Dreams

What strange things go on in dreams and nightmares?

Writing Prompts for Dreams

• What if something from a dream or nightmare crept into your reality? Would you know it has come to the real world or would you discover its presence gradually? How would you explain it to others? Would it help or hinder you? How would you get rid of it?
• What if you got trapped in a dream or nightmare? Who rules that realm? What must you do to get out? Do you want to get out of the fantasy and back to reality?
• Imagine you discovered a gate (besides sleeping) through which people could reach their dreamworlds. Would you keep it secret? Would you sell access? Who would protest such a new discovery? How would scientists and skeptics react? What if something got through the gate and blame fell on you?
• Put a character into an extended stay in a dreamworld… maybe they’re in a coma, under a spell, drugged, ill, feverish, cursed, blessed, stolen by a dreamlord.
• Imagine there is a creature or being who is stealing children and taking them to a nightmare realm. How can you save them? How can you get there to retrieve them? What happens to the corporeal bodies when they are gone?
• Time may be different in the dream realm. Perhaps one night’s sleep is decades in the dream. Maybe each night when you close your eyes you spend a lifetime lost in a dream. How does this affect you when you wake?
• Dream you are a worm, crawling along a leaf edge, curl up and sleep. In the morning you awake in reality, in your own bed, but you are sheathed in a cocoon… what have you become? How will your life be changed? Have fairies followed you into the real world? Or worse… a jealous butterfly god!
• Wake up from a restless sleep bearing the wounds of a nightmare. Scratches, cuts, and bruises, with only a vague notion of what transpired. What will you do? Are you scared of the next coming night? Whose help do you enlist?

Types of Dreams

• dream, vision,
• daydream, dalliance, muse,
• daze, trance, wonder, reverie, fancy, fantasy,
• getting lost in thought, drifting out of consciousness, idle fancy, mind drift,
• spirit vision, hallucination, meditation, cross-over,
• absent-mindedness, subconsciousness, unconsciousness,
• coma, vegetative state,
• delirium, madness, insanity, head trip,
• dissociation, break from reality, out of body experience, astral travel,
• mirage, image, illusion, phantasm, figment, chimera,
• nightmare, horror, night terror, torment, midnight trip, wraith visit, spectre, grotesque,

Environments in Dreams

• house, home, haunted house, mansion of infinite rooms, hut, hovel,
• stairs, spiral staircase, Penrose steps (infinite loop), really long ladder,
• door, doorway, secret door, gate, entrance, threshold, hatch,
• tunnel, passage, cavern, cave, dungeon,
• wall, barrier, cliff face,
• immensity, infinity, expanse, stretched space, 4th dimension, tesseract, twisted space, time warp, worm hole, black hole,
• another planet, alternate world,
• on board: an airplane, train, unusually long bus, WWII submarine, spacecraft,  see more VEHICLES
• wonder of the world, ancient site, holy site, monument, tower,
• upside down world, antigravity realm,
• underwater, seascape, ocean world, water planet, realm of the fish king,
• web world, spider empire, web complex,
• faerie realm, forest world, land of mushrooms, palace of light,
• book world, fictional universe, inside of a game,
• heart of the universe, the Big Bang, nexus of all things, the beginning, the end, the edge of the universe,
• vacuous space, nothingness, emptiness, no man’s land,
• war zone, combat zone, battleground, midst of battle,
• vacation spot, beach, campground, amusement park,
• historical period: era,  Ancient Rome, Egypt, Palestine, Greece, Mesopotamia,
• world of: clay, Plasticine, marshmallow, clouds, fire, earth, wind, water, energy, stone, Lego,
• torture chamber, prison, oubliette dungeon, land of horror, dark woods, barren stretches, desert expanse, asylum, morgue,
• bridge, stepping stones, rickety rope bridge, stone arch,
• tower, castle, skyscraper,
• you are shrunk and are… in a bowl of cereal, on the head of a pin, beneath a pebble, amongst blades of grass,
• you find yourself in a strange genre… fantasy, scifi, film noir, silent film, western, anime, steampunk, horror, gothic mystery, war film, cartoon world, superhero, fan fiction, pirate,
• hospital, operating room, waiting room, field hospital,
• refugee camp, homeless shelter, hostel, flop house, prisoners camp, concentration camp, ghetto, slum,
• field, hills, moors, scrubland, cracked earth, mountain peak, shore,
• lighthouse, one-room schoolhouse, abandoned church, root cellar,
• graveyard, barrow, cemetery,
• endless hallway, tilted hallway, hall of doors,
• the dump, a public washroom,

