Writing in between dream sequences
I am writing a story in which a set of events occurred that the main character cannot remember, but they come back to him in his dreams. Basically the entire actual story takes place in his dreams, but my real question is: How do I pad the dream sequences? It is clearly bad writing form to say
He woke up from his dream, went about his day, and then at night, went to sleep and dreamed...
But in the story, life outside his dreams is supposed to be decidedly ordinary. How do I pad the extraordinary with the ordinary without it being boring?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/10172. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
Well, what's the character's reaction to his real (waking) life? Is he bored? Impatient? Dazed? Curious? Eager? Anxious? Take us through his reactions rather than his day.
John listened to his patients with half an ear, most of his attention on the clock. Would the day never end? Twice between appointments he got up to check that the battery hadn't died, and once he actually stopped an old woman who was nattering on about her bad knees to listen intently, convinced that the ticking — and time itself — had stopped. The Tube ride seemed interminable. Must this really stop at every station on the line? Can't these people just get in the damn carriage and quit holding up the doors? When he finally, finally arrived at the flat, he rushed up the stairs as quietly as he could in the hopes that his talkative landlady wouldn't waylay him for a chat. His bed called to him, a siren of sheets and pillows and duvet.
0 comment threads
0 comment threads