes after waking up! How are you supposed to write about something when your own experience with it is only ever a fleeting memory?

There are many ways to write about dreams in fiction, but they generally must serve a different purpose than dreams in real life. Some people could argue that real dreams have deeper meanings, but in a story, they really have to have a clear purpose. You shouldn’t just use a dream to break up a story or create comic relief. Keep that in mind before you decide to include a dream in your story.

Is Writing About Dreams a Bad Idea?

Of course not. Writing about dreams is not an inherently bad idea. A good writer can make anything interesting to read, so if your story needs a dream sequence for some particular reason, you absolutely should write it.

However, the people that vehemently stand by the assertion that it should never be done do have good reason to be grumpy about it. It is extremely easy to mess up a dream sequence, in an absolutely infinite number of ways. In fact, a good majority of attempted dream sequences are poorly executed.

Dreams are confusing by nature, so when you try to write about them, you risk confusing your readers. No one wants to read a story when they have no idea what’s even going on. No amount of fantastical imagery can keep a confused or frustrated reader holding on for too long—they’re bound to skip ahead, or stop reading altogether. Acknowledging that is the first step towards crafting a memorable dream sequence that won’t drive your readers mad.

What Makes a Dream Sequence Good or Bad?

A poorly executed dream sequence can take many different forms. They can be frustratingly vague or too overwhelming, or they can just be downright boring. Although dreams should be confusing, bad dream sequences usually take that too far and construct a narrative that is so confusing that it is rendered completely pointless. And if something in your story doesn’t serve a purpose, it shouldn’t be included.

Another thing that really bothers readers is trickery regarding dreams. It’s just a really really bad idea to disguise a dream as being part of the true narrative. When something significant happens and the character later wakes up to reveal that it was all just a dream, that can be upsetting for a reader. If you need to use a dream to trick the character, make the fact that it’s a dream obvious to the reader—or at least vaguely hinted at.

A good dream sequence is one that serves a legitimate purpose in the context of the story. Dreams can be a powerful tool for giving insight into a character’s personality and struggles, creating meaning from a scene, or emphasizing something else in the narrative. A shocking situation could leave a character fixated on an event, in which case it can be a great technique to use dreams to show how they were affected. In other words, the dream has to mean something. It must be symbolic, haunting, or revealing, and it should contribute to the plot or character in some way.

There are many other ways to make or break a dream sequence, but I’ll get to more specific examples later on.

Is There a Better Way?

There are times when it is more appropriate to use a dream than other times. If dreams play a large storytelling role in the narrative, it’s fine to go a bit overboard with them. However, in most normal situations, there’s almost always a better way to present information than with dreams.

Try to think about what you want to achieve. If you’re using it to reveal backstory for a character, then you might want to hold off. Using dreams as flashbacks can make it unclear what parts of the dream are real, and what parts are just the usual dream nonsense. Dreams can be memories, especially if they’re recurring nightmares from a traumatic experience, but you should establish that outside of the dreamscape beforehand.

As a general rule, using dreams in your story should be a last resort. If you’re considering using a dream in your story, try to think about other ways the same information could be given to the readers. If you can’t come up with anything, then go ahead and move forward with using the dream.

Common Mistakes Writers Make When Writing About Dreams

The biggest way that writers can mess up a dream sequence is by leaning too far into the extremes.

Sometimes, a written dream sequence comes across as indistinguishable from reality. Sure, some dreams can feel sort of real while you’re experiencing, but it’s generally a bad idea to write it like that without some sort of indication that it’s a dream. Making a dream feel too much like a character’s waking life doesn’t make for a very convincing dream. Worse yet, readers could misunderstand and assume it isn’t a dream at all.

Other times, writers really crank up the craziness of dreams, to a degree that is too difficult to understand to be meaningful. Writers try to cram as many weird and conflicting details into a dream as possible, rendering it confusing, uncomfortable, and just downright unpleasant for readers to try to decipher. If a dream doesn’t make sense, then it does not help your story at all. And if something isn’t necessary, it needs to be taken out.

Writing the Transition from Awake to Dreaming

Falling asleep can be a difficult thing to write, but it’s probably best not to overthink it in most cases. Avoid the cliches, and don’t overcomplicate it. Unless you have a good reason to focus on the process of falling asleep, you could just have the character lay down and then skip right to being asleep.

For the first few minutes of being asleep, the character will be in stage one of the sleep cycle, which means they will be mildly alert and easy to wake up. Sometimes dreams occur in this stage, but they more closely resemble passing thoughts or daydreams. If other sounds are happening around the character as they are in this stage, they may incorporate into the character’s dreams.

As the character descends further into unconsciousness, that alertness begins to fade, and they enter the second stage of the sleep cycle. Brain waves begin to slow down in preparation for deep sleep. No dreams occur in this stage of sleep, and it is still relatively easy to wake someone up at this stage.

For a deeper explanation of how to write about a character falling asleep, take a moment to look at my other article: How to Write a Character Falling Asleep in First-Person .

How People Dream

When someone falls asleep, they don’t just dream the entire time . A sleeper cycles between Non-REM, or deep sleep, and REM sleep, which is the dream sleep. Those are the third and fourth stages of the sleep cycle. The average person cycles in and out of REM sleep about six times per night, but that varies from person to person, as well as how long the individual is asleep. In addition to producing dreams, the brain uses REM sleep to organize the experiences of the day and store them in long-term memory.

This cycle of deep and dream sleep often results in dreams having a sort of fragmented quality, where the scene seems to shift suddenly or change altogether. A dream with a more linear narrative is common, but some elements still tend to change between REM cycles. Another consequence of the dream cycle is that the entire dream, or sections of it, could simply repeat itself. Some things may change in the repetitions, the character could become aware that they are dreaming, or they may forget that the repetitions even occurred.

Another thing to keep in mind with dreams is the passage of time. When a person is asleep, their perception of time is altered, and they may experience a dream that feels quite brief or drawn out. The length of the dream has very little to do with the amount of time actually spent asleep.

Now, this of course only applies to natural sleep. There are many other ways dreams can be induced, like with drugs, psychosis, hypnosis, and a multitude of other options. The dreams experienced in these altered states are going to operate differently from regular REM sleep, and you may need to do some additional research on those topics to be able to craft a dream that fits the situation.

The Dream’s Purpose in Your Story

Once you have decided to move forward with writing a dream, you need to consider what you want it to achieve. What do you want it to do for the story? What impact should it have on the character? How do you want the readers to feel about it? How is it going to complicate the narrative?

There are several different kinds of dreams you can utilize for different purposes, but each one can be tailor-fit to the vibe you want to convey. Any of these categories can also apply to nightmares, or they can evolve from or into a nightmare. A dream can also serve more than one purpose at a time, so don’t feel as though any of these categories are limiting you and the things your writing can achieve.

Foreshadowing

Dreams are often utilized to foreshadow an event taking place later on in the story. This can take the form of a premonition, a telekinetic message, or heavy symbolism, but no matter how you choose to convey it, you should be cautious about how explicit the message is. Being too obvious about the foreshadowing ruins the effect and makes the dream feel more magical—which can be problematic if you’re writing realistic fiction.

If the dream is a result of some magical element, then the character could receive a more explicit warning about something, but that is usually for the effect of avoiding something and is not necessarily foreshadowing.

This type of dream can easily apply to nightmares as well. In fact, it lends itself better to being a bad dream than otherwise. A character could have a dream that symbolizes their impending doom. Which, you know, probably isn’t a fun dream to have.

Realization

REM sleep is a time when the brain synthesizes all the information it gathered throughout the day. If a character has been mulling over a problem, things may fall into place after they begin to dream. For storytelling’s sake, you could illustrate them solving a problem in their dreams that is representative of the problem they have to deal with in their waking life. Then, they could jerk awake with the sudden realization, having finally discovered a solution to their problem.

This also applies to anything that could be confusing for the character. If they are a researcher trying to translate an ancient tome, they could have some revelation about cross-referencing the tome with a different artifact when the artifact comes to them in their dream. If the character is debating what birthday gift to get for a friend, the idea could come to them in their sleep because of a memory of the friend. If the character is trying to write a scene for their book, they could potentially dream a scene that perfectly fits into their story.

To turn this dream into a nightmare, the realization could be something more horrifying, instead of a convenient solution. The character may realize after they fall asleep that their new roommate fits the description of a wanted criminal. Or, they might dream of a house fire and wake up with the realization that they left the oven on.

Internal Conflict

This kind of dream also results from the character experiencing a problem, like with the realization dream, except they aren’t quite lucky enough to get a convenient solution presented to them in a neatly packaged dream. Instead, the internal conflict dream usually occurs when there is a difficult decision that the character has to make, or if they have to do something that they are not looking forward to.

Usually, this dream is a nightmare. Characters will dream about the event or decision, and the dream will play out all the ways the situation could possibly (or impossibly) go wrong. If the character is dreading making a decision, the dreams are bound to reflect all the reasons why each choice is bad. This could be the case if a character is considering breaking up with their significant other. On the one hand, they could continue to be miserable in their relationship and life, but on the other hand, they could end up dying alone.

If, however, the character is dreading a particular event, like having to make a speech, then they will likely dream of all the worst things that could happen during that speech. The audience may laugh, they could trip on their way to the podium, or maybe they’ll even get shot! Regardless of how unlikely a situation is to actually happen, it could still be a source of anxiety for the character.

Recurring

Recurring dreams are dreams that repeat at any interval. A character could experience a recurring dream every single night, every week, or even years apart. These dreams are also often used in conjunction with the foreshadowing type since a recurring dream can have serious narrative implications.

There are a few reasonable explanations for recurring dreams. The first is an obsession of some kind. People develop fixations on items, events, people, or locations, and then those fixations can reinforce (and be reinforced by) a specific recurring dream. This is great if you want to show a character’s slow descent into madness since constantly being bombarded with the same dream could make an obsession even harder to manage. Consider a character that is obsessed with another person, and continues to have the same dream of them getting married every single night. That’s a great recipe for driving the character to kidnapping.

Another reason for recurring dreams is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) . A character that experienced or witnessed something traumatic or dangerous may have recurring nightmares about the traumatic event. This layers with the flashback type of dream, even if the dream deviates a bit from actual history.

Flashbacks should generally not be presented in the form of dreams, but if you want a way to present them more naturally than simply cutting to the past, you could give it try. Flashbacks are a way of giving the readers some backstory to support the main narrative, but they can also be a way of exploring the psyche of the dreaming character.

When a character experiences a flashback dream, it is commonly something traumatic, or involving memories that they would rather not acknowledge. If you wanted to put an interesting spin on the flashbacks, you could make the memories something the character had effectively repressed, either as a coping mechanism or with some sort of magical intervention. The character would therefore not think of the dream as representing a real memory, which could be an interesting plot point.

Sleep Paralysis

When a person falls asleep, the brain essentially paralyzes the sleeper so their body doesn’t move as a reaction to whatever they are dreaming. This is called “ atonia ,” and it is an evolutionary reaction that prevents the person from hurting themself while they are asleep. However, some people experience this paralysis in the minutes before or after being asleep as well, which is part of the reason they might experience a phenomenon known as “sleep paralysis.”

During an episode of sleep paralysis, the character would be unable to move or speak. This is accompanied by a terrifying hallucination, often described as a demon approaching the immobile person. The hallucination can also take the form of another person that the character fears or some other thing that they are afraid of, like a swarm of spiders.

Although sleep paralysis is a hallucination and not a dream, it is still closely related to the topic of nightmares.

A lucid dream is a dream in which the person experiencing it is aware that they are dreaming. Sometimes, as a result of that, the dreamer gains some sort of control over the way the dream plays out. Sometimes that means only controlling their own reactions in the dream, and other times it means exercising control over the main narrative and setting.

A lucid dream can become a nightmare if the character has control over their own body, but not the setting around them. Even if the character is aware of the fact that it is a dream, they may see grotesque or haunting images, or situations that force them to face things they are afraid of. At times, a lucid nightmare can be worse than a regular nightmare, since the character would know that the nightmare would end if they could only wake up.

