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It didn't take Freud to realize that dreams are pretty potent stuff. Dreams open a window to the fertile landscape of the subconscious mind. For writers, paying attention to the content of your dreams can yield big dividends.
Not long ago, I had a dream that stuck with me. It suggested the content for a potential screenplay. Not that the plot came gift-wrapped on a silver platter. The dream was a catalyst-the "germ," as Henry James would say, from which a larger work might be fashioned. (Sort of a "high concept" dream.)
Yet the imagery and content of the dream kept nagging at me. So I started making notes about it. After several weeks, the notes had expanded into character sketches and something akin to a beat outline.
The breakthrough moment came when the first two-thirds of the plot seemed to dovetail into the ending of a screenplay I had written several years ago. Again, it wasn't a perfect match-but there was something compelling about the coming together of the story lines.
Had I simply dismissed the dream, a promising idea would simply have faded away. So honor your dreams.
And while we're at it-don't forget the dreams of your characters. When working on character development, consider what that person's worst nightmare might be. What is his or her dream of fulfillment?
As Shakespeare put it: "We are such stuff as dreams are made of."
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