It’s common writerly wisdom not to use dreams in your stories, for good reason. Dream sequences are corny, time-consuming, and rarely convey information that wouldn’t be better spent showing your characters in action (unless your character is Freddy Krueger). But that doesn’t mean you can’t use dreams in your drafts.
In a new post, Mary Carroll Moore writes about the joys and challenges of using dreams, letters, and journal entries in your writing.
“Using dreams is, as one of my writing mentors once said, a cheater’s approach to revealing meaning,” Morre writes. “I’m not sure I buy that…But the point my mentor was trying to pass on: if you can’t show that meaning in scene, don’t resort to the magical revelation of a dream to deliver it.” While Moore sometimes uses dreams in early drafts for placeholders, she usually cuts them back as she develops her work, when she’s deeper into her story and able to reveal meaning in more tangible ways.
Letters, emails, journal entries, and therapy sessions often serve a similar function: providing information to the reader in a relatable, but passive way. Someone is explaining to the reader what is happening or what they need to know. While each of these devices can be helpful or engaging, you risk turning off your readers if they think you’re being lazy. Be careful not over use them or use them at the wrong time.
