Note: If the staff wants this to go in another section, feel free to move it.


While I have had dreams that have laid out entire plotlines or given me interesting characters before (even if most of them are still lined up in my "to be written" queue), that hasn't happened often. With the exception of this one. I know that grafting dreams into stories seems to have a rather poor reputation (not going to name any, as I think it's perfectly obvious ...); but it does have potential in it's own way. Even if I haven't done Contemporary/Urban Fantasy before.

Over an extended period of time, I've had it several times; each more detailed than the last. The ages that I distinctly remember it at are 7/8ish, 10, 13, 15, 16, and again fairly recently. So you have some idea of context so I can get opinions, here is a rough summary of the dream:

Well, the dream takes place - mostly - in the middle of the night. This in itself makes it hard to tell part of what is going on, but I[?] am more or less walking along either a dirt or cobbled road [it's changed between sequences]. Nothing special or particularly interesting at first. Then someone else crosses my path. He's a little taller, but it's hard to see exactly what he looks like.

Though the company is somewhat warily accepted, as the night goes on, then things start happening. Upon stopping for whatever reason, the both of us are jumped. Then the dream jumps forward with several disjointed scenes: Something akin to lycanthroopy, except it is the growing of scales and claws in a draconian manner; running through woods in a dog-like way, but can clearly feel that it's scales and not paws hitting the ground; then snowfall. It looks like a bit of a cultish thing, or a gathering that most obviously wouldn't approve of considering the hard to reach location, but I never see what actually happens. The next scene is blood on the snow, and then I fall through ice.
(There is an obvious time skip between the three disjointed scenes, though.)

The write-up is obviously in first person because the POV is debatable, but if I do write this, it'll be in third person. But I have a couple questions for this.

1. As previously stated, having no experience in this subgenre, what would someone who has or does write it suggest?
2. What cliches or tropes are common in the Contemporary/Urban side of the genre?
3. Cliche questions aside - What would be your honest opinion of the base section of the idea?
4. I personally haven't seen reptilian-base shapeshifting focus before, but perhaps you have?


And anything else that may come to mind. Since I'm quite familiar with this dream, I'll try to answer any questions you might have pertaining my own. Thank you in advance for your time. ^^

You're such a complex person puu.... I don't even know where to begin with this. I had a dream one time I turned into a story about a prince searching unknown foreign planets for his sleeping princess like sleeping beauty. When he finally found her 700 years had past. Perhaps you could transform this into a beauty and the beast type tale or something with a fallen angel?

Dude, dragon shape shifting with night settings and ice and snow? Sounds pretty cool!

@ Anjyu: Well, that's the issue. I don't really want this to be just another fairy tale reimagining, and I'm not sure I'd be comfortable doing the "fallen angel" thing. If you do read urban/contemporary fantasy, or paranormals, what would you say is normal - or better yet, what have you not seen much of?

@ Kyra: Hehe, it can be. But the dreamscape is quite something. The only time that I don't feel the ominous overhang is the scene of running through the woods. That is like ... liquid steel, in terms of power. Fluid, yet astoundingly dangerous.

Hm.... I'm not really sure because everything I read is rather redundant. Perhaps you could make up you're own creature that no one else has? I'm not really sure Puu. This sounds very mystifying and beyond what my brain can conjure up at the moment.

XD, well, I was already going to customize these reptilian creatures. They may be physically influenced by Komodo Dragons (see a wiki if you don't know the species), but also by fantasy elements.

I know what Komodo dragons are maybe they could be a mutated species of people infused with animal DNA via Tokyo mew mew XD

XD, I don't really think that would work. It's kind of a cop-out, especially with the track record of this subgenre. (Pick up any Urban Fantasy/Paranormal novel, any one, and I'm willing to bet you'll find easily traceable similarities in every one.)

Bump?

Hey Pluto! This base seems very interesting! I do write a lot in this genre and with what you have now, you already have a lot to develop around. What is the most important in that genre is everything that will be going on in the principal character's mind in each step. A lot of psychology no matter how twisted this might turn. How does a very short lap of time or event has influences on the actions.

What I like about dreams turned into stories is you can allow yourself to relive it every night before going to sleep and really be part of the character to develop your story. It will become part of your own story in a certain way.

(It might be interesting to have your dream analysed to search deeper in your own psychology and go ahead with the rest. You might find out some very interesting facts you didn't even know about yourself )

If you have any aditionnal questions for me, feel free to PM

Thanks for your commentary, JoJia! Sorry I can't be on long tonight to discuss this (really just long enough to reply, then I'm off until tomorrow), but yes, I do agree that psychology will play a fair part in this dream/idea. I don't have the grasp on lucid dreaming, though, so I'm going to have to wait until next time it occurs again. (Not really worried about that, as it's bound to happen - look at the track record.)

How exactly do you go about analyzing dreams, though?