Nightmares and Horror

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Fruitbat

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I had the creepiest dream last night. Couldn't get back to sleep and the anxiety from it actually gave me a stomach ache. Now I'm trying to turn it into a flash story and kicking myself because I didn't do it then. I shoulda written it right then and if I woulda, I coulda got it down in vivid detail real quick. I'm going to do it anyway but now the sun's out, everyone's up, and the mood of it has escaped me, dammit. Wondering what horror writers have to say on the topic of nightmares and stories. ?
 

williemeikle

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I had the creepiest dream last night. Couldn't get back to sleep and the anxiety from it actually gave me a stomach ache. Now I'm trying to turn it into a flash story and kicking myself because I didn't do it then. I shoulda written it right then and if I woulda, I coulda got it down in vivid detail real quick. I'm going to do it anyway but now the sun's out, everyone's up, and the mood of it has escaped me, dammit. Wondering what horror writers have to say on the topic of nightmares and stories. ?

My last novel ( THE EXILED from DarkFuse ) came from a recurring nightmare I've been having since childhood, and I've had several short stories published that were directly influenced by nightmares. It's all grist to the mill.
 

Haggis

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Many of my stories came to me complete or almost complete as I slept--usually as I was dropping off to sleep, or as I was gradually awakening. Other times, dreams fixed issues I'd been having with certain stories.

I think it's fairly common.
 

meowzbark

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Sorta off-topic:

(Warning, bad grammar. Rambling.)

I checked out this page about the bizzaro genre before going to bed last week and let me tell you that I had the absolute most intense nightmares. I would wake up in my bed with these crazy-looking monsters in my room. Knowing that I'm sleeping and can't wake myself up is the worse feeling. And then I finally wake up. I go back to sleep and the next monster comes out. I actually had my mom come into my room and starting strangling her before I could wake myself up. I knew my kid was sleeping next to me and I thought she was a burglar trying to take my kid. I could kind of control the dream and I knew it was a dream, but it made it only more scary.

Finally, I gave up on sleep and watched television. Which woke up my kid. And then, no more sleep. Lol.

Back on topic:

I don't like to write horror with my kid in the house, but when I'm alone. I can really get in the mindset. I love the Silent Hill soundtrack. I like reading fanfiction or checking out crazy images. I think I write the best horror when I get into that freaky mindset, where I start scaring myself.

But, I'm no professional horror writer. That said, it seems like many of them draw on unfortunate events of their past or use their crazy nightmares as fuel for their stories.
 

kobold

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R.L. Stevenson got his idea for Jekyll and Hyde from a nightmare.

Too many times I got frustrated that I would have one of those dream ideas, but then wouldn't write it down at the moment I became awake and aware, always telling myself: 'Oh, I'm sure I'll remember it, because it's too good an idea; my mind won't let me forget it.' Sure enough, when I awoke 'proper' it would be long gone. Aarggh.

So, long ago, I started leaving a pen and a pad of paper on the bedside table just to record that sort of nightmare inspiration before it slipped away and was lost forever.

The nightmare and the dream are strange, marvelous tools, and exist to be utilized. . .
 

Rhoda Nightingale

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I do it all the time. Not just nightmares though--any kind of weird dreams interesting enough to build up to a plot.
 

Red Barchetta

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One of my shorts published a few years ago was of a nightmare I had one night. I wrote the story the next day. I don't know if an ending had been dreamt or not, because I had forgotten it. So I improvised it. It was published a few months later.
 

Poet of Gore

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I had the creepiest dream last night. Couldn't get back to sleep and the anxiety from it actually gave me a stomach ache. Now I'm trying to turn it into a flash story and kicking myself because I didn't do it then. I shoulda written it right then and if I woulda, I coulda got it down in vivid detail real quick. I'm going to do it anyway but now the sun's out, everyone's up, and the mood of it has escaped me, dammit. Wondering what horror writers have to say on the topic of nightmares and stories. ?

i had a nightmare last night too. it was about this guy with long finger nails, they were more like finger knives actually.
Did you dream about the same creep i did?
 

Twisted

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I once wrote a short story, almost a flash piece, about someone else's nightmare. It was prompted by Trish's Nightmare here on AW and it has since been published. I guess most of my own end up in my stories, or at least parts of them end up in my stories. My dreams are pretty incoherent.
 

Haggis

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I once wrote a short story, almost a flash piece, about someone else's nightmare. It was prompted by Trish's Nightmare here on AW and it has since been published. I guess most of my own end up in my stories, or at least parts of them end up in my stories. My dreams are pretty incoherent.

I remember that, Twisted. Did you ever let Trish know you've had it published? She'd be delighted.
 
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Twisted

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I don't think I ever did let her know Haggis. I'll have to see if I can find her and PM her. I think the anthology that it is included in is still available on Amazon.
 
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Stew21

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Thanks for the PM, Twisted. How wonderful that you had success from the nightmare prompt.
I'm pleased that my disturbing dreams are useful. :) KTC had his story published from that prompt as well.
I'd call that good on Horror mods for recognizing a wicked inspiration.
This makes me happy. :)
 

Haggis

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Trish, give me an idea. I'll write the story then we'll split the money. :D
 

Stew21

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I went back through some of the old prompts and stories since Twisted reminded me of it.
We discussed the below line at the time, but I never did use it for anything.

"A lot of weird shit goes through your mind when you realize a dead man can see you."

that was one of my comments regarding one of my nightmares.


:)

It really is a nifty opening hook. (and just think of all the great horror that can come from using it as a prompt!)
 
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Stew21

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As for Fruitbat's OP, I have never been able to accurately portray the horror of my nightmares in writing. I have used some of the ideas as jump offs, but dreams do't follow fiction rules and they need to be worked over, in my experience.
Typically, if I have the bones of a story from a nightmare I had, it has taken quite a bit of time before I could distance myself from it before it actually turned into something useful.
I've only ever used one nightmare in a story; it was years after the dream occurred, and it developed a life of its own. I guess the biggest thing is that you have to let it be fiction. Consider it a prompt, not a complete story.
 

Jamesaritchie

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I've got up at three in the morning to write a short story based on a nightmare. Anything is better than going back to sleep when one of those things wakes me up.
 

Poet of Gore

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how about this. i don't have nightmares.

I have these fantastic dreams but wake up and that is the nightmare.

it is like losing the same person over and over again everyday.

give me my old nightmares about going up escalators any day.
 

Twisted

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"A lot of weird shit goes through your mind when you realize a dead man can see you."

This got the be the first line of a story, Trish. It's a great line.
 
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