![]() Instead, ensure that the writing of your dream sequence has a tangible and meaningful impact on your characters and the personal story they are going on. Dream sequences shouldn’t be included just because it sounds cool or it’s an opportunity to throw away the rules of reality. If you’re writing a dream sequence, ensure that it has a real impact on the story. Dreams have a real-time impact on the story Pro tip: Be careful about infusing a dream with information that a character would NEVER have attained while awake. Otherwise, the dream sequence has no purpose. Why? Explore the outcome of the dream when they wake up, and ensure the future dream increases pressure on the character and their goal. Perhaps a man is getting married and having anxiety about the wedding. ![]() Whether it’s a dark sci-fi story or a comedy, you can play with the nebulous logic and rules of dreams to show your character imagining future scenarios. The future: Some dreams hint at possible future events or fates. Figure out what the backstory “scene” is first - traumatic, comforting, joyous, etc - and then find an elegant way to show it without saying too much. This would inherently influence decisions in the present. Or maybe your character was rejected love from a parent at an early age, and this formed their perspective on love and loss. Clearly, such a terrible event would haunt his/her dreams for years to come, even if they’ve grown up and seemingly forgotten about it. For example, perhaps your character has a traumatic memory of seeing someone die in a car crash. Once you combine it with your realisation…BOOM!īackstory: Another structure to a dream is to convey important backstory elements that have bearing on your character, and why they can’t do something in the present. It may take time, but you’re more likely to create a dream sequence with impact if you know what that conflict is from the start. Try to tap into this feeling in your dream sequence simply and effectively. So what is your character’s main conflict?ĭoes he/she find it impossible to love, walk away, fight back, or say goodbye?ĭoes he/she have trust issues that go beyond relationships?ĭoes he/she find it difficult to commit because they believe love is a lie? ![]() But at its core, dreams are about inner conflict. They show us our wants, needs, fears, and possible imagined futures. My character’s inner conflict: Psychologists, dream interpreters and the study of oneirology often describe dreams as a subconscious expression or yearning. Another way to breakdown a dream sequence is to decide its inherent categorization: My dream sequence is meant to convey… When you know WHY you have a dream sequence - hint: the realisation - you need to know the HOW you’ll execute it. Dreams convey hidden conflict, backstory, or the future At their worst, we’ve also witnessed the terrible cliche of “It was all a dream and nothing really happened!” Wow! For example, take this scene from Twilight: Breaking Dawn part 2…Ģ. That special something is totally up to you, and we’ve all seen dream scenes used in films and TV shows to varying degrees of success. When planning your story, you may get the feeling that a dream sequence will be effective in conveying something. Dream Sequence writing 5-step guideline:ĭreams convey hidden conflict, backstory, or the futureĭreams have a real-time impact on the storyĭreams should be short, succinct, and intentionally vagueįormatting a dream sequence should be kept simple Then we’ll explore some examples and formatting rules. So, before we learn how to format a screenplay dream sequence - dream sequences in a novel are rendered in traditional prose, so no problem there - let’s talk about what a dream sequence really is. A dream sequence should be character-driven. A dream sequence should push the story along. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some simple guidelines to follow to write a dream that delivers impact. While dream journals do serve a purpose, professional writers don’t necessarily have the page count to describe a dream in totality. So, the question is: How do you write a dream sequence with impact in your story? Have you ever had a dream where everything made NO SENSE, and yet, made TOTAL sense in its own sort of dream logic? Yea, me too. By their very nature, dreams are unclear, vague, and random. Writing a dream sequence is an unreal task - literally.
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