Telepathic dreams are when magical influence allows one character to send dreams to another, or to experience the same dream at the same time. Since this type of dream purely exists within the realm of magic, there are no hard and fast rules. Traditional understandings of dreams do not apply, so… go nuts.

How to Make Dreams Stand Out in Your Story

When writing a dream, it is important to format the text differently from how you ordinarily would write the rest of the story. This is especially important if dreams are going to play a large part in the story, or if you have more than one.

Having a recognizable format for writing dreams can be helpful for a few reasons. For one thing, it allows you to include multiple dreams in a story without having to explain that it’s a dream every time, and makes it obvious that the dream is removed from the character’s reality. More importantly, however, it allows you to manipulate the way the dream feels.

There are several ways to manipulate the format of the text to make a dream stand out. If the dream is supposed to be fuzzy and sort of numb, try adding… ellipses… to give readers the sense that the dream… lags. This can emphasize that… dreamy feeling… and it… makes it obvious that the character isn’t… really… fully aware.

A simpler way of setting dreams apart is to put them in italics. This works better if the tone of the dream isn’t meant to be slow or dreamy, making it great for nightmares or premonitions. However, using italics is a popular method of showing thoughts or writings, so if you’ve already decided to use italics to format something else, don’t use it for dreams.

You could also set dreams apart by using a noticeably different font. This can also be a helpful tool for setting the tone of the dreams, since some fonts can appear rigid, playful, or timid. However, you should be aware that deviating from traditional fonts might make your text more difficult for some people to read.

You could also try bolded text, or bolded and italicized text, to try to set the dream apart. This could work well if nightmares are the focus, but it doesn’t work as well for most other dreams, since it’s a little too bold to properly represent the subconscious. Also, like with italicization, be aware that this is often used to format other things.

Another option is to change the point of view. If the POV is typically in first-person, try jumping into third person for the duration of the dream. If the POV is in closed third-person, try shifting to an omniscient perspective, or vice versa. This can dramatically change the way a scene is perceived.

How to Write a Character Waking Up from a Dream

In real life, people begin to forget their dreams within minutes of waking up. However, most characters in fiction don’t forget their dreams, otherwise it wouldn’t serve much of a purpose. They can forget bits and pieces of the dream over time, though, which can be helpful for building tension. That can be a great way of having the character blunder through something they don’t remember when the readers know they were warned about the situation in their dream.

If the character does remember the majority of their dream, spend some time to write about their reaction to it as they are waking up. Do they jolt awake, and is it because of a nightmare or revelation? Are they used to having strange or frightening dreams? How do they interpret it? Do they tell someone else about their dream after the fact? If the dream is going to be an important part of the story (which it should be, if you chose to include it), then give the character some space to try to interpret it outside of the dream itself.

For a more comprehensive explanation of writing about waking up in various cases, check out my article When and How to Write a Character Waking Up .

Dreams as Recollections

If writing the dreams themselves are causing you too much trouble, don’t let that get in the way of you finishing your story. Skipping over the dream sequence and interpreting it only from what the character remembers is just as viable of an option, if not more so. You cut out the risk of boring or confusing your readers, and you can reveal things about the dream over time as it is convenient or relevant.

Presenting only a character’s recollections of the dream can also be useful if the character has recurring dreams. There’s no need to show the dreams themselves over and over if they are the same every time. And often, showing what effect the dreams or nightmares have on the character can be a more interesting plot point than the actual content of the dream.

One Final Suggestion

It is important to keep in mind that people dream primarily in images, so make sure there is a lot of descriptive language and many visual details in the dreams you write. Play with the setting, and use the visual details to hint at the kind of dream the character is about to experience. Characters may also have a difficult time remembering what anyone in the dream says, so focus less on dialogue and more on what the character sees.

Good luck, and remember to keep dreaming, writers!

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Do You Dream In Paragraphs? Mine Your Dreams For Writing Ideas

by Writer's Relief Staff | Inspiration And Encouragement For Writers , The Writing Life | 12 comments

Review Board is now open! Submit your Short Prose, Poetry, and Book today!

Deadline: thursday, april 18th.

If a writer can forge a link between the imagery and symbolism of their dreams and the power of their own writing, creative sparks will fly. Sometimes a snippet of a dream is all it takes to inspire a poem, story, or novel.

Examples Of Stories That Were Sprung From Dreams

Richard Bach was moved to write the first few chapters of Jonathan Livingston Seagull after he heard “a disembodied voice” whisper the title in his ear. But it wasn’t until eight years later, after a dream that featured the famous seagull, that he was able to finish his hugely popular novella.

Stephen King , too, has looked to dreams for inspiration. In Writers Dreaming by Naomi Epel, King says, “…when I got road-blocked in my novel It, I had a dream about leeches inside discarded refrigerators. I immediately woke up and thought, ‘That is where this is supposed to go.’”

Mary Shelley wasn’t even fully asleep—she lay down and closed her eyes and was haunted by a ghastly mental image that inspired her to write Frankenstein . “I began that day with the words, ‘It was on a dreary night of November,’ making only a transcript of the grim terrors of my waking dream.”

Even if a writer’s dreams don’t have a direct influence on their work, their creative energy can generate forward movement. Maurice Sendak, in Writers Dreaming , says, “What dreams do is raise the emotional level of what I’m doing at the moment. They add color or counterpoint to the work, acting as an almost symphonic accompaniment to what I’m doing.”

How to Make the Most of Your Dreams

1. Pay attention to your dreams and jot down notes about them as soon as possible when you wake up. You may be able to glean general ideas—themes, plot, characters, or settings—from the wild tangle of images, if not the full concept of a novel. Dreams can certainly be a jumping-off point for the creative process.

2. Try making a conscious effort, before going to sleep, to be present and aware in your dreams that night. Some people describe being aware of dreaming while in the midst of a dream and are able to participate more fully in the dream or even direct it to a certain extent—something that would certainly take some practice, but what fun it would be!

3. If you’re suffering from writer’s block or faced with a seemingly insurmountable plot problem, concentrate on the problem right before drifting off. Your subconscious may work to resolve the dilemma overnight and either reveal a resolution in a dream or upon awakening.

“The brain is so strange and wondrous in its mystery. I think it creates a number of things for itself—it creates launching pads and resting places—and it lets steam off and it reworks itself.” (Maya Angelou, Writers Dreaming )

Simply be aware of the process—and the power—of dreaming to tap into that creative energy—and use it to your writing advantage!

12 Comments

I’ve never written anything inspired by my dreams…yet! But, it sounds like a great idea when you’re blocked…let your subconscious be creative for you! This is also a great way to let dreams work for you, since writing dream sequences into your fiction is usually considered taboo…an easy crutch to open your story.

I have a feeling that most of my dream-inspired work would be scary and disturbing since I tend to only remember my nightmares! But, that could be a good thing!

I dreamed once that I could read through my own eyelids. That was pretty cool. I got a lot of work done in my sleep.

I have so many strange and interesting and sometimes terrifying dreams that I probably could write a book from them. Thank you for the suggestion.

A few years ago I started leaving a note pad and pen on my night table,I have many plots,and un finished stories.It would be wonderful if I could put them all together into something worth reading.I have writing software,it has not helped me much.I had one dream where whole coversations were laid out for me,it was strange.

Yes, I am a constant and vivid dreamer. I have taken dream workshops. Once I wrote a question on paper, tucked it under my pillow and awoke in the middle of the night to record the rather simple and very graphic dream which on a closer look contained a complete and reasonable answer. I wrote another question and by morning got that question answered as well.

I once had a rather violent dream. As with all my dreams, I immediately recorded it. Sometimes during the recording, the dream’s meaning becomes very clear;this time it did not.( It is essential to record the dream and to do it ASAP. Paper and pen are always at my bedside or even on the bed.) Weeks or even months later, that violent dream become, all-of-a-piece, a poem. That poem was chosen for publication in an anthology on relationship violence.

Our dreams are a gift. Ask for them. Expect them.

When I was writing my novel my brain never stopped working on it. But I didn’t dream in paragraphs, I dreamed in scenes. I’d wake up with an entire dialogue in my head and in the a.m. I’d write it down immediately at the breakfast table. What a high that was – no drugs or alcohol required!

I do, frequently, actually, sometimes a voice asks me to write it down and share. I’m awaiting response on one dream in fiction submission to a literary mag now. 🙂

I recently had a lucid dream in colour and soft sound. It was such an awesome concept I am planning to write if not a full novel, maybe a short story featuring what it was I dreamt of. Will need a lot of fermenting in my mind first though.

You can program your unconscious to dream story ideas or the way out of the corner you’ve written yourself into. You can also program yourself to remember our dreams,so you can get the benefit of this useful talent. And it’s not hard to do…

This is a great idea because I always have crazy dreams and I be thinking wow that could be a movie. Well all movies start off as books anyways! Definitely going to try this idea.

Great! Good luck! 🙂

I actually record my dreams tho I don’t understand some of them

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Freud on Creative Writing and Daydreaming

By maria popova.

Predictably, Freud begins by tracing the subject matter to its roots in childhood, stressing, as Anaïs Nin eloquently did — herself trained in psychoanalysis — the importance of emotional investment in creative writing :

Should we not look for the first traces of imaginative activity as early as in childhood? The child’s best-loved and most intense occupation is with his play or games. Might we not say that every child at play behaves like a creative writer, in that he creates a world of his own, or, rather, rearranges the things of his world in a new way which pleases him? It would be wrong to think he does not take that world seriously; on the contrary, he takes his play very seriously and he expends large amounts of emotion on it. The opposite of play is not what is serious but what is real. In spite of all the emotion with which he cathects his world of play, the child distinguishes it quite well from reality; and he likes to link his imagined objects and situations to the tangible and visible things of the real world. This linking is all that differentiates the child’s ‘play’ from ‘phantasying.’ The creative writer does the same as the child at play. He creates a world of phantasy which he takes very seriously — that is, which he invests with large amounts of emotion — while separating it sharply from reality.

He then considers, as Henry Miller did in his famous creative routine three decades later, the time scales of the creative process:

The relation of phantasy to time is in general very important. We may say that it hovers, as it ware, between three times — the three moments of time which our ideation involves. Mental work is linked to some current impression, some provoking occasion in the present which has been able to arouse one of the subject’s major wishes. From here it harks back to a memory of an earlier experience (usually an infantile one) in which this wish was fulfilled; and now it creates a situation relating to the future which represents the fulfillment of the wish. What it thus creates is a day-dream or phantasy, which carries about it traces of its origin from the occasion which provoked it and from the memory. Thus, past, present and future are strung together, as it were, on the thread of the wish that runs through them.

He synthesizes the parallel between creative writing and play:

A piece of creative writing, like a day-dream, is a continuation of, and a substitute for, what was once the play of childhood.

He goes on to explore the secretive nature of our daydreams, suggesting that an element of shame keeps us from sharing them with others — perhaps what Jack Kerouac meant when he listed the unspeakable visions of the individual as one of his iconic beliefs and techniques for prose — and considers how the creative writer transcends that to achieve pleasure in the disclosure of these fantasies:

How the writer accomplishes this is his innermost secret; the essential ars poetica lies in the technique of overcoming the feeling of repulsion in us which is undoubtedly connected with the barriers that rise between each single ego and the others. We can guess two of the methods used by this technique. The writer softens the character of his egoistic day-dreams by altering and disguising it, and he bribes us by the purely formal — that is, aesthetic — yield of pleasure which he offers us in the presentation of his phantasies. We give the name of an incentive bonus , or a fore-pleasure , to a yield of pleasure such as this, which is offered to us so as to make possible the release of still greater pleasure arising from deeper psychical sources. In my opinion, all the aesthetic pleasure which a creative writer affords us has the character of a fore-pleasure of this kind, and our actual enjoyment of an imaginative work proceeds from a liberation of tensions in our minds. It may even be that not a little of this effect is due to the writer’s enabling us thenceforward to enjoy our own day-dreams without self-reproach or shame.

