Dreams can be strange, emotional, beautiful, terrifying, and completely impossible.
One moment, you might be walking through a familiar house. The next, you’re standing in a forgotten kingdom, speaking to a mysterious stranger, running from a creature you’ve never seen before, or discovering a door that shouldn’t exist.
For fantasy writers, dreams can be an incredible source of inspiration.
They can provide characters, settings, magic systems, conflicts, creatures, symbols, and entire story concepts that you might never have consciously imagined.
That is where dream journaling comes in.
A dream journal isn’t just a place to record strange dreams. For a writer, it can become a personal library of story seeds.
What Is Dream Journaling?
Dream journaling is the practice of writing down your dreams as soon as possible after waking.
The goal isn’t necessarily to interpret what your dreams mean. Instead, you’re capturing the details before they disappear.
Dreams are notoriously difficult to remember.
You may wake up knowing that you experienced something incredible, only to forget most of it twenty minutes later.
A dream journal gives you somewhere to capture those fragments.
You might write:
“A castle was underwater, but nobody seemed surprised. There was a boy with silver eyes who told me the ocean was protecting us from something outside.”
That’s enough.
You don’t need to understand the dream.
You don’t need to turn it into a story immediately.
You’re simply collecting the idea.
Why Dreams Are Valuable for Fantasy Writers
Fantasy thrives on imagination.
Dreams naturally create situations where normal rules don’t apply.
A dream might give you:
- An impossible setting
- A mysterious character
- A strange creature
- An unusual magical ability
- A supernatural conflict
- A forgotten civilization
- A powerful symbol
- A forbidden relationship
- A strange object
- An unexplained event
- An emotional character moment
- A completely unexpected plot twist
The best part is that dreams often combine things in ways your conscious mind wouldn’t normally consider.
A haunted forest might become a living forest.
A childhood home might become a magical sanctuary.
A stranger might become a cursed prince.
A nightmare might become the foundation for an entire paranormal romance.
Keep Your Journal Beside Your Bed
The most important rule of dream journaling is simple:
Make it easy to write down your dreams.
Keep your journal and a pen beside your bed.
You can use:
- A traditional notebook
- A dedicated dream journal
- Your phone
- A notes app
- A voice recorder
Choose whatever you’re most likely to use.
You don’t need an elaborate system.
The goal is to capture the dream before it fades.
Write Immediately
Don’t tell yourself:
“I’ll remember this later.”
You probably won’t.
Instead, write down whatever you can remember immediately after waking.
Even if you only remember three things, write those three things down.
For example:
Dream fragments:
- Black forest
- Man with glowing blue eyes
- Door underneath a lake
- Felt like I was being hunted
- Someone said, “Don’t let him remember.”
That’s already a collection of potential fantasy ideas.
You don’t need the entire dream.
Sometimes a single sentence can become the beginning of a novel.
Don’t Worry About Making Sense
Dreams don’t have to make sense.
In fact, their lack of logic can be useful.
Maybe your dream included:
- A city floating in the sky
- A train traveling through another dimension
- A vampire who couldn’t remember being a vampire
- A forest that moved during the night
- A house with hundreds of doors
- A ghost who was afraid of humans
Don’t “fix” the dream while recording it.
Write down what happened.
The strange details may be the most valuable part.
Record the Emotions
Don’t just record what you saw.
Record how you felt.
Ask yourself:
What emotion was strongest?
Maybe you felt:
- Fear
- Desire
- Grief
- Curiosity
- Anger
- Loneliness
- Safety
- Excitement
- Confusion
- Wonder
Emotion can be more useful than the actual dream plot.
For example, you might forget exactly what happened in a dream but remember the overwhelming feeling that someone you loved was disappearing.
That emotion could become the heart of a story.
Pay Attention to Recurring Characters
Do certain people keep appearing in your dreams?
Perhaps there’s a mysterious stranger who appears repeatedly.
Maybe you keep dreaming about the same fictional character.
Or perhaps the person doesn’t have a name or face, but you recognize them every time.
Write down these recurring figures.
Eventually, you might begin asking:
Who are they?
That question can lead to a character.
Maybe the mysterious stranger becomes:
- A cursed prince
- A demon hiding among humans
- A magical guardian
- A lost soulmate
- A vampire searching for his reincarnated lover
- A sorcerer who erased his own memories
Your dream doesn’t have to provide the answers.
You can create them.
Turn Dream Locations Into Fantasy Settings
Dreams are excellent sources of worldbuilding inspiration.
Maybe you dreamed about a strange library.
Instead of simply writing:
“I dreamed about a library,”
expand it.
Ask:
What made the library strange?
Perhaps the books:
- Whispered when someone walked past
- Contained people’s memories
- Changed their stories depending on who read them
- Could predict the future
- Were written by ghosts
- Couldn’t be removed from the building
- Contained spells instead of stories
Now you have a fantasy setting.
The original dream might have lasted only a few minutes.
Your fictional version could become an entire world.
Use Dreams to Create Magical Systems
Dreams can also inspire magic.
Imagine dreaming that someone could enter another person’s dreams.
You could turn that into a magic system.
Maybe dreamwalkers can:
- Enter another person’s memories
- Steal secrets
- Create nightmares
- Communicate across distances
- Trap people inside dreams
- Heal emotional wounds
- Alter memories
But perhaps there is a cost.
Every time a dreamwalker enters someone’s mind, they lose one of their own memories.
Suddenly, you have the beginnings of a magical system and a conflict.
