There are lots of great stories out there about artists, inventors, and entertainers who got their best ideas through dreams. How can I get in on this process?
Rolling Stone Magazine has an entire article about the impact of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” on rock and roll. The famous riff for the song? It came to Keith Richards in a dream one night in a motel room in Florida:
He woke up, grabbed a guitar nearby and taped the music racing through his head on a handy cassette machine. Richards played the run of notes once, then fell back to sleep. “On the tape,” he said later, “you can hear me drop the pick, and the rest of the tape is snoring.”
And then, of course, we have Coleridge’s Kubla Khan. The full title is Kubla Khan or A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment. Coleridge stated that he’d written the poem while waking from an opium-enriched dream. A visitor came unexpectedly to his door, shattering his dream and the images he was hurrying to commit to paper.
Salvador Dali called his surrealistic masterpieces (above) ‘hand-painted dream photographs.’ They were inspired by his dreams and hallucinations.
Elias Howe invented a better sewing machine after a particularly bizarre dream involving cannibals waving spears with holes in them. Apparently the movement of the spears indicated to him a way to make his machine work.
Some of the people on this list may have had particularly vivid dreams induced by certain mind-bending substances. But I wonder—are there any writers out there who get bits of ideas or dialogue or story ideas directly from their dreams?
Because, frankly, my dreams are remarkably unremarkable. Most of them can be categorized this way: 1) I’m back in middle school/high school/college and can’t understand my schedule, forgot my locker combination, or am not fully dressed. 2) I’ve forgotten to feed a neighbor’s dog and cat while they’re out of town and the poor beasts are ravenous in the neighbor’s house. And pooping everywhere. And I can’t find my neighbor’s key. 3) I’m back at some dearly-departed relative’s house. They’re alive. I’m not a child, though. And their house has REALLY changed—it’s sort of like my house as an adult, it’s sort of like their house…and I’m totally lost.
You get the picture. Random insecurity dreams.
Are there others out there cursed by pedestrian dreams? How do we get out of our dream rut? :) It would be nice to explore my subconscious a little….
You know, I seldom dream. My wife says, I do, but simply don’t remember. Probably true, as I’ve learned she’s right about most everything else…love you, Sweetie Bear. (Okay, Sweetie Bear is more than you wanted to know—sorry) Back on point.
When I do dream, it’s some kind of violent thing: Me fighting wolverines, or badgers, or, in one case, a fist fight with a Grandma. (Galen Shrugs) Hey, she was tough. In a not so cool dream, I was being assassinated by the Viet Cong after being shot down. (What’s with that, 40-years after the fact??)
Well, my rambling point is, between no dreams, and silly dreams in which no one is interested, or dreams I’d rather forget (Grandma won the fight) I’m pretty much turning up zeros in the dream department. So, I guess those famous guys needn’t worry about me trumping their stories.
BTW, where DO you get this esoteric information??? I’m impressed. It’s one of the things that brings me back, day after day. Well done.
Galen.
http://www.galenkindley.com
I didn’t know that little tidbit about Keith Richards. Fascinating. I envy people with a rich dream life. I rarely remember my dreams and if I do, they are unremarkable as well. Every once in awhile I have a dream that is like a movie, but I’ve never attempted to get it down. Perhaps we need to keep a notepad next to our bed and just tell ourselves we’re going to use our dreams.
karen
http://www.karenfollowingthewhispers.blogspot.com
Karen,
I’ve done that–kept a notepad next to my bed–so when I wake up in the middle of the night with a great idea, I can jot it down.
Unfortunately, the next morning, all I can read is gibberish. I guess I don’t write very well half asleep.
And I can never remember what the great idea was, either.
I like how you pointed this out: Dreams can be inspiration. Because aren’t they our imagination at work subconciously?
Galen, I think it’s because my head is only full of trivia. I barely remember what I did 3 days ago, but I’ll remember any stupid bit of inanity for a lifetime!
Wow, Freud might have fun with your dreams. Much more interesting than mine…
Elizabeth
I dream so much I often wonder if I get adequate deep sleep time. And yes, I do get story ideas. One of those stories rated a really nice personal rejection from Zoetrope. LOL
Patricia
http://patriciastoltey.blogspot.com
I frequently dream about story lines that I wish to write. Usually I’ve had the idea while I was awake, but dismissed it. Dreaming for three or four nights about the same scene or character usually convinces me to write down the plan at least, and then the dream moves on to something else. Just last night I had my third run in with a story that I thought of a couple of days ago. Only, while I was sleeping, the entire plot has now opened up and the final thing I remember was the climax, and now I really want to write the story.
I think my dreams help to clarify ideas I already have, because it is my mind at work without all the clutter and distractions that it has during the day. So, ideas that are pushed aside while I am trying to focus come back and tell me not to ignore them.
I get inspirations in dreams lots of times. Sometimes a character will come to me in a dream and DEMAND that I wake up right now and write a scene.
You know Einstein used to hold a ball in his hand just before bed, meditating on the sphere … just as he dozed off, the ball would drop and the noise of it bouncing off the floor would often startle him awake with an epiphany.
What a great blog. I don’t usually remember my dreams (of course I suffer from insomnia, lol) but have awakened on occasion with a great idea for a scene or a character. Sometimes I think we when we are awake we will stress over a scene that needs tweaking – something not quite right and our unconscious imagination takes over while we’re asleep. Another reason I like writing in the morning when my brain is freshest.
NA Sharpe
http://nasharpe.blogspot.com
I never get inspiration from dreams but I know some writers who do. Lucky them!
Fantasy stories by Enid Wilson
Sure enough, a dumb dream about ships flying through my window (hello? Already been done by Barrie)led me to a completely different idea for a middle grade chapter book about a family that lives aboard a ship!
Now I’m having more fun w/ my own dream analysis, and I’m always asking my husband and kids: what did you dream about?
I have great dreams. They’re much more vivid than my everyday life. There’s a great deal to be said for eating a heavy meal before retiring.