posted
Ever had a bizarre dream and wished you could turn it into a story? Or a normal dream that seemed perfect for your next sale?
I've got a few of those circulating the markets as I type.
But most dreams are oddball fragments, or have me flying and I wake up thinking of course! This will be the best story ever. But then the haze clears and I realize how silly that idea truly was.
posted
I want very badly to enter this challenge, but I have a wonderful tendency not to remember what I dreamed about come morning. XP As soon as something hits me, I'm in.
Posts: 745 | Registered: May 2015
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posted
Poe said write about nightmares, not dreams, and especially not daydreams. "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," the 1939 Walter Thurber original, is about daydreams. Later reimaginations miss what the short story is really about; that is, an ineffectual and meaningless life (sloth) and self-misrepresentation as a heroically noble everyman (vanity-pride).
For me, nightmares are the order of dreams. Mine are always nightmares, impossible struggles against impossible odds and obstinate individuals who are always me. In a restaurant, checkerboard floor tiles, rough-hewn wood furniture and wall panels, ambient lights, I'm the difficult customers, the servers, the cooks, the bartenders, the managers, and we all cannot get anything done.
Posts: 6037 | Registered: Jun 2008
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posted
Axe, did Bob claim to be a little prince who was trying to get back to his planet? =P
I'm trying my best to have an interesting dream! So far, not great...
Extrinsic, there was a while when I had to work six days a week instead of five, and I had a dream about someone from work EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. It came to the point that I started writing them down in a dream journal and just kept the journal at work for everyone's amusement. Thankfully, that ended.
But one of my favorite teachers of all time told me that he used to have nightmares every night. He never had happy dreams. Eventually, he trained himself to NOT have dreams, or to forget them when he woke up. Now, he never recalls what he dreams.
I don't know what's sadder... having only nightmares, or having no dreams at all?
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I'm in, for this contest but it is a struggle. I ONLY have nightmares, but that's okay--I love 'em, I also only remember those fragments I dream at the near waking dream-state: which means there's usually no context and no end in sight. Case in point, the dream I'm basing my submission on: I'm walking past 6 guillotines and as I pass each one the blade falls and a head slowly topples into the dust--until the final one. In this case, the head lying in the dust speaks, but I'm not certain if it actually speaks or the voice is in my head.
How do I turn that into a 13 line start to a story?
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I'm going to try to get something together. I've got some real doozies of crazy dreams to pick from.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Dec 2003
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There is one nightmare I had a few weeks back that really stuck with me... Maybe I'll try for that. I've been putting the idea off because it really freaked me out, but on the other hand that means there should be a lot of dramatic tension, right? Posts: 745 | Registered: May 2015
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posted
Well, I posted my effort, an alternate opening for Hel Rising. I couldn't actually get to my remembered dream fragment, just introduce the setting and character, plus a want to be fulfilled.
To find out what happens you'd have to turn the page.
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I'll try to have something by tonight! I'm combining two dreams into this story... Haunting dreams (not quite nightmares), which are rare for me. =)
Posts: 252 | Registered: Feb 2013
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