For more famous insights on writing, see Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 rules for a great story , David Ogilvy’s 10 no-bullshit tips , Henry Miller’s eleven commandments , Jack Kerouac’s 30 beliefs and techniques , John Steinbeck’s six pointers , and Susan Sontag’s synthesized learnings .

— Published October 15, 2012 — https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/10/15/freud-creative-writers-and-day-dreaming/ —

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How to Harvest a Dream Journal for Writing Inspiration

by Melissa Donovan | Sep 7, 2021 | Creative Writing | 17 comments

Harvest your dream journal for writing inspiration.

There’s something mysterious and magical about dreams. In the dreamworld, anything is possible. Our deepest desires and greatest fears come to life. Whether they haunt or beguile, our dreams represent the far reaches of our imaginations.

Journals can have similar qualities of mystery and intrigue. If your journal is full of freewrites, doodles, cryptic notes, and random ideas, then it might read like a road map through your imagination, or it may feel like a crash course through your subconscious.

Journaling is an excellent tool for dream exploration, and dreams are a spectacular source of inspiration for writing.

You can tap into your daydreams or your sleeping dreams as a way to inform and inspire your journal writing:

Record your dreams so you can better understand them.
Capture the images in your dreams and turn them into poems and song lyrics.
Transform monsters from your nightmares into creepy villains for your short stories or novels.
Incorporate your dreams into your memoirs and personal essays.
Use your dreams to guide your free-writing sessions.

Understanding Dreams

Dreams have been a subject of great interest in the fields of neurology, psychology, and spirituality, to name a few. Yet we still know relatively little about the nature of dreams. Where do they come from? What do they mean? In one dream, you’re working out problems from your subconscious, and in the next, you’re a character from your favorite TV show. The white rabbit in your dream symbolizes a call to adventure, but the white rabbit in your best friend’s dream represents fertility.

According to Wikipedia:

Dreams are a succession of images, sounds or emotions that pass through the mind during sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not fully understood, though they have been a topic of speculation and interest throughout recorded history. The scientific study of dreams is known as oneirology.

Like I said, we know relatively little about dreams. But that doesn’t mean we can’t put them to good use. Throughout history, dreams have often acted as catalysts for artists, writers, musicians, and inventors. Here are a few famous literary works that were affected or derived from authors’ dreams (aff links):

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Stephen King’s Misery

Keeping a Dream Journal

Dreamer’s Journal (aff link).

Keep your journal by your bed and jot down your dreams as soon as you wake, before you even get out of bed (otherwise you risk losing or forgetting the dream). It only takes a few minutes.

Dreams are tricky; sometimes they hang around for days, lingering in your mind, but other times, they can’t run away fast enough. Outsmart your dreams by writing them down immediately. Work fast, jotting down a few words and images to keep the dream fresh.

You can create a special journal just for your dreams, or you can stash them in any other journal you’re already keeping. You can even find special journals that are designed for capturing dreams, and some of them will look lovely on your bedside table .

Do you have trouble remembering your dreams? You can train yourself to retain them better. As you fall asleep, repeat a mantra that directs your mind to dream and remember your dreams. For example: “I will dream tonight, and I will remember my dreams when I wake.” This is proven to work, and you can find plenty of resources packed with techniques for better dream recall . It might take a while, but it can be done.

Let’s dive right in to what Wikipedia has to say about daydreams:

While daydreaming has long been derided as a lazy, non-productive pastime, it is now commonly acknowledged that daydreaming can be constructive in some contexts. There are numerous examples of people in creative or artistic careers, such as composers, novelists and filmmakers, developing new ideas through daydreaming.

The imagination is a bizarre and wondrous thing. Humans have the capacity to conjure up incredible things, but contrary to popular opinion, using one’s imagination requires time and energy. It might look like you’re sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing. But who knows? You could be plotting the next Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

In some ways, daydreams are a better source of inspiration for journal writing than nighttime dreams. Since you’re awake, you can take breaks from your daydreams to jot down notes. You’re also more likely to retain a daydream because you’re awake for it.

Harvest Your Dream Journal for Writing Inspiration

Dreams are borne of human consciousness and imagination, which provide an endless stream of writing ideas and inspiration. Your dream journal can function as a repository for all of these visions, and you can peruse your dream journal as an incredible idea warehouse at any time for any type of writing project.

Want more tips on journaling? Check out A Guide to Journaling for Writers

Discussion Questions

Do you ever write down your dreams? Have you ever kept a dream journal? Has a dream (daydream or night-dream) ever provided inspiration for your writing? Is journal writing a habit for you? How often do you write in your journal, and how do you use it with your other writing projects?

Ready Set Write a Guide to Creative Writing

17 Comments

Great post, Melissa!

I use my dreams as the foundation to many of my short stories. I don’t physically journal them but my “head journal” is chock full of past dreams. And when something triggers a recall of one of these dreams, I find that the stories almost write themselves, they are so vivid.

You see, in my worldview, there is the sleeping dream and the waking dream. In effect, we make our own movie as our minds rewind and then are reset with things from our so-called awake time. The song “Life is But a Dream” is truer than you would think.

Yes, I am a daydreamer of the first magnitude (as witnessed by my elementary school report cards!) but I truly have the last laugh as the fiction that I write as an adult wins me praise from my readers. Many comment on my bravery or wish they had said “that.” I say to them: don’t worry about looking foolish. The great artists always took great risks. And many were not understood or appreciated until much later, when society was made ready to receive their advanced inspiration.

It always amazes me how aspiring writers want to emulate other writers of their favorite genre. I say to these folks: OK, write what you like, but in my book, I admire that chosen few who color WAY out of the conventional lines and literally create their own genre. That is what advances art.

Wayne C. Long Writer/Editor/Digital Publisher

I’ve thought about doing a post on the “head journal.” We writers can’t always record our thoughts and ideas, and I imagine many of us have quite a bit of fodder stored upstairs.

I agree that writers and other artists who choose to ignore convention deserve our admiration and respect for the risks that they take. Yet I also appreciate it when writers do stick with convention. Both approaches can lead to excellence.

I once wrote a short story based on a dream. I dreamed about an ex-boyfriend who I’d lost touch with and woke up with a story about what had happened to him in my head. It was great. I love what Wayne said about daydreaming, too, I think it is a lost art!

“Lost art” is a good way to put it. Thanks for sharing your experience with writing a story based on a dream.

Melissa, I thoroughly enjoyed your post on Dreams and Journal Writing. You give such vibrant examples of how you can use daily and nightly dream journaling to enhance your life and your writing. I’ve been keeping a dream journal for over a year, faithfully recording whatever dreams I remember in the fullest detail possible. I understand the benefits of seeing the recurring themes that emerge. You can read about my dream journaling in my blog post, Dream Telling: http://www.journalingsaves.com/dream-journal .

I have chosen your post, Dreams and Journal Writing, for the #JournalChat Pick of the Day on 12/22/10 for all things journaling on Twitter. I will post a link on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and my blog, Refresh with Dawn Herring.

You’re welcome to follow my @JournalChat account for all things journaling on Twitter. 🙂

Thanks for such a wonderful, thoroughly written, enjoyable post!

Be refreshed, Dawn Herring JournalWriter Freelance @JournalChat on Twitter

Hi Dawn. Thank you for sharing the link to your article about dream journaling and for making this post the #journalChat pick of the day. What an honor!

I wrote my first novella on this idea of dream and subsconcious as pathways to our self-understanding. Still polishing it. I enjoyed reading this post, more so because I was facing a problem recently.

Does anyone have any idea why we do remember some dreams and not others?

I used to get forward flashes at times too, and dreams were always there to guide me about what bothered me in real life. I would then wake up and write them down and go on an analysis marathon. Now I can barely remember the dreams when I wake up!

I don’t know why we remember some dreams and not others, but I do know there are many exercises for promoting healthy dream recall. I included a link in the post, and you can probably find a lot more information on dream recall by conducting an online search or by visiting your local library or bookstore. One simple tip is this: before you fall asleep, tell yourself that you’ll dream and remember your dreams when you wake up. Turn this into an affirmation and repeat it to yourself when you’re lying in bed. I’ve found this simple action is hugely helpful for improving dream recall.

Will surely try that one. Thanks. Great post. 🙂

Thanks for your wonderful post, Melissa. I do journal regularly, and I have studied dreams in graduate courses on Freud and Lacan, but those explanations of where dreams come from and what they mean were not that helpful to me creatively.

I love your way of looking at it: “we know relatively little about dreams. But that doesn’t mean we can’t put them to good use.” Great point! And so true of a lot of what goes into our writing — we might not know where it comes from, but it bubbles and churns and something comes alive…..

I’ve heard that dreams are an exaggerated version of what we are living day-to-day… I’ve also heard that they are a place where we dump psychological stuff that we don’t need — kind of like a place to put the detritus of our lives, things that have entered our consciousness that we don’t want to focus on.

Dreams may be both of these, or neither. But if they tell us the underside — what we don’t want to look at — or if they exaggerate what we’re focused on in our daily lives, either way, they’re a wonderful resource. What a rich place to turn to for our writing.

I have sometimes incorporated dreams in my writing, but not nearly as often as might. But when I do turn to dreams, I find it is an amazing trip…..

Thanks for the great reminder. I’ll turn back to dreams once again, and see what arises……

Hi Michele. I have always found dreams to be fascinating — all the more so because we know so little about them. I personally think they have a range of functions, depending on the dreamer’s needs. Symbolism in dreams varies from person to person (depending on how each individual interprets any given symbol), so it makes sense that their very purpose varies as well. One dream’s purpose might be to clear out clutter while another serves to work out issues. It’s just an idea I’ve been toying with. Maybe someday science will finally figure it out.

Hi Melissa,

Interesting post as well as the replys that accompanied it. I’ve read some books (self help) that actually recommend journaling your dreams as they may hold some certain insights as to what your subconscious is trying to say to you. Your article made me think that this might be worth pursing, especially now that I’ve started writing more and taking my writing seriously. It may turn out to be a good source of inspiratio. The thing about my dreams though is they hardly make any sense to me at all. Perhaps I should stop trying to make any sense and just write what I dreamt. We’ll just have to see.

Hi Anthony. I think it’s a good idea to write down the dream and worry about what it means later (or not at all), especially if your reason for recording the dream is to gain inspiration for writing. I know that dreams are used and examined in many capacities, which is why the study of dreams is almost as fascinating as the dreams themselves. Good luck to you.

I want to add a couple of cautions about using a character’s dreams in fiction. First, interior monologue (a character’s thoughts) is usually the least interesting aspect of a novel, and should always be made as short as possible. But dreams aren’t just interior monologue, they are uncontrolled interior monologue, meaning that not only does the reader have to listen to the character think, the reader has to listen to the character think a dream, and as we all know, dreams are flighty, and because they aren’t even anchored in the story—they are dreams floating in the character’s head—are seldom of interest. If the dream isn’t flighty, it isn’t credible. And a second reason dreams are a problem in a novel is that a story demands the reader suspend disbelief. The reader is sitting in a chair reading a novel, and the reader knows that the story isn’t really happening, that it is only words on a page. But the reader suspends disbelief because he wants to enjoy the story as it unfolds. But a dream asks the reader to suspend disbelief twice; once for the story, and then again for the dream. The dream is fiction within fiction. This double suspension is often too much for readers. It brings their heads up from the pages. But most importantly, agents and editors flip through pages containing dreams. They simply aren’t interested. There are exceptions. If the character is Orual in C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces, a retelling of the story of Cupid and Psyche, and Orual’s dreams are messages from the gods, then maybe a dream sequence is fine. But this is an exception.

