Freaking Dreams

Usually, I try to be positive, try to look at the things I enjoy about writing. But on the other hand, one of the things I enjoy about writing is being able to rant about the things I hate about it.

More specifically, I despise including dreams in storywriting when they are used merely to impart symbolism. Dreams involving sleep, that is. Not dreams as in life-long goals 'r anything.

I have a couple of reasons for this, but the primary is thus: symbolism is supposed to be subtle, but dreams are not subtle. Dreams are vague and usually unhelpful, but not subtle, which only makes them even more annoying, in my opinion. They don't advance the story. They don't provide insight or background information. At best, they provide foreshadowing, but they're so obviously TRYING to provide foreshadowing/symbolism that the entire point of doing is rendered moot. It's a writing technique that's meant to make the story appear to have more depth or complexity, without actually adding said depth or said complexity.

And that is hack writing.

Though, that's not to say a story which employs this technique cannot have depth. A story can, of course, succeed in other ways; but it seems like a lotta folks mistake this freaking mechanism as one of those ways.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention the fact that I, too, have used dreams like this in my writing. There's at least one instance I can remember, though there are probably others. So, yes, that's one of the reasons I dislike it so much. 's an old shame of mine, 'n I hate to see the same mistake made elsewhere.

Do not, however, confuse this idea with the notion that "dreams = bad writing." Dreams can be utilized in other, more effective ways. For instance, you can use dreams as a means of addressing conflicts within characters. Perhaps your protagonist is very worried about something, and that worry manifests itself in nightmares. Personally, I don't care for this technique much, either, 'cuz it's a tad cliche, but it's also at least understandable for a character to experience such things. Or, as another example, dreams could be a focal point of the story. Perhaps the concept of "dreaming" is a theme, in which case, all my hatred here doesn't really apply.

It's only when "dreaming for the sake of symbolism" comes into play that I find myself becoming irritated. "Dreaming for the sake of prophecy" also bothers me, but that's more attributed to my hatred of prophecy than of dreams. Though, combining the two certainly doesn't make anything better, I think.

And hmm. Maybe I'll do another post about the use of prophecy in fiction. But I'm not promising anything. I don't make promises. It's against my nature. And by nature, I mean laziness. And by laziness, I mean shut up.