Should I write a dream sequence?

[DaveC426913]

I'm writing a (pre)historical novella (it's set in 20,000BCE).

Pre-written word but it's assumed that they are otherwise similar to modern humans. They do record major cultural events on their bodes with tattoos.

Of course there are things about their world they can't possibly know, such as ice ages, tectonic drift and megafauna species migration. These things setup the background to the story and drive it - but from a distance. (Yes, there are ways I can refer to these phenomena in their limited mindsets, but there's a limit to that. Some things need a more omniscient point of view. Dreams are also a good place for foreshadowing).

Act I climaxed with a monster battle, closing with them making camp and falling down in a heap.

Act II can therefore naturally open with waking up the morning after. A perfect opportunity for a dream sequence from which the protag is roused. It would fit in well, and it would give me a chance to have her dream anything I need her to, if there's anything I want to tell (like the real reason why the sea monsters behaviours have changed, and more importantly, what it means for the future of the story. Because, frankly, the migration of the sea monsters is the reason that the story exists. there's no way for her to know that - she doesn't even have a word for "south").

My question is: should I? I kinda don't like dream sequences. I feel like I'm supposed to be learning all sorts of things from the symbology, but I never do.

"Why does it have to be a dwarf?"
"What? It's a dream sequence."
"But why does it have to be a dwarf?"

- Living in Oblivion


Thoughts?

 

[.Scott]

A dream sequence could focus on what the protagonist is worried about - and incidentally introduce whatever story points you need to make.

I remember a report of the modern analysis of many dreams from Ancient Egypt. The author's conclusion was that being misunderstood was the most prevalent concern of that age.

 

[DaveC426913]

A dream sequence could focus on what the protagonist is worried about -

True, but I don't need a dream sequence to do that. (Unless, I suppose, it's buried in her unconscious.)

and incidentally introduce whatever story points you need to make.

I remember a report of the modern analysis of many dreams from Ancient Egypt. The author's conclusion was that being misunderstood was the most prevalent concern of that age.

This is a chase/survival story, so her biggest concern is going to be the horror of what is chasing her little band of children, and what lies ahead.

 

[DaveC426913]

First draft:

Vara kicked against the heaving sea, salt stinging her eyes. Around her, tooth-fish flashed like knives, circling closer with every pass. She tried to swim to safety but with every stroke shoreward, the current carried her two strokes away. On the distant beach, Haf and Ryn waved and shouted, their voices stolen by the wind. The children clung to Great Mother’s legs. Then the shore slipped away, shrinking into haze.

A giant dark mass swooped under her, scattering the tooth-fish and spinning her around with the force of its passage. Not a tooth-fish - a Djodi Kwado. She caught the tip of its rudder tail and it carried her away from the pack of tooth-fish. She felt a tug on her other hand and she saw Haf hanging on, pulled along at great speed. Haf held Ryn’s hand, and Ryn had the children all in a line like beads on a necklace, with Great Mother other on the end.

Djodi carried them down the shore, far past their village, down past unknown lands and out into the wide open sea. The towering waves buffeted and shook her until she feared she was going to lose her grip.

She had to let go of the beast’s tail to float to the surface for a breath. But even as she rose, the waves buffeted and shook her.

Finally, she opened her eyes. Drask-kin was crouched over her, shaking her gently by the shoulder.

“Come. Look.”


(Things we already know:
- Great Mother is dead. i.e. we know in the first paragraph that this sequence must not be real
- We have met Djodi Kwado (sea serpents). They are not monsters. Dangerous, yes, but respected.)

 

[Klystron]

Yes, definitely include dreams as you see fit. Not only a dream sequence where the reader experiences the dream, but a character may relate their dream to others providing information and advancing the plot.

Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" mostly takes place within a Summer dream. Vladimir Sorokin employs several dream methods in "The Blizzard". Characters fall asleep and provide backstory in dream sequences without interrupting basic narrative. Characters reveal information relating previous dreams. During the eponymous freezing blizzard, a main character experiences intense heat sensation via a shared 'drug trip' induced by clever futurific technology.

Pre-modern people without our vast entertainment technology, including SF stories, set great store by dreams as diversion but also as guides. Early hunter societies might wait for a propitious dream before embarking on an organized hunt. "Life is but a dream.".