James, you make some good points about interior monologue and dreams in a work of fiction. I’m in agreement, but I have to point out that I’ve talked to many readers and writers who are fans of interior monologue — even some who enjoy works of fiction that mostly consist of characters’ inner thoughts. Personally, I prefer when the characters are revealed through the story’s action, and I think this is probably the majority opinion on the matter (thus the old adage: show, don’t tell).

When I was in university, I wrote a zine which was structured in the illogical time lapsing which dreams often move through. There are so many ways to use dreams in writing! I love this topic, thanks for writing about it.

Thanks, Terry!

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Do you use your dreams as inspiration?

I don’t usually have inspiring dreams – at least nothing I could write about but a few days ago I woke up after a long event-filled dream.

I had gone to bed early as I was feeling under the weather.

Instead of the sleepless night, I feared I might have had, I actually slept for almost ten full hours.

This is not like me as I usually get about six – to seven hours and any occasional early night is usually spent wide awake reading, or listening to audio-books.

This night was different and I woke up with my earphones still in my ears and my kindle under the covers with me.

The book I had been listening to was a non-fiction book and not particularly exciting as it was something I was reading for educational purposes rather than entertainment.

The book had simply played on until the end.

FULL-LENGTH DREAMS

I frequently have quite long drawn out dreams, but the dream I remembered after this night was like a full-length movie.

What was a bit strange was that I personally was in the dream.

What was even stranger was that I was watching the dream at the same time.

But, what was really, really strange was that the ‘full-length movie’ I was watching in the dream was a dystopian one.

I DREAM OF DYSTOPIA

The people in my dream society were divided into two distinct types with a large majority of one very particular type of person (in appearance and personality) and a tiny minority of others.

I was part of the minority of people and was trying to get to a place that I personally have never visited in my life unless you count television and movies, in which case I have visited this particular location quite often.

The dream was a lot more detailed than I am describing here, but I won’t get into those details because since that dream I have been experiencing a very strong urge to write a book based on the dream.

PLAYING TO MY STRENGTHS

Except for a film treatment which never actually got made I have never before written in the dystopian genre, having decided long ago to play to my creative strengths.

I don’t feel as experienced, or confident in this genre as I do in others, despite the fact that it is one of my favourite genres – to read.

Yet my dystopian dream story is turning into one of those ideas that never quite goes away.

My thoughts keep turning to this dream, even during swimming, which is one of the activities I use to ’empty’ my mind and relax.

In fact, I am thinking that another few hundred lengths down the swimming pool just might finish this story…

So what should I do? Take a chance and write something completely different? or not?

While considering the idea I googled ‘ books based on dreams’ and found this site which lists Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight , Stephen King’s Misery, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein among other books which were inspired by their author’s dream.

These authors seem to have been very inspired and highly motivated by their dreams and I must say following their dreams has certainly paid off for them.

I am still not sure – my gut is telling me I should write it but my brain is telling me not to waste my time on a project I may not be able to finish. I usually go with my gut, but…

Given my current indecisiveness what I will probably do is write a short outline and see how far that gets me. In the meantime, I will dream on…

Best wishes

If your dreams don’t inspire you, click here for some other ways to be inspired.

For some quick and easy creative writing exercises to help you get new ideas click here.

If you are feeling a bit blocked click here to learn how to beat the block.

PRACTICAL CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISES

Suffering from writer’s block? Stuck for ideas?

You won’t be able to stop writing because these beautiful and inspiring exercises will banish your writing block right now.

Never Be Stuck Again!

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24 Writing Prompts About Dreams

Let’s talk dreams!

Those crazy stories our minds cook up while we’re snoozing. They can be awesome, weird, or even downright scary, but they’re always interesting.

This post is all about writing prompts focusing on our dreams – the little ideas that spark a story within our minds.

So, if you’re a writer who needs a fresh idea or you’re just curious about dreams, buckle up!

We are about to dive into the wild world of your subconscious and see what weird and wonderful stories we can find.

A Dream That Comes True: Imagine a world where your dreams accurately predict the future . Your protagonist begins having a series of extraordinarily vivid dreams, each one becoming reality in a couple of days. However, one night , they dream of a catastrophic event. How will they handle the knowledge of this impending disaster , and how will they use their unique ability to alter the course of events?
The Interpreter of Dreams: Your main character is a therapist with an uncanny ability to interpret dreams with stunning accuracy. They’re well-known in their community , and people often seek them out for advice. One day, a client recounts a disturbing dream that seems to predict a major tragedy. How does your character deal with the ethical implications of this discovery, and what actions do they take?
A Lost Dream: In this story, the protagonist can no longer dream. They used to have the most vibrant and inspiring dreams which they turned into successful book plots. But one day, they just stopped. Explore how they cope with this loss and what lengths they are willing to go to retrieve their dreams.
A Shared Dream: Consider a world where two people can share the same dream. Your main characters have been best friends since childhood , experiencing shared dreams every night. One night, one of them dreams alone, discovering a secret the other had been keeping. How does this revelation affect their relationship in their waking lives, and what happens to their shared dream space ?
The Forgotten Dream: Your character wakes up from a dream that gave them an incredible idea or solution to a problem they’ve been struggling with. But they can’t remember it. They’re desperate to recall the dream because they know it holds the key to their troubles. Dive into the lengths they will go to uncover their forgotten dream and the effect this obsession has on their life .
Dreams as Escape: In this world, dreaming is a form of escapism, a vacation from reality. Your protagonist, a tired office worker , dreams of a magical world each night, full of adventures and exciting stories. One day, they find a hint in the real world pointing towards their dream world. How does this discovery blur the lines between their dreams and reality, and how do they reconcile their daily life with their dream escapades?
A Dream within a Dream: Your protagonist has a recurring dream where they meet a stranger who offers them life-altering advice. Each time they follow the advice, their life improves significantly. However, the stranger warns that the last advice they give will be the most critical but also the most dangerous. Explore the dilemma your character faces when they receive this final piece of advice, and whether they choose to implement it.
The Dream Healer: Imagine a world where healing and therapy take place in dreams. Your main character is a renowned ‘Dream Healer’ who enters patients’ dreams to help them overcome trauma. However, they must face their most challenging case yet, a patient whose dreamworld is so nightmarish, it threatens the healer’s sanity. Explore how the healer navigates this perilous dreamscape and the impact it has on them personally and professionally.
Dreams of the Past : Your protagonist has a peculiar ability to see their ancestors’ lives in their dreams. They’ve been using this as a means to understand their family history and roots better. However, one night, they witness a dark secret from the past that could disrupt their family’s harmony. How do they grapple with this newfound knowledge, and what decisions do they make moving forward?
The Dream Shop: In this world, dreams can be bought and sold. Your protagonist is an owner of a shop that sells these dreams. But when a dangerous criminal buys a dream that could potentially cause harm, the protagonist is faced with a moral dilemma. How does your character handle this situation, and what are the ramifications of selling dreams?
Dream Weaver: Your main character is a ‘Dream Weaver’, an individual who can manipulate dreams to change a person’s perspective or thinking. However, they become conflicted when asked to change someone’s dream for reasons that conflict with their ethical beliefs. What is the internal struggle they face, and what decision do they make?
A Dreamer’s Gift: In your story, people have lost the ability to dream except for your protagonist. Their dreams are vivid and meaningful, inspiring them to create beautiful works of art . Explore the protagonist’s journey of sharing their dreams through their art and how the world reacts to these ‘forgotten visions.’
In the Dream Realm: Consider a world where a parallel universe exists within dreams, an exact replica of our world but with different rules. Your character accidentally discovers a way to bring objects from the dream realm into reality. What consequences does this discovery bring, and how does this ability change their life?
The Dreamless Child: In a world where every child is born with a unique dream symbolizing their destiny, your protagonist is the only child born without a dream. Explore the challenges they face being ‘dreamless’, and how they strive to create their own destiny despite the societal norms.
The Night Terror: Your main character starts experiencing a night terror that seems too real to be just a dream. As the line between their dreams and reality begins to blur, they are forced to question their sanity. How does the character deal with this psychological horror , and what is the real truth behind these night terrors?
Dream Time Capsule: Your protagonist has a unique ability – whatever they dream of, they can send it back in time to their younger self. But when they dream of an upcoming disaster, they have to deal with the complexities of time manipulation and the potential paradoxes. How does your character navigate through these complexities, and what impact does this have on their timeline?
The Dream Portal : Your protagonist has a unique gift: every dream they have serves as a portal to a different time or place. However, they find themselves trapped in a dangerous era in history after a particularly vivid dream. What measures do they take to navigate this time and find their way back to their own reality?
Dream Detective: In this narrative , dreams can serve as crucial evidence in criminal investigations. Your protagonist is a detective who specializes in interpreting these dreams to solve otherwise baffling cases. How does your protagonist navigate through the complexities of such dream evidence to uncover the truth behind a high-profile crime?
The Recurring Nightmare : Your main character is haunted by a recurring nightmare involving the loss of a loved one. This dream is causing significant distress and begins affecting their personal and professional life. How does your character attempt to understand and overcome this nightmare and its emotional consequences?
Dystopian Dreamers: In a dystopian society where dreams are controlled by the state, your protagonist has an illegal dream, a vision of a free world. How do they react to this forbidden dream, and how do they use this vision to spark a rebellion against the controlling regime?
The Dream Architect: In this world, there are professionals known as Dream Architects who can design and implant dreams in people’s minds. Your main character is one such architect. When they’re commissioned to create a harmful dream, they’re faced with an ethical dilemma. What decision do they make, and what are the consequences of their actions?
Dreams and Reality Swap: In a strange twist of events, your protagonist wakes up to find that their dreams and reality have swapped places. Their dream world, full of magical creatures and extraordinary adventures, has become their new reality, while their mundane life is now only experienced in dreams. How does your character adapt to this new reality, and what challenges do they face?
The Last Dream: Your character lives in a world where everyone knows the dream they have on their 18th birthday will be their last dream ever. These dreams often carry significant meaning. On the eve of their 18th birthday, your protagonist is nervous and excited. Describe their last dream and how it influences their life choices and direction.
The Infectious Dream: A dream virus is spreading across the world, causing everyone to have the same disturbing dream. Your protagonist, a renowned dream scientist , is tasked with finding the cause and the cure. How do they approach this unprecedented situation, and how does this shared dream experience change society?

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Writing Stories About Hopes and Dreams

A lot of people, writers included, use the words “hope” and “dream” pretty much interchangeably. Fact is, each describes a completely different way of imagining the future. Being clear not only of their definitions but of the different states of mind each invokes will not only help you better communicate with your readers or audience, but may also open a deeper level of sophistication in the message you are trying to convey.

Hope is a desired future to which at least one definitive pathway exists. It doesn’t have to be a sure thing or even a likely outcome that the hope will be achieved – just that there is at least one causal path that, if completed, will arrive at the desired future.

For example, if one hopes to graduate, it is a matter of following a laid out series of steps that, when completed, will result in a diploma.

In contrast, Dream is a desired future for which no definitive pathway exists. Dreams may be likely to be realized or may be nearly impossible, but there must be at least some possibility of being achieved or it is not a Dream but a Fantasy.

For example, if one dreams of becoming a movie star and sits around a popular restaurant for studio executives every day, there literally is no Hope, but the dream can remain alive forever.

It is important to note that the pathway to achieving a hope is not necessarily only linear. While getting a degree may require taking some course in given order (101 before 201, for example), other course are electives and the only requirement to achieve the hope is that a certain number are fulfilled, regardless of the order.

Similarly, one can try to realize a dream by taking steps, such as singling out a studio exec and stalking them, or by creating a favorable environment, such as showing up not only at a restaurant, but also at a gym and a charity fundraiser, believing that by being more visible, the odds are increased for being “noticed.”

To be a true hope, there must be a certain cause and effect relationship between the steps or conditions in which one engages and the achievement of the hope state. But a dream, by definition, is built on indirect relationships and influence, rather than certain connections.

