DreamSpired Writing

We often consider a lot of things to be sources of writing inspiration; the weather, music, the newspaper, movies etc. But often we forget about dreams. 

I love to dream and I dream almost every night. My hubby doesn’t so much. Most of the time I dream, wake up, and forget my dreams as my day begins. But in the last month I had two very vivid dreams (different ones) that will inspire two of my future novels. It was so amazing, as if I was seeing a movie while asleep. Both of the dreams didn’t show me how the stories ended but I guess that’s left for me to decide. I can’t wait to write the novels. As soon as I woke up, before I was pulled into my day, I made a lot of notes and added even more ideas. Some of my dreams are rubbish and don’t make sense. Forget those.

Anyway, it got me thinking about dreams and writing. How many famous books are actually inspired by dreams? The following books can be traced back to dreams:

Twilight: I’m sure a lot of people already know that this series was inspired by a dream Stephenie Meyer had back in 2003. She dreamt of couple lying in a meadow. They were in love but something stood in the way, preventing them from freely indulging in that love; the boy was a vampire and the other a normal girl. As they lay there, they discussed their love and its complications. Especially about the vampire’s urge to kill the girl he loved and drink her blood. Well, you know what happened next.

Misery: Stephen King was on a flight to London when he feel asleep and had the dream that inspired the novel. It’s so gruesome, I’m finding it hard to write about it. If you want to know what it’s about, go to Amazon. Apparently Stephen King gets quite a lot of his inspiration from his dreams. According to him, “Dreams are just another part of life. To me, it’s like seeing something on the street you can use in your fiction. Writers are scavengers by nature.” 

One thing is for sure, I wouldn’t like to be in his head at night.

Frankenstein:  Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was nineteen when she had the dream that inspired one of the most famous horror stories. Again, I’d rather not put the book description here. If you’re strong enough you can read the description on Amazon or another place. I have goose bumps just thinking about what it must have been like to have a dream like Mary's.  

There are other novels out there that were either completely or partially inspired by dreams such as the children’s book, Stuart Little by E.B. White, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

Dear authors, what do you dream about at night? Have any of your novels been inspired by your inner late night movies? Any other interesting sources of inspiration?