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 This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
| Dreams I received this request: I know the conventional wisdom of "don't open a story with a dream" but what about writing a whole story where your character is within the dream world and it's only revealed at the end? Is that considered a "cheap trick" ending? I quite literally only thought of making it a dream when it got too absurd to be real. Letās look at dreams in stories! First, and this is important, never end a story with āit was all a dream.ā That was fine 150 years ago, but even Carrollās Aliceā¦ stories had it ambiguous as to whether it was a dream or reality. This also goes for āit was all the drugsā or āit was just a vision of a possible futureā ā dreams in different clothing. It feels cheap, like a cop-out, like the author could not find an ending. Having said that, there are some exceptions. When it starts and ends with a dream is fine, especially if done well. When dreams make up a large chunk of the narrative, then that can also work. Hereās an example ā from a TV show in the 1980s (like a sort of Twilight Zone, but not the 1980s remake of that show) a man kills his wife and then goes off with his secretaryā¦ then is woken up and kills his wife and goes off with his secretaryā¦ then is woken up and kills his wife and goes off with his secretaryā¦ then is woken up, kills his wife, his secretary has no idea what heās talking about, the police arrest him and he begs the camera to tell him itās all a dream. And finally when a character is broken and a dream is the only place they now exist. Opening with a dream is something that can work, but it went through a spurt in YA fiction in the 1990s and it still feels clichĆ©d. It is designed to show the ideal for a character whose life sucks. We saw it so often that when you read a story of a happy kid you knew next chapter was going to show a miserable reality. And the ending was never like that dream-state. Using dreams through a story works better. Think of the original Nightmare On Elm Street ā Freddy got you through your dreams! Gilliamās Brazil (UK version) used dreams to show an ideal, and the fact they were never achieved makes it all the more depressing. In some contemporary fantasy and horror, dreams can be used as signals to the future or premonitions, with hidden messages to those with some sort of āsightā. And at their most obvious, dreams can show us the innermost thoughts and feelings of a character that would otherwise not be able to be shown in a narrative without being an info-dump. Dreams can be an important story-telling device, so long as they are not over-used. Looking at the question ā I donāt think it is an issue to open with a dream, but to come to the end and discover the whole story was a dream can be something that turns readers off. And there has to be a good reason for it being a dream, not just because the story has gone in a surreal direction. One story I did read was a story where a man talks to his wife and child; about halfway through she mentions her death and the child says that it hurt; at the end it was a dream the man was having while he was on the verge of death himself. That worked because it was him coming to terms with the sadness and realising he was not ready to go, so his mind/body fighting to stay alive after all. But if itās because a writer is struggling with an endingā¦ maybe not. Finally, there is also the ambiguity of dreams. Was it a dream or not that makes the Aliceā¦ stories I mentioned before so intriguing has been done a lot, but I feel there is so much left to explore. A bit of early pulp horror was focused on this conceit, as was a deal of fantasy, especially in the EC pre-code comic days. So itās old, but possibly hasnāt been explored in a modern/ contemporary setting. Something to consider. So, dreams can be fine. Thereāre just a few caveats, is all. |
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