Keep in mind that there are two kinds of causal relationships – if/then and when/also . If/then is standard temporal causality, as in One bad apple spoils the bunch. When/also is the spatial version of causality, as in Where there’s smoke, there’s fire . In each case, there is a direct connection between condition one, and condition two: If condition one is met, condition two is certain.

It is this absolute association that is not present in dreams. But from an emotional standpoint, there is no difference between hoping and dreaming. Each is a future state that is highly desired, but in hoping, one expects that future if all the conditions are met, while in dreaming, meeting the conditions provides no guarantee.

In Dramatica theory, Hope vs. Dream is a thematic conflict. It describes stories in which the message revolves around proving that in the given situation of that particular story, it is either better to hope or to dream.

Is one deluded by an intense dream into thinking there is real hope? Or, is one missing out on life experience and the rare but real advent of a lucky chance by confining oneself to only those things for which hope exists?

We’ve all seen these kinds of stories in books, movies, television and stage plays. As an author, it can improve both your work and your life to explore the difference between the two.

Here are the specific definitions of Hope and Dream from the Dramatica Dictionary:

Variation – dynamic pair: Dream ↔ Hope

a desired future if things go as expected

Hope is based on a projection of the way things are going. When one looks at the present situation and notes the direction of change, Hope lies somewhere along that line. As an example, if one is preparing for a picnic and the weather has been sunny, one Hopes for a sunny day. If it was raining for days, one could not Hope but only Dream. Still, Hope acknowledges that things can change in unexpected ways. That means that Hoping for something is not the same as expecting something. Hope is just the expectation that something will occur unless something interferes. How accurately a character evaluates the potential for change determines whether he is Hoping or dreaming. When a character is dreaming and thinks he is Hoping, he prepares for things where there is no indication they will come true.

syn. desired expectation, optimistic anticipation, confident aspiration, promise, encouraging outlook.

Variation – dynamic pair: Hope ↔ Dream

a desired future that requires unexpected developments

Dream describes a character who speculates on a future that has not been ruled out, however unlikely. Dreaming is full of “what ifs.” Cinderella dreamed of her prince because it wasn’t quite unimaginable. One Dreams of winning the lottery even though one “hasn’t got a hope.” Hope requires the expectation that something will happen if nothing goes wrong. Dreaming has no such limitation. Nothing has to indicate that a Dream will come true, only that it’s not impossible. Dreaming can offer a positive future in the midst of disaster. It can also motivate one to try for things others scoff at. Many revolutionary inventors have been labeled as Dreamers. Still and all, to Dream takes away time from doing, and unless one strikes a balance and does the groundwork, one can Dream while hopes go out the window for lack of effort.

syn. aspire, desiring the unlikely, pulling for the doubtful, airy hope, glimmer, far fetched desire

Learn more about Theme in my book:

A Few Words About Theme

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11 Writing Prompts about Dreams

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has had some pretty imaginative and weird dreams over my lifetime.

Naturally dreams can get pretty creative, so let’s see how they might inspire some creative thinking, and writing!

If anything can help get the neurons firing and have us wondering what the answers are to questions which we don’t normally ask, the topic of dreams can.

So without further ado, it’s into our writing about dreams and dreaming…

How to use these:

Pick one at random, and write 500 words on it right now!

Try picking a random number each day for a week, and write about the corresponding prompt each day in your journal.

Sit down with the entire list, and write a concise response to each prompt.

Or maybe you have a way that to use these in your own writing, or students writing that feels like a better fit – go for it!

The Prompts:

Why do you think we dream when we sleep?
Do you often recall what your dreams were about when you wake? What could help with remembering our dreams?
Do you think dreams can help us in any way? How?
Do your pets ever dream? What do you think they might dream about?
Have you ever come up with a creative solution to a problem using an idea you had in a dream?
What foods or activities result in you having the strangest dreams?
Why do you think sometimes when you try and describe a very vivid amazing dream to someone, it can just sound weird and not that meaningful?
Does dreaming help you get a good night’s sleep? Why?
Have you ever played a sport or had an adventure, and then dreamed about it that night?
Is it possible to dream in the style of a videogame, like minecraft for example?
Lucid dreaming is a rare situation where someone realizes they are dreaming and takes control over what is happening in their dream. Describe what that might be like.

Found these helpful? Lots of you do!

That is just awesome, and we’re so happy we’re helping thousands of you in our positive and thriving community.

And in case you’re weren’t aware already, we have HEAPS of other free writing prompts, picture prompts, and other resources and printables for you to use. Take a look around, and don’t forget to bookmark right now!

If you can share this page with someone who would find it useful, that would be fantastic. Thank you to those of you who do! We really appreciate it.

Stay tuned for more!

Yours, Matt & Hayley

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What, to the Writer, Are Dreams?

Lauren acampora on the mythic links between dream life and creativity.

“Dream is the personalized myth, myth the depersonalized dream.” –Joseph Campbell

One morning, when I was younger, I gave a detailed description of my previous night’s dream to my mother. When I finished, she said, “I’m going to tell you something. Don’t ever share your dreams with anyone except your spouse. It’s boring to listen to other people’s dreams.”

I was offended at first. How could anyone, not to mention my own mother, fail to find my dreams as fascinating as I did? But of course she was right; it’s almost always deadly to hear other people talk about their dreams. As a rule, dreams die in the glare of the waking world, their shimmering aura evaporating in the harsh air outside the psyche. And yet, paradoxically, it’s the emotional aura of dreams that makes them feel so urgently worth sharing in the first place.

Needless to say, I didn’t listen to my mother. That is, I still share my dreams promiscuously—just not verbally.

Like so many other writers and artists, I employ dreams in my creative work. They’re an engine, a lending library. It’s a thrill to awake with a strange, arresting image in mind, or still grasping the thread of an allegorical dream story. Sometimes, a vision or scenario arrives as a package deal: the story is encased within the vision, packed up tight with a certain mood. For me, entire short stories have sprung from such vision: a woman alone in a pool, a finger touching a brain, a blindfolded child. A haunting dream of orange curtains in a hotel room has rolled into an entire novel (in which orange hotel curtains do not ever appear). And the power and mystery of dreams themselves inspired my novel The Paper Wasp , in which the narrator illustrates—and ultimately enters—her vivid, seemingly premonitory dreams.

There’s no shortage of literature and art that we know to have sprung from dreams. As legend has it, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge transcribed the first lines of “Kubla Khan” from a dream; the idea for Frankenstein came to Mary Shelley in her sleep; Robert Louis Stevenson conceived of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in a consumptive fever dream; Stephen King came up with the idea for Misery while napping on a plane ; William Styron had a dream that inspired Sophie’s Choice . One of the most prolific dream miners of all was Edgar Allen Poe, who used his frequent nightmares in much of his work. And famously, Paul McCartney dreamed the tune for the song “Yesterday.” Upon waking, he asked his friends if they knew it. “It’s a good little tune,” he said, “but I couldn’t have written it because I dreamt it.”

Dreams can feel like messages from another place, so it’s no surprise that many ancient cultures believed dreams to be transmissions of divine knowledge. The Ancient Egyptians considered dreams to be oracular and held vivid dreamers in high regard. They practiced dream incubation and lucid dreaming, and employed dream guides called the “Masters of Secret Things” who lived in dream temples. The Greeks, too, incubated dreams, and thought that gods came to dreamers through a keyhole to deliver messages. The Aboriginal Australians and the Iroquois started their day by sharing dreams, which were considered a source of guidance for both the individual and the community. The Hindu religion, too, believes that in dreams one is given a glimpse of Vishnu, whose own dreaming mind creates our reality. It isn’t difficult to understand where such beliefs come from if you’ve ever dreamed of reading a book, sentence after lucid, elaborate sentence. “I couldn’t have written it,” you might think, “because I dreamt it.”

Brain science validates this phenomenon. Dreaming occurs during REM sleep, when the frontal lobe, the executive area of the brain, is shut down. Dreams are the mysterious activity of another part of the brain, beneath the scrutiny of the frontal lobe. Neurologically speaking, we really are receiving transmissions from a foreign entity; the unconscious, unobserved self slips through the keyhole when the guard is off duty.

Even during waking hours, the human brain is divided: the executive-desk frontal lobe and the inscrutable, intuitive limbic system are strangers to each other. In sleep, they are incommunicado. Because of this deep rift, the great majority of our dreams go unremembered, except on a buried emotional level. It’s difficult, even paradoxical, to try to bear total witness to them, akin to pinning down the present moment, halting the slippage of time. Just as the present can only be considered in retrospect, the unconscious mind can only be discerned via the remembered scraps of dreams. Any glimmers of awareness that may come during sleep, when a dream is fleetingly apprehended, are instances of the conscious half of the brain briefly observing and translating the activity of the submerged half: interpreting the enigmatic message of a stranger. These glimmers are rare and fleeting, occurring only during the hypnogogic and hypnopompic states, the liminal states between wakefulness and sleep.

In siphoning dreams for their work, writers and artists are tapping a valuable well. Dream logic and imagery carries an uncanny, allegorical quality that resonates deeply with readers and audiences. And it’s possible that dream recall actually enhances artistic output during waking hours. Scientific studies have confirmed a correlation between dream recall and creativity; those who recall dreams actually perform better on creativity evaluations. This may be because creative people are naturally better at recalling their dreams. It’s a chicken or egg situation: do creative people have more vivid and memorable dreams because they are innately creative, or can a brain become more creative through strengthening dream recall? Whatever the case, making use of dreams in art is a powerful way to reflect our foreign selves back to ourselves, while projecting that mystery self out to the world as archetypal image and story—dream as personalized myth, myth as depersonalized dream.

For writers, plugging into the unconscious provides a direct line to the human imagination in all its splendor and darkness. Indeed, in the midst of composing, it’s often unclear where the words are coming from. Sentences and imagery sometimes bubble up from a hidden well that surprises the conscious, transcribing mind. Some writers will tell you that they write in order to exorcise their demons, cleanse their psyches, to bring their fears and darkness into the light. Some will tell you that it’s better than therapy.

Writing at full tilt can be a euphoric state, tantamount to lucid dreaming. It’s half-awareness—one foot in, one foot out—a balance on the brink of consciousness. It’s not just in dreams that we can experience the ecstasy of flight and the exhilaration of omnipotence, but also when writing, when the words are flowing, the images appearing. Just as in a lucid dream, this exhilaration is paired with the knowledge that it can’t last, that it’s a temporary spell. Soon, we’ll become too aware of flying, and the spell will break and drop us to the ground. Still, we endeavor to capture and recapture this ecstasy of creative freedom, the ability to travel lightly anywhere at will, the bliss of floating to the treetops.

If writing fiction is analogous to dreaming, the experience of reading fiction can be, too. When we’re reading, another person is able to intrude into our psyches through the use of words alone, remotely projecting imagery onto the screens of our minds, suffusing them with atmosphere and mood. We are, in a way, sharing a dream with a stranger. And fiction, at its best, places a mirror before us, evoking terror and wonder. It affects us on an emotional level beyond language, and brings a frisson of recognition. There’s a momentary astonishment to encounter the familiar within the strange, something of our own inner lives on the page. There’s the eerie sense that the author has somehow entered and seen into us. The best art carries this sense of inevitability, of allegory, myth, dream—a truth that has always been there, that we already know in some deep part of ourselves.

This flare of astonishment is arguably the purpose of art. It’s the sudden thinning of the distance between us, the erosion of barriers that have been built and propped up by our conscious, waking lives. Like a flash of lightning, great art illuminates the human landscape in its breathtaking entirety and shows that the barriers are flimsy, false, only temporarily there. All at once, we are taken outside ourselves and given a glimpse of the Jungian collective unconscious, the subliminal wholeness of life, the enveloping dream of Vishnu. What is the purpose of all art, if not to puncture the illusion of fragmentation, to reveal the commonality of human experience, to return us—if briefly—to those collective waters?

__________________________________

The Paper Wasp by Lauren Acampora is out now via Grove Atlantic.