Characters in Dreams

• dream weaver, dream wielder, nightmare queen, spirit king, ghost lord, fantasy master,
• elemental being, fire god, water sprite, wind beast,
• stone giant, jealous ogre,
• commanding presence,
• wizard, seer, oracle, fortune teller, gypsy, witch, sorceress, wise blind elder,
• gambler, gamer, gangster, groupie, ghost, gear-jammer,
• people from your life: mom, parent, sibling, coworker, ex-friend, spouse, your crush from grade eight,
• a stranger who utters dark words, homeless beggar who returns to you night after night, someone you argued with at a store,
• robot, cyborg,
• alien, extraterrestrial (is it really a dream?),
• a mad doctor, scientist, aggressive dentist, surgeon,
• grade school teacher, vicious headmaster, spinster schoolmarm,
• unicorn, Sasquatch, satyr, centaur, talking wolf, birdman, lycanthrope, troglodyte,
• adventurer, ranger, bounty hunter, hero, paladin,
• queen, lord, nobleman, empress, king, ruler, captain, leader, prime minister, president, autocrat, dictator, monarch, mayor, reeve, knight champion,
• celebrity, athlete, famous actor,
• baby, child, toddler, kid, lost child, abandoned child,
• clown, mime, juggler, magician, trickster, musician, bard,
• a god, divinity, angel, demon, messenger,
• strange old lady who wants you to look in her covered basket (don’t do it!), a bathroom attendant who gives you a locker key (don’t use it!), a bartender who slides you a drink (don’t drink it!),
• a lover, dream boy, the perfect 10, your best friend’s seductive mom, the pool boy,
• succubus, vampire, siren, nymph, temptress,
• ancestors, your grandmother,
• your evil twin, yourself x10, your angry self,
• cancer personified, a lecherous lizard, a horny cigarette, dismembered hand, a sweet moose,
• two poets arguing in rhyme, a blues guitarist,
• Shakespeare himself, Mikhail Gorbachev, Bobby Orr, Freud, Gumby, Teletubbies,
• a dream-to-dream salesman, wish granter,
• mobster, gangster, hood, thug, ruffian, punk,

Stuff in Dreams

• food, pizza, coffee pot, tea stain that won’t come out, canned ham, whatever you ate for dinner, liquorice, jar of peanut butter that won’t open,
• trinket, souvenir, bobble, snow-globe (you could even be in it!), keychain, tea cup and saucer,
• collection of: porcelain figurines, mugs,
• amulet, talisman, orb, magic item,
• toy, game piece, broken doll, teddy bear, marionette who breaks her strings, puppet,
• treasure, money, gold, jewels,
• gigantic bed, tiny bed, tilted bed, stone bed,
• body parts, blood, surgical tools, bodily fluids, seepage, puke,
• rickety rope bridge, really long ladder, high ledge, rope hanging from a cloud,
• guillotine, ice pick, a sharp blade, a dull knife, a gat, glock, .38, .44 magnum, great sword, hatchet, pocket knife, yo-yo,
• wine bottle, swimming pool full of beer, clay goblet, wooden bowl, tiny whiskey bottles, a cocktail with skull ice cubes,
• statue, statuette, icon, holy symbol, relic, artifact,
• contract, bills, will, deed, deal, papers,
• jug of gasoline, oil pipeline, vail poison, potion in a flask, ewer of water,
• television, radio, a TV that talks to you, radio waves you can ride on, telegraph, telegram,
• wires, bells, tubes, boiler, regulator, machinery, cogs, lever, gears, pulley,
• ship, boat, sailboat, rowboat (with no oars, or one oar so you only go in a circle… weird),
• trash, rubbish, garbage, detritus, excrement,
• tanning bed, shower,
• spitoon, ashtray, sewer drain,
• sign, direction sign, warning sign,

Actions and Happenings in Dreams

• accident, mistake, error, embarrassing moment, crash,
• destruction, annihilation, Armageddon, chaos, madness,
• challenge, dare, competition, a game, some corrupted version of the Olympics, championship, a joust, a giant checker board,
• alarms going off, emergency, warning lights,
• fast rides, crazy speeds, extreme slow motion, rewinding, fast forwarding, pausing (almost everything), time travel,
• argue, converse, talk, repeat oneself, guess,
• cast a spell, summon a creature,
• dance like no one is watching, dance to a coliseum audience, dance with a stranger, dance a last dance, remember a first dance,
• prance, take a stance, start a bromance,
• reject someone, repel something, turn away from an opportunity,
• do your best, achieve, succeed, win, triumph, be the best, envision all, win bigly, become president somehow, see your name in lights,
• fail, fall, lose, get rejected by the “it” girl,
• make an impossible friend, do the impossible, fly, actually touch the sun, speak to someone who’s gone, trust yourself,
• doubt yourself, hate yourself, cry, wail, bemoan the ills of the world, say “why me?” and maybe receive a bitter answer, jump (do you wake up?),
• put up posters, hold a sign,

Notes and Ideas on Dreams

• Dreams are usually convoluted and confusing so take a couple incongruous elements and do a cool mash-up! For example, when you open a jar of jam sixteen tiny clowns should climb out and try to sell you a set of bowling pins shaped like your coworkers.
• Think about the strange events of a character’s day and bring those elements to their dream world when they close their eyes at night… include people, places, stuff, things they said, things they wish they’d said, emotions, doubts, passions,
• Conversely, you can have a character take something from their dreams or nightmares. Odd dreamworld elements can follow your character into the “real world” and cause trouble.
• Blur the lines between reality and dreamworld to create misinterpretations, doubts, quests, promises to keep, anxiety, expectation, betrayal,
• So many things in dreams are symbolic. Have fun with what dreams may represent for your character. How might your character interpret things? Will they alter course because of it? Will they ignore it to their detriment? Will others believe them?