Don’t Copy the Dream Exactly
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is assuming you have to recreate the dream.
You don’t.
Think of your dream as raw material.
You can change:
- The characters
- The setting
- The genre
- The relationships
- The conflict
- The ending
- The magic
- The stakes
Maybe your dream involved a mysterious man standing outside your house.
You could turn that into a paranormal romance where the stranger is actually an immortal guardian who has spent centuries searching for his soulbond.
The dream provides the spark.
You provide the story.
Create a “Dream to Story” Page
Consider adding a second section to your dream journal specifically for writing ideas.
For every interesting dream, create a page like this:
Dream
What happened?
Interesting Details
What images, characters, objects, or locations stood out?
Emotion
What did the dream make me feel?
Story Possibilities
What could this become?
Genre
Fantasy? Paranormal? Horror? Romance? Dark fantasy?
Character Idea
Who could the main character be?
Conflict
What could go wrong?
What If?
What happens if I change one major detail?
This turns your dream journal into an idea-generation tool rather than simply a record of your dreams.
Try the “What If?” Method
The phrase “What if?” is one of the most useful tools for writers.
Take something from your dream and ask increasingly unusual questions.
For example:
Dream:
A man walks through a forest where all the trees have faces.
What if the trees are actually trapped souls?
What if they can only speak to one person?
What if the forest is growing because someone is feeding it souls?
What if the main character discovers their own face on one of the trees?
What if the forest knows how the main character will die?
Now you have a story.
Mine Your Nightmares
Don’t ignore nightmares.
They can be some of the richest sources of dark fantasy and paranormal fiction.
A nightmare might contain:
- A terrifying creature
- A disturbing location
- A feeling of being watched
- A mysterious death
- A supernatural threat
- A transformation
- A person disappearing
- A world falling apart
You don’t have to recreate the nightmare.
Instead, ask:
What was frightening about it?
Then exaggerate that fear.
If your nightmare involved being trapped somewhere, perhaps your fantasy protagonist is trapped in a magical kingdom where every exit leads back to the beginning.
If you dreamed about being chased, perhaps your character is being hunted by something that knows their name but refuses to reveal what it is.
Your fear can become fiction.
Look for Symbols Without Overthinking Them
Dreams often contain strange objects.
A key.
A mirror.
A crown.
A red door.
A broken sword.
A black flower.
A silver necklace.
A locked box.
You don’t have to decide what the symbol “really means.”
Instead, ask:
What could this object mean in my story?
Perhaps the key opens a door between worlds.
Perhaps the mirror shows someone’s true form.
Perhaps the crown belongs to a dead king whose spirit still controls the kingdom.
Perhaps the flower only blooms when someone is about to die.
The meaning becomes part of your fictional world.
Keep a List of Dream Story Seeds
Not every dream deserves an entire novel.
Some are better suited for short stories, scenes, characters, or writing prompts.
Create a section in your journal called:
Dream Story Seeds
Whenever something catches your attention, write it down.
For example:
1. The kingdom beneath the lake
2. The vampire who forgot his name
3. The forest that remembers everyone who enters
4. The door that only appears during thunderstorms
5. Two soulmates who meet in each other’s dreams
6. The ghost who doesn’t know he’s dead
7. The witch who can only cast spells while sleeping
You may not use these ideas immediately.
That’s okay.
You’re building a creative library.
Don’t Force Yourself to Write Every Dream
Dream journaling should inspire you, not become another obligation.
Some dreams will be boring.
Some will be confusing.
Some will make absolutely no sense.
Some will disappear before you can remember them.
That’s normal.
You don’t need to turn every dream into a story.
Instead, look for the interesting pieces.
One image can be enough.
One sentence can be enough.
One emotion can be enough.
Your Dreams Don’t Have to Become Stories Immediately
Sometimes an idea needs time.
You might write down a dream today and think:
“There’s nothing here.”
Six months later, you might look at that same entry and suddenly realize:
That’s my villain.
Or:
That’s the setting for my next book.
Or:
That’s the opening scene I’ve been looking for.
Keep your old dream entries.
You never know which strange fragment will eventually become something bigger.
A Simple Dream Journaling Routine for Writers
You don’t need to spend an hour journaling every morning.
Try this five-minute routine.
Step 1: Stay Still
When you wake up, don’t immediately reach for your phone.
Take a moment to remember what you were dreaming about.
Step 2: Capture the Fragments
Write down anything you remember.
Don’t worry about grammar or organization.
Step 3: Record the Emotion
Write one or two words describing how you felt.
Step 4: Highlight the Strange Parts
Circle or mark anything unusual.
Step 5: Add One “What If?”
Take your favorite detail and turn it into a story question.
That’s it.
Five minutes can create a surprising number of story ideas over time.
Start Building Your Dream Story Library
Your imagination is constantly generating material.
Dream journaling gives you a way to catch some of it.
The goal isn’t to become an expert at interpreting dreams.
It’s to become better at noticing ideas.
A strange creature.
A mysterious stranger.
A forgotten kingdom.
A forbidden romance.
A terrifying forest.
A door that shouldn’t exist.
A whispered warning.
Any of these could become the beginning of a story.
So tonight, put a notebook beside your bed.
When you wake up, write down whatever you remember—even if it seems ridiculous.
Because sometimes the strangest dreams contain the most interesting stories.
Your next fantasy story might already be waiting for you in your dreams.
Happy Writing ^_^
Sara's Writing Sanctuary 