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Free Creative Writing Prompts #74: Dreams

Here are 10 free creative writing prompts about your awesome and scary slumbering dreams. When most people have a dream of interest, they do their best to try to figure out what it might mean. Why was I with this person from my past in such a random location? Why was I upset to be doing this activity when I usually love doing it? There are dream interpretation guides, dream classes and there even those who teach lucid dreaming so that you can craft your dreams at will. This much about dreams is true, when you have an extremely wacked out or seemingly prescient dream, it can stick with you for a lifetime. Free Creative Writing Prompts: Dreams

1. You've just witnessed it. The end of the world. These kind of dreams are the ones you like to push out of your mind, but there's only one problem. Everything that happened in the beginning of your dream, from your trip to work to your conversations with co-workers, are word for word in line with the apocalyptic dream you just had. What happens next and what do you do about it?

2. Imagine that you had the chance to get your "dream" everything. Your dream job. Your dream partner. Your dream house. What would it be like if everything and person in your life was dreamily ideal? How would your typical day change?

3. Think back to all of your most memorable dreams and single out the scariest recurring dream you ever had. What do you think it symbolized? If you had complete control over the dream, how do you think you would have conquered such a fearful night of slumber?

4. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream that all people, regardless of race and creed, could come together as one. If you were placed behind a podium in front of thousands of people with the entire world watching, what do you think your dream would be for a better tomorrow and why?

5. Upon working for a mad scientist, you realize that you've been helping him to create a device that lets you go into other people's dreams! You take the technology out for a test drive one night. Whose dreams do you go into and what do you do while you're in there?

6. We've all had them and whether or not we talk about them, we probably enjoy our naughty dreams thoroughly. Describe your first risqué dream, why you think you had it and what your reaction was afterward. Did it cause you to feel happy, ashamed or a completely different emotion?

7. The world has been plunged into one large collective dream, with every person having the ability to control everything that affects his own skills, appearance and persona, but with no control over other people. How would this new order of things change your life in particular?

8. Have you ever had a dream that felt so completely real, you even convinced yourself that it was reality? What felt so genuine about the dream and what do you remember the most about it? What would it take for such an event to happen in real life?

9. Joseph, famous for his Technicolor dream coat, was also a killer dream interpreter. List five of your most confusing dreams and do your best to write an explanation of what they might mean. Which of these dream interpretations is the most important to your life and why?

10. Imagine that in your dream you could have a one-on-one meeting with the true inner-you: your subconscious. You can ask this inner-you any questions you want to find out about your identity, your desires and your destiny. What questions do you ask and how does your subconscious respond? Done with Free Creative Writing Prompts about Dreams? Go back to Creative Writing Prompts.

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19,890 quotes, descriptions and writing prompts, 4,964 themes

dream - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing

a perfect wish
a shared dream
dream horse
falling asleep
Fantasy Land
imagination
reality breaking
Your worst nightmare

In the twilight yawn of heaven's black rose two tall trees of sombre peeking green, their tops a round as if drawn in mathematical precision. And as I gazed at them for a blessed moment, the kind that could be any length at all in the twinkle of eternity, I saw the eyes of an owl, great and wise. Before I could breathe another, before my brain was capable of any other notion, I was behind those green owl eyes in the sky looking down upon the black-cradled ground. For these were the eyes that watched all the galaxies in the dominion of love, the ones that belong to our guardian, our God. And to them I was a speck, safe and happy, so at home there in the sky, there in a place that touches our reality and yet belongs to another.

From the beauty of the dreamscape, in the place between the thoughts and the movies of the nighttime, came striding an elephant with butterfly ears. Each ear was as a great wing in pinks and baby blue, shimmering, and moving in the way butterfly wings do. When the great elephant had passed, there came a snake into view whom morphed into an eel, then grew fins down the length of its body and soon became a fish. And so the dream spoke of victory, of beauty always remembered and how the selfish snake self became beautiful too.

In the dream I am standing in a puddle, I am normal. Yet my reflection in the puddle, in the world of the upside-down, is a zombie. It is as if all this while I have been trying to achieve this very thing, to separate the good parts of me from the rotten.

To dream so snug within a cottage-cocoon, to feel the sunlight that comes in welcome soon-ness to the budding day, births dreams of Iron Man made butterflies.

Every wise hero realises that dreams come with price tags that have nothing to do with money. If heroic dreams were easy, if capes were free, everyone would have one and this world would be better already.

There are dreams that feel as nightmares yet are the way to a heavenly victory, and it feels as if this lifetime could be one of those. For the dream of the warrior is to fight the good fight, to take on any necessary suffering so that others have a greater chance at good health and wellness.

If I die in battle yet the ones I love are safe, then it is a greater dream than ever-safe while others suffer.

In my dream we were soldiers, you and I. We were dressed as soldiers are, in combat camouflage, guns at the ready. It was nighttime and we stared up a mighty cliff face, yet as we tried to climb the bullets came from all around. Together we fought them, shot dead each one, then resumed our task of reaching the higher ground.

I dreamt of a coin, old and covered in dirt, the engravings worn and the head of the king so tarnished as to be stolen from view. I held it in my left hand, watching the mud dirty my skin. So close to my face the coin had the aroma of stale blood. I turned to my right hand and in the palm was a new spring leaf, crowned by a perfect sphere of dew, reflecting an image of my face, softened and relaxed. When I turned back to the coin, the image of the king had freed himself and journeyed over to the leaf, igniting the growth of strong roots and new foliage that reached for the sunlight, robust, virescent.

The stain had vanished like it was never there in the first place, like the whole thing had been a visual joke. Tyler ran his hands over the fabric before holding it up to the brilliant early morning sun. There was no trace of red, black or any other colour. It was as clean as the day it was created and just as supple, just as beautiful. What had been there yesterday was already fading from his memory, as if it wasn't just erased from the silk, but from history all together. It had been words he was sure, but now that they were gone he felt himself begin to relax. Casting his eyes around him at the trees, listening to the birds, he quite forgot the fabric for a moment. Then when recalled he was holding something he looked down to find only white petals, which he instinctively released into the breeze and watched them float away.

After so long in the maze Shelly was confused as to which path to take. She'd sat there all day, lost, figuring she'd never get out, when Jess just walked right through the walls. She sat and stared as he passed through the maize stems into the still sunlit path. He smiles and beaconed her to come. "Follow me," he said with one of his sheepish grins. Shelly wrapped her fingers into his loose cotton shirt, her heart flooded with relief. She could have walked through them herself she supposed, but it was wonderful to have a guide.

I had thought my jail cell as real for so long that I never even checked to see if the walls were solid. I heard screams from other cells and they paralyzed me from even pushing on the door. Then one spring day when the brilliant light of dawn shone in, I stood and put my hand on the bars. With a prayer I pushed with all my might and a after a brief flash of pain the prison cell itself was left behind me on a hill. From the outside it was tiny, pathetic. After so long crouched in the dark I stood up and let the light warm my skin, my black hair flowing in a heavenly wind. Upon the walls written in stone were the words "fear" and "guilt." I threw my head toward the sky with relief, all I had to do was conquer those bullies all along, conquer them and be free.

In the dream I am sitting in a field of green wheat, the stalks bend lazily in the wind and I marvel at the grains. Each one is distinct and though different from the others, still perfectly formed. I run my hand along the edge to feel the combination of rough and smooth and then hold my face upward to feel the warm light of the mid summer day. The air smells just right and the birds fly in an almost cloudless sky. I start walking, the filed goes on forever and after a while my feet become roots, digging into the soil. My hands become green, soon I am also wheat, and I wave happily in the wind.

In the dream the sky is blue, the birds sing and there is a bee on clover nearby. The streams run clear and there are fish in the river. Next to me is a small boy and he tells me how he sees the world. His answers to my questions are so precious. I ask him if we should care for the world. He says "Yes" like he's surprised I should even have to ask. I ask him if we should be nice to animals, his response is the same. I ask him if we should kill or harm animals and his eyes fill with tears. I ask him if humans should kill one another and he runs, runs like he just saw a monster. I call after him but he won't return. He's a child, and like all children he's still able to see through the light of the creator - he was never taught the answers, he feels them within.

Have you ever had a dream so real you were confused when you woke up? Once when I was a little girl I dreamt that the grass in our backyard was blue. The blue grass rose up into the sky leaving perfect green grass underneath and painted the sky the same perfect shade those soft blades had been. That morning I didn't wake up sleepily, but instead like a switch had been flicked. I ran from my bed to the back yard. And you know what? The grass was green and the sky was blue. I told everyone where the blue grass had gone, but since I was five there was no suggestion I was crazy, just knowing smiles and nods. No-one could tell me it wasn’t real, I’d “seen it” happen and outside was the proof. Seeing is believing right? I guess that’s why I’m so comfortable talking to you. I can see you here with me. You aren’t quite solid yet, I don’t think you can be for a while, don't ask me why yet because you won't like the answer.

Authored by daisy , here .

The dream comes often and only the ending changes. Sometimes I win and sometimes I loose. If I loose it's because I betrayed of love and trust of someone I love more than myself. So long as I do what I know is right, the dream turns out well. I have woken up from the dream many times feeling wretched for my mistakes, only for the blessed relief to come that I didn't really do those things, it was just a dream. Then though my heart feels wretched at least I can face the day. When the dream turns out well I'm never elated, just cosy, happy to stay at home and potter. I don't fear the dream, even when it's bad I welcome the message it brings. Stay true to the ones who love you and the ones you love back.

In my dream there are lights, too many to count, dancing on an ocean too vast to envisage. Each one is brilliant, each one unique. I want to look at each one for the marvel it is, for no matter how many there are no two colours are the same. The light that comes from within is more pure than gold, more light than air - each one a small piece of heaven. I try to reach out to them, who wouldn't want to touch something so pure. But the lights recoil in fright, they don't even know who they are. They chant that they feel ugly on the outside and worse on the inside. I can't understand until I take a look at the water, it looks fine but smells like something I wouldn't want to drink. But they're swimming in it, bobbing in it like it's a fine day at the beach. I want to tell them it's poison but they'll never listen. They laugh and carry on just as before, each one just as beautiful as the last but disconnected even from their inner light and beauty.

In my dream I saw a building grow into the sky, many strands of steel and glass like the stems of a wild plant, organic in shape, coming together and parting. It was a vertical city. Standing underneath and looking left and right, with only soil beneath my feet, it was at least three football stadiums wide and went up as far as the eye could see. All around was nature, just nature... and it was beautiful.

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What is Creative Writing? A Key Piece of the Writer’s Toolbox

Not all writing is the same and there’s a type of writing that has the ability to transport, teach, and inspire others like no other.

Creative writing stands out due to its unique approach and focus on imagination. Here’s how to get started and grow as you explore the broad and beautiful world of creative writing!

What is Creative Writing?

Creative writing is a form of writing that extends beyond the bounds of regular professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature. It is characterized by its emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary tropes or poetic techniques to express ideas in an original and imaginative way.

Creative writing can take on various forms such as:

short stories
screenplays

It’s a way for writers to express their thoughts, feelings, and ideas in a creative, often symbolic, way . It’s about using the power of words to transport readers into a world created by the writer.

5 Key Characteristics of Creative Writing

Creative writing is marked by several defining characteristics, each working to create a distinct form of expression:

1. Imagination and Creativity: Creative writing is all about harnessing your creativity and imagination to create an engaging and compelling piece of work. It allows writers to explore different scenarios, characters, and worlds that may not exist in reality.

2. Emotional Engagement: Creative writing often evokes strong emotions in the reader. It aims to make the reader feel something — whether it’s happiness, sorrow, excitement, or fear.

3. Originality: Creative writing values originality. It’s about presenting familiar things in new ways or exploring ideas that are less conventional.

4. Use of Literary Devices: Creative writing frequently employs literary devices such as metaphors, similes, personification, and others to enrich the text and convey meanings in a more subtle, layered manner.

5. Focus on Aesthetics: The beauty of language and the way words flow together is important in creative writing. The aim is to create a piece that’s not just interesting to read, but also beautiful to hear when read aloud.

Remember, creative writing is not just about producing a work of art. It’s also a means of self-expression and a way to share your perspective with the world. Whether you’re considering it as a hobby or contemplating a career in it, understanding the nature and characteristics of creative writing can help you hone your skills and create more engaging pieces .

For more insights into creative writing, check out our articles on creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree and is a degree in creative writing worth it .

Styles of Creative Writing

To fully understand creative writing , you must be aware of the various styles involved. Creative writing explores a multitude of genres, each with its own unique characteristics and techniques.

Poetry is a form of creative writing that uses expressive language to evoke emotions and ideas. Poets often employ rhythm, rhyme, and other poetic devices to create pieces that are deeply personal and impactful. Poems can vary greatly in length, style, and subject matter, making this a versatile and dynamic form of creative writing.

Short Stories

Short stories are another common style of creative writing. These are brief narratives that typically revolve around a single event or idea. Despite their length, short stories can provide a powerful punch, using precise language and tight narrative structures to convey a complete story in a limited space.

Novels represent a longer form of narrative creative writing. They usually involve complex plots, multiple characters, and various themes. Writing a novel requires a significant investment of time and effort; however, the result can be a rich and immersive reading experience.

Screenplays

Screenplays are written works intended for the screen, be it television, film, or online platforms. They require a specific format, incorporating dialogue and visual descriptions to guide the production process. Screenwriters must also consider the practical aspects of filmmaking, making this an intricate and specialized form of creative writing.

If you’re interested in this style, understanding creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree can provide useful insights.

Writing for the theater is another specialized form of creative writing. Plays, like screenplays, combine dialogue and action, but they also require an understanding of the unique dynamics of the theatrical stage. Playwrights must think about the live audience and the physical space of the theater when crafting their works.

Each of these styles offers unique opportunities for creativity and expression. Whether you’re drawn to the concise power of poetry, the detailed storytelling of novels, or the visual language of screenplays and plays, there’s a form of creative writing that will suit your artistic voice. The key is to explore, experiment, and find the style that resonates with you.

For those looking to spark their creativity, our article on creative writing prompts offers a wealth of ideas to get you started.

Importance of Creative Writing

Understanding what is creative writing involves recognizing its value and significance. Engaging in creative writing can provide numerous benefits – let’s take a closer look.

Developing Creativity and Imagination

Creative writing serves as a fertile ground for nurturing creativity and imagination. It encourages you to think outside the box, explore different perspectives, and create unique and original content. This leads to improved problem-solving skills and a broader worldview , both of which can be beneficial in various aspects of life.

Through creative writing, one can build entire worlds, create characters, and weave complex narratives, all of which are products of a creative mind and vivid imagination. This can be especially beneficial for those seeking creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree .

Enhancing Communication Skills

Creative writing can also play a crucial role in honing communication skills. It demands clarity, precision, and a strong command of language. This helps to improve your vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, making it easier to express thoughts and ideas effectively .

Moreover, creative writing encourages empathy as you often need to portray a variety of characters from different backgrounds and perspectives. This leads to a better understanding of people and improved interpersonal communication skills.

Exploring Emotions and Ideas

One of the most profound aspects of creative writing is its ability to provide a safe space for exploring emotions and ideas. It serves as an outlet for thoughts and feelings , allowing you to express yourself in ways that might not be possible in everyday conversation.

Writing can be therapeutic, helping you process complex emotions, navigate difficult life events, and gain insight into your own experiences and perceptions. It can also be a means of self-discovery , helping you to understand yourself and the world around you better.

So, whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out, the benefits of creative writing are vast and varied. For those interested in developing their creative writing skills, check out our articles on creative writing prompts and how to teach creative writing . If you’re considering a career in this field, you might find our article on is a degree in creative writing worth it helpful.

4 Steps to Start Creative Writing

Creative writing can seem daunting to beginners, but with the right approach, anyone can start their journey into this creative field. Here are some steps to help you start creative writing .

1. Finding Inspiration

The first step in creative writing is finding inspiration . Inspiration can come from anywhere and anything. Observe the world around you, listen to conversations, explore different cultures, and delve into various topics of interest.

Reading widely can also be a significant source of inspiration. Read different types of books, articles, and blogs. Discover what resonates with you and sparks your imagination.

For structured creative prompts, visit our list of creative writing prompts to get your creative juices flowing.

Editor’s Note : When something excites or interests you, stop and take note – it could be the inspiration for your next creative writing piece.

2. Planning Your Piece

Once you have an idea, the next step is to plan your piece . Start by outlining:

the main points

Remember, this can serve as a roadmap to guide your writing process. A plan doesn’t have to be rigid. It’s a flexible guideline that can be adjusted as you delve deeper into your writing. The primary purpose is to provide direction and prevent writer’s block.

3. Writing Your First Draft

After planning your piece, you can start writing your first draft . This is where you give life to your ideas and breathe life into your characters.

Don’t worry about making it perfect in the first go. The first draft is about getting your ideas down on paper . You can always refine and polish your work later. And if you don’t have a great place to write that first draft, consider a journal for writing .

4. Editing and Revising Your Work

The final step in the creative writing process is editing and revising your work . This is where you fine-tune your piece, correct grammatical errors, and improve sentence structure and flow.

Editing is also an opportunity to enhance your storytelling . You can add more descriptive details, develop your characters further, and make sure your plot is engaging and coherent.

Remember, writing is a craft that improves with practice . Don’t be discouraged if your first few pieces don’t meet your expectations. Keep writing, keep learning, and most importantly, enjoy the creative process.

For more insights on creative writing, check out our articles on how to teach creative writing or creative writing activities for kids.

Tips to Improve Creative Writing Skills

Understanding what is creative writing is the first step. But how can one improve their creative writing skills? Here are some tips that can help.

Read Widely

Reading is a vital part of becoming a better writer. By immersing oneself in a variety of genres, styles, and authors, one can gain a richer understanding of language and storytelling techniques . Different authors have unique voices and methods of telling stories, which can serve as inspiration for your own work. So, read widely and frequently!

Practice Regularly

Like any skill, creative writing improves with practice. Consistently writing — whether it be daily, weekly, or monthly — helps develop your writing style and voice . Using creative writing prompts can be a fun way to stimulate your imagination and get the words flowing.

Attend Writing Workshops and Courses

Formal education such as workshops and courses can offer structured learning and expert guidance. These can provide invaluable insights into the world of creative writing, from understanding plot development to character creation. If you’re wondering is a degree in creative writing worth it, these classes can also give you a taste of what studying creative writing at a higher level might look like .

Joining Writing Groups and Communities

Being part of a writing community can provide motivation, constructive feedback, and a sense of camaraderie. These groups often hold regular meetings where members share their work and give each other feedback. Plus, it’s a great way to connect with others who share your passion for writing.

Seeking Feedback on Your Work

Feedback is a crucial part of improving as a writer. It offers a fresh perspective on your work, highlighting areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. Whether it’s from a writing group, a mentor, or even friends and family, constructive criticism can help refine your writing .

Start Creative Writing Today!

Remember, becoming a proficient writer takes time and patience. So, don’t be discouraged by initial challenges. Keep writing, keep learning, and most importantly, keep enjoying the process. Who knows, your passion for creative writing might even lead to creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree .

Happy writing!

Brooks Manley

Creative Primer is a resource on all things journaling, creativity, and productivity. We’ll help you produce better ideas, get more done, and live a more effective life.

My name is Brooks. I do a ton of journaling, like to think I’m a creative (jury’s out), and spend a lot of time thinking about productivity. I hope these resources and product recommendations serve you well. Reach out if you ever want to chat or let me know about a journal I need to check out!

Here’s my favorite journal for 2024:

Gratitude Journal Prompts Mindfulness Journal Prompts Journal Prompts for Anxiety Reflective Journal Prompts Healing Journal Prompts Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Journal Prompts Mental Health Journal Prompts ASMR Journal Prompts Manifestation Journal Prompts Self-Care Journal Prompts Morning Journal Prompts Evening Journal Prompts Self-Improvement Journal Prompts Creative Writing Journal Prompts Dream Journal Prompts Relationship Journal Prompts "What If" Journal Prompts New Year Journal Prompts Shadow Work Journal Prompts Journal Prompts for Overcoming Fear Journal Prompts for Dealing with Loss Journal Prompts for Discerning and Decision Making Travel Journal Prompts Fun Journal Prompts

Inspiring Ink: Expert Tips on How to Teach Creative Writing

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How to Describe a Dream in a Story

By Isobel Coughlan

The topic of this article is how to describe a dream in a story. Read on to learn about 10 adjectives you can use to illustrate a dream a character in your novel is having.

Something that makes people anxious or worried because they don’t know what’s coming next.

“The dream was tense . Every time she woke up, her heartbeat was raised, and her thoughts were jumbled.”

“The tense dream left him wondering about the future. It didn’t seem so bright anymore.”

How it Adds Description

If you want to show worry or anxiety in connection to a dream, “tense” is a helpful adjective to use. This word explains your character’s mindset and hints that the events of the dream were unpleasant. A “tense” dream can also foreshadow negative future events, especially if these events are featured in the dream.

Something that lacks details or confuses people.

“He expected another hazy dream, the kind that lacks any focus or sense.”

“She was tired of meaningless and hazy dreams. She wanted to visit new lands while asleep.”

Not all dreams are clear and detailed. If you want to showcase how mundane or unclear your characters’ dreams are, “hazy” can help. This adjective shows the characters forget aspects of the dream when they wake up, and it also shows the dreams don’t involve any excitement.

3. Exhilarating

Something that makes characters feel extremely excited or happy.

“She rushed to bed in the hopes of another exhilarating dream.”

“It was an exhilarating dream. As soon as he shut his eyes, he could fly, speak to animals, and was rich beyond belief!”

“Exhilarating” gives a clear image of an exciting dream, and these positive connotations can imply that the character wishes they could experience it again. A character with “exhilarating” dreams might be more likely to try to escape reality in favor of their wonderful dreamland.

Something that is mysterious, wondrous , or produces magic-like effects.

“He laid in bed and wished for a magical dream to take him far away from the real world.”

“In her magical dreams, she was a fairy princess with control over a whole kingdom. But in real life, she was a shy student with only one friend.”

Dreams are often described with mysterious or fantastical qualities, and the word “magical” emphasizes these characteristics. If a character has “magical” dreams, they may even have special insights or other magical abilities, which can help to build the wonder of your fictional world.

Something that makes people smile or laugh .

“In his amusing dreams, all colors were inverted, and you could taste sounds.”

“She awoke from another amusing dream, and she couldn’t stop giggling as she ate breakfast.”

Some dreams are light-hearted or funny, and you can show this to your reader via the adjective “amusing.” This word shows the dream was funny or entertaining, and it could put your character in a good mood. “Amusing” also has connotations or humor, and you use these dreams to show your character’s positive attitude.

Something that’s strange or odd.

“Ok — that dream was bizarre . Why was everything orange and fluffy?”

“His bizarre dreams weren’t funny anymore. Their odd plots were starting to creep him out.”

“Bizarre” describes dreams that are strange and different from normal. If a character experiences “bizarre” dreams, it might imply that they’re going through some personal conflict or have doubts about the future. “Bizarre” dreams may also scare your character or leave them feeling unsettled when they wake up.

7. Soothing

Something that has a relieving or calming effect.

“She slipped into a soothing dream about tiny animals and love. It was exactly what she needed after a long day of work.”

“I drink lavender tea every night for soothing dreams. It does wonders, I promise!”

Sleep should be restful, and “soothing” dreams can help your characters rest and repower after a stressful day. “Soothing” also has connotations of pleasant subjects, hinting that your character doesn’t suffer from nightmares. A “soothing” dream can also show your character is an overall calm person.

8. Passionate

Something that involves strong feelings or beliefs about a particular subject.

“He had passionate dreams for the future, and it was his life’s goal to make a change in the world.”

“Her secret, passionate dream was to be a world-renowned artist. But she had no clue how to get there.”

If your character’s dreams are meaningful, the word “passionate” can show their desire to make the dreams a reality. A character with “passionate” dreams might be strong-willed and determined, which can make other characters look to them for strength and inspiration. This shows your reader they have great leadership skills and a will to make things happen.

9. Chilling

Something very frightening .

“She didn’t dare to go to sleep. Her chilling dreams were painful experiences that left her feeling glum all day.”

“He feared another chilling dream. He cursed his mind for torturing him with such horrible thoughts.”

If you want to portray a nightmare or scary dream, “chilling” can showcase the negative nature of the dreams to your reader. “Chilling” also emphasizes how unpleasant the dreams are for your character, and this can evoke pity or sympathy from other characters in your story.

10. Prophetic

Something that describes events that happen later in time.

“She was sick of prophetic dreams. Why did she have to be the chosen one?”

“As he grew older, his prophetic dreams became more accurate. He dreaded sleeping every night in case he saw a loved one in peril.”

If your character’s dreams are predicting the future, “prophetic” is a great adjective to use. This signals that your character might have special abilities, and it draws attention to the contents of their dreams. In addition, “prophetic” dreams might cause other characters to seek them out for advice.

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What Inspires Creative Writing- Dreams, People, and Experiences

Hold up. I know you’ve seen the title, and now you’re thinking nah, this isn’t for me. I’m not a writer. I’m not even the creative type .

Here’s a little secret: creativity is a self-fulfilling trait; if you tell yourself you’re not creative long enough, you’ll believe it, let your potential go silent, and then you will become uncreative (scary, I know).

So, trust that I’ve got you, and even though I’m talking directly to creative writers, you’ll learn something.

Are you ready?

What is Creative Writing?

As an intro to Oxford’s online course, creative writing defines creative writing as

“…an expressive form of literature; one which demands you to use your own creativity, imagination, and story to portray a particular message, emotion, or plot. It defies the traditional bounds of other forms of writing and is completely subjective to our own preferences and experiences.” Oxford Online

I love this definition so much that I might take their course. It includes genres and styles across a range of fields of fictional and non-fiction writing; storytelling, playwriting, poetry, prose, journalistic, and more. Unlike other forms of writing, such as academic or journalistic writing, it depends primarily on your ability to imagine.

What inspires creative writing?

There are, of course, a thousand ways to foster the imagination, but for this article, let us examine three powerful tools every creative person must nurture- people, dreams, and experiences.

The greatest resource we have as creatives are the people around us. Unless you live on an island with animals like Tarzan, then you have this in abundance. The best part is that you don’t even have to like them before they inspire you. People inspire us in two major ways:

Their persona

Where do you think all your characters come from? Whether you realize it or not, characters are usually based, however loosely, on people you have met, watched in a movie, or read in a book. Your writing habit will change drastically if you pay attention to the people you meet, their behavior, your conversations, and such.

This refers specifically to artists (writers, poets, musicians, etc.). As a writer, if you are not already reading a ton of materials by other people, I do not know what to tell you. How do you intend to learn? Take a moment to appreciate the artist’s use of words; take advantage of the emotions their work inspires in you. Every novel idea you have is only a variation of something someone else has done.

Dreams are powerful tools and are the ultimate showcase of your mind’s ability to create. This is a two-way thing as well. It could be your dream as in:

Your visions and plans for yourself

Is there a life you want to live sometime in the future? You can make those hopes and dreams come alive as you translate them to words on the page, pictorial art, or even song lyrics, whatever your art is.

Your literal dreams at night

Ohh , I know you know what I’m talking about. You have those crazy dreams, too, right? Sometimes, they can be so vivid that you wake up, and for a few minutes after, you still can’t shake whatever emotions you woke up feeling.

This is creative gold, you know??!!

Have a dedicated journal where you write these down while you can still remember the emotions behind the images, and you feel as though it happened to you (maybe it kinda did). It’s okay if you don’t even do anything with it at the time, but when you’re feeling lost, and the block hits, take out that book, look through, make yourself laugh, cry, or maybe even scare yourself a little. But sit in that, remember that your brain produced that wonder. Inspire yourself

Experiences

No matter how much we try to avoid it, our experiences (good or bad, exciting or traumatic) find ways to slip into our writing. Your experiences and emotions impact your writing in beautiful ways and make you a dynamic writer.

One of my all-time inspirational people Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie , when asked about the inspiration for the book that made her famous Purple Hibiscus , said:

“That book for me (Purple Hibiscus) is about nostalgia, a kind of romanticized remembering.” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Nostalgia is a powerful tool in the hands of a creative writer; when used right, it triggers intense emotions, perfect for engaging your audience.

Tiny, Little Parting Tips

Here are some tips to guide you on your journey to your next masterpiece:

Never become that writer that stops reading . No matter how busy you get, find ways to read. Listen to audiobooks, and read articles online. Read big books by popular authors, and fan fiction by teenagers on the internet, read pamphlets, handouts, things relating to your field, and things widely outside your range. You never know what will take hold and build your next story.

Write as much as you can. One way to tackle writer’s block is by making yourself write a little every day until it becomes a habit. Journal your thoughts, dreams, and experiences. You can even write down random conversations too, both real and imagined.

I cannot emphasize this enough. Go outside, dear writer, go dance, travel, and listen to the noise of your city. Try new things! Live fully in every moment. Let me tell you, if you have experienced it yourself, it’ll be easier to describe in your book.

So, go on, go write. This is going to be fun, trust me.

Peace is an avid book lover whose biggest selling point is her desire to share everything good she finds with everyone she loves. She writes both fiction and non-fiction professionally, but truly finds fulfilment when she is free to let her imagination fly. She loves learning new things, listening to good music, eating good food, reading all the good books, watching good movies, and sleeping. She lives every day knowing that there is an amazing new thing to discover!

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Nursing’s creative writing award announces winners

Written by UNMC College of Nursing
Published Apr 9, 2024

The 2023-2024 UNMC College of Nursing Creative Writing Awards announced winners for this year’s contest. The theme was “Nursing Does That,” encouraging students and alumni to write a story about an experience of how they were changed by caring for an individual who was different than themselves.

This was the first year offering a contest for alumni, who could submit a story on the same theme.

“We received stories from all our five campuses and from all our academic programs,” said Mark Darby, assistant professor in the UNMC College of Nursing and contest chair. “Our alumni were very supportive, providing not only great stories but funds for our awards this year.”

Darby added, “The stories reflect the deep respect and care our students and alumni provide to the citizens of Nebraska. Nurses face difficult clinical situation and still provide high levels of care.”

This is the fourth year for the contest, which has provided more than $53,000 in awards and resulted in four student stories being published in the American Journal of Nursing.

The top award winners of the student contest will share their stories at a virtual banquet, available at this link , on April 25 from 5-6:30 p.m.

The names of the awardees and the title are below. For previous winners, see the Creative Writing Project website .

Student awards

Emily Tanner, “Marge Dancing in the Rain”
Julia Miller, “Your Secret is Safe with Me”
Sierra Bryant, “I Know That Voice”
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Young Writers Award, April 2024

News Release

Featured Stories

High School Students Capture Awards for Creative Writing 

April 9, 2024

Two high school students achieved top honors in Anne Arundel Community College’s inaugural Young Writers Award . Savannah Schweitzer from Northeast High School won the fictional short story category with her piece titled "Fallen Apples.” Michaela Osei from Chesapeake Science Point earned first place in the poetry category for her poem, "Places I Never Knew."

"We're thrilled to offer this award and to encourage young people throughout the county to pursue creative writing,” said Garrett Brown , AACC professor and coordinator of creative writing . “I see it as our mission as the community's college to offer these kinds of opportunities in the too-often-unsupported literary arts."  

The Young Writers Award celebrates outstanding literary pieces from Anne Arundel County students in grades 11 and 12. The judges for this year’s awards included AACC English faculty members Johnny Lew, Ph.D., Katy D’Angelo, Ph.D., and KT Perkins . 

The judges noted that Schweitzer’s story “has an incredible opening line that sets up an emotional metaphor that carries throughout the piece. The writer demonstrates maturity of style, subtly and effectively communicates character development and theme.” 

They commended Osei’s poem for how it “uses concrete imagery and employs skillful use of line and stanza structure to enhance its visual and descriptive language.” 

Both winners will receive a cash prize and their works will be published in Amaranth, AACC’s award-winning journal of literature and the arts. Additionally, Schweitzer, Osei, their high school principals, English teachers and counselors have been invited to Amaranth’s May 9 release celebration.  

Amberlynn Gong from Severna Park High School and Evelyn Holiday from Annapolis High School were the runners-up in the short story category. Maika Ogawa from Crofton High School was the poetry category runner-up. 

Submissions for the 2025 Young Writers Award will open Sept. 15, 2024. 

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Singer-Songwriter Cam Discusses Working on Five Tracks for Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’: ‘She’s Just Such a Creative Genius’

By Steven J. Horowitz

Steven J. Horowitz

Senior Music Writer

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In June 2021, Cam got a call from her publisher who told her that a different songwriter couldn’t make a session and asked if she could go instead. Details were scarce — she didn’t even know whose session it was — and off she went to the studio on a whim. Little did she know she’d be walking into sessions for Beyoncé’s new chart-topping album, “Cowboy Carter,” which inevitably would feature writing, production, engineering and background singing from Cam on five of its songs.

Since debuting in 2010, the 39-year-old has etched a name for herself as an artist and songwriter, releasing a pop album in 2010 before a heel-turn to country with 2015’s “Untamed.” That record spawned her highest-charting hit to date, the confessional “Burning House,” which landed her a Grammy nomination. But she hit a different stride with 2020’s “The Otherside,” working with longtime collaborator Tyler Johnson and Jack Antonoff for a collection of songs that conveyed a deeper sophistication in her writing and performance.

Cam recalls that she worked on the album for the latter half of 2021, encouraged to share her ideas to be threaded into the bigger picture. “I could show up with these pieces that were purely myself,” she says. For instance, she channeled her love of requiems, which she sang in choir as a kid, for some of her contributions. “There’s no way you could even guess where she’s going. That’s one of my favorite things about Beyoncé and about this album, is that even though there are so many ties to the past and you hear everything woven through, it’s so forward-facing. She’s singing to us about the future and where we’re going, and I want to go there. So I think spiritually, I definitely felt aligned once I heard it all together. I couldn’t even realize that that’s where this was going back then. I was just contributing these pieces and building blocks that came from me that obviously were on the same journey.”

Right as “Cowboy Carter” released, Beyoncé revealed that she initially intended to put it out before 2022’s “Renaissance,” the first of a planned trilogy that centered on house and dance music. Cam states that she was surprised when “Renaissance” dropped instead, unsure of when the music she worked on would see the light of day.

“I was like, no!” she says with a laugh. “But I absolutely love ‘Renaissance’ so it was a no with a smile and a dance at the same time. The difference between me as an artist and writing for myself and getting to control the timeline and how it all goes and then deciding you’re going to collaborate and be in service as a writer, it’s a whole different ride. I’d like to say I have more understanding and patience for it, because I know how hard it is on the other side of things when you’re trying to direct the flow of traffic, but I definitely was like, this album is so important… So yeah, it was a big sigh of relief when it was finally released.”

She beams as she talks about “Cowboy Carter,” and recalls listening to “Protector” as a finished product for the first time. Cam is mother to her five-year-old daughter Lucy, and identified with the nurturing message of the song. “I just remember I was flying on a plane with [Lucy] and she was probably two and I was so overwhelmed,” she says. “I just remember thinking, all our parents have done this for us. They did it for us and now I’m doing it for her, and I just bawled my eyes out when I first heard that.”

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