'Nother hypothetical plot question

[TarnishedPenny]

I'm half-way through a tale and am suspecting I may have painted myself into a corner.

The setting is a dystopian society where the government is experimenting with behaviour modification of its 'undesirables' through manipulating their dreams. The dreams get increasingly better but then grow steadily worse, leading the 'subjects' to blame their IRL behaviour for it. That much I am confident I can make work.

My (perceived) problem is that I like to end stories on a high note. The problem here is that, while there is lots of scope for eroticism (hey, it's Lit, right?), the subject's dreams go sour and their relationship with their dream lover ends badly. They eventually wake up 'cured' but all the 'good' sex, all the 'happy' sex is rather in the middle and I don't want them to wind up like Winston Smith (and wasn't that a low-note ending?).

Thoughts? Am I overthinking this? Is there a way out?

Thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Bamagan]

I'm half-way through a tale and am suspecting I may have painted myself into a corner.

The setting is a dystopian society where the government is experimenting with behaviour modification of its 'undesirables' through manipulating their dreams. The dreams get increasingly better but then grow steadily worse, leading the 'subjects' to blame their IRL behaviour for it. That much I am confident I can make work.

My (perceived) problem is that I like to end stories on a high note. The problem here is that, while there is lots of scope for eroticism (hey, it's Lit, right?), the subject's dreams go sour and their relationship with their dream lover ends badly. They eventually wake up 'cured' but all the 'good' sex, all the 'happy' sex is rather in the middle and I don't want them to wind up like Winston Smith (and wasn't that a low-note ending?).

Thoughts? Am I overthinking this? Is there a way out?

Thoughts would be appreciated.

I think you painted yourself into a corner by deciding the setting is a dystopian society, not by whatever happens with the government-issued wet dreams. How is any happy ending for the dreamer going to override the looming presence of Big Wanker?

 

[pink_silk_glove]

If they realize that they've been manipulated, then they can reconcile and be even closer to each other from having shared the nightmare. The will and the goodness of the human heart overcomes.

 

[intim8]

They eventually wake up 'cured'

Well, theeeree's yer problem....

Have him wake up, but the only thing he is cured of is being constantly angry and randomly violent. Intead he becomes a subtle, patient, and calculating revolutionary who still gets good sex. Maybe he even meets the dream girl IRL, because the dreams were constructed using other undesirables.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

OK, to clarify, I used the word 'dystopian' mainly because the govt is actively experimenting in this way. We don't really get to see much of society, but it would be (superficially at least) pretty much like our present reality.

And her 'dream lover' would have been just that, a fantasy, a dream. Sorry not to have been clearer.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Well, theeeree's yer problem....

Have him wake up, but the only thing he is cured of is being constantly angry and randomly violent. Intead he becomes a subtle, patient, and calculating revolutionary who still gets good sex. Maybe he even meets the dream girl IRL, because the dreams were constructed using other undesirables.

There's a thought. Thanks.

Edit - actually, that might work very well!

 

[intim8]

Edit - actually, that might work very well!

Happy to help. Let me know when the story gets published.

EDIT: I just looked at your stories. You won the contest my first story here was for. Damn you!

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Happy to help. Let me know when the story gets published.

EDIT: I just looked at your stories. You won the contest my first story here was for. Damn you!

Ooops. Sorry, sorry, sorry!

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Maybe he even meets the dream girl IRL, because the dreams were constructed using other undesirables.

Perhaps this is even part of the program. All government programs aren't inherently evil...

 

[alohadave]

My (perceived) problem is that I like to end stories on a high note. The problem here is that, while there is lots of scope for eroticism (hey, it's Lit, right?), the subject's dreams go sour and their relationship with their dream lover ends badly.

They lose their dream lover in the second act, the third act is where they are all sad and shit. In the fourth act, they meet people who are in the same program, overcoming their sadness by coming together for love and hot fucking.

They realize that their dreams weren't ever actually going to work, but they had to go through that pain and loss to appreciate what they fought for together at the end.

 

[intim8]

All government programs aren't inherently evil...

Oh, do you always write fantasy?

 

[Cagivagurl]

I'm half-way through a tale and am suspecting I may have painted myself into a corner.

The setting is a dystopian society where the government is experimenting with behaviour modification of its 'undesirables' through manipulating their dreams. The dreams get increasingly better but then grow steadily worse, leading the 'subjects' to blame their IRL behaviour for it. That much I am confident I can make work.

My (perceived) problem is that I like to end stories on a high note. The problem here is that, while there is lots of scope for eroticism (hey, it's Lit, right?), the subject's dreams go sour and their relationship with their dream lover ends badly. They eventually wake up 'cured' but all the 'good' sex, all the 'happy' sex is rather in the middle and I don't want them to wind up like Winston Smith (and wasn't that a low-note ending?).

Thoughts? Am I overthinking this? Is there a way out?

Thoughts would be appreciated.

Perhaps there's an opportunity waiting within your story....
A past experimentee, who awoke from the experiment was dissatisfied with the outcome. He/ she has flashback memories of the sexy dreams. He / she is a chemist and finds a drug, an antidote of sorts that reawakens the best parts of the sexy dreams.
Every story needs a heroine.
They sneakily market the antidote releasing the patients from their hell.
The govt part of the excercise works, the two drugs together work brilliantly...
Perhaps even the Govt might get on board and alter the treatment...
If the Govt had good intentions it might be a good outcome?
Just my thoughts as a way out.

Cagivagurl

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Thank you all for the thoughts. Much to mull over.

tp

 

[EmilyMiller]

'Nother hypothetical plot question​

It’s not so helpful, I know, but I wrote a femdom 1984 homage in which “Winston” finally admitted to loving Big Sister*.

Emily

* Not in an incest way…

 

[Bazzle]

What ever happens in the dream, when they wake up, evidence is there in reality. An item of clothing on the bed. The toilet flushing...
Because dreams are built on reality somewhere, however much your dystopian government try to control it.

 

[EmilyMiller]

What ever happens in the dream, when they wake up, evidence is there in reality. An item of clothing on the bed. The toilet flushing...
Because dreams are built on reality somewhere, however much your dystopian government try to control it.

A top spinning and falling over…

 

[VallesMarineris]

Thoughts? Am I overthinking this? Is there a way out?

I see two possible ways out:

The law of unintended consequences: for example, the government needs a brilliant scientist (just watched Oppenheimer) but he has "deplorable' thoughts. They run him through the program and it succeeds, but he realizes it's his govt. job that makes him deplorable. He has to leave his govt. position and move to a commune where he's working on a turnip/rutabaga hybrid that will eliminate world hunger.

Be careful what you wish for: the scientist is cured, and works on what the govt. wants, but succeeds too well, and invents a weapon/program/system that's so powerful it gives him control of the govt. and he uses the dream control system to give himself constant happy dreams and them the bad dreams.

 

[AlexBailey]

You could have the various ‘undesirable’ subjects end up with a form of folie à deux.

I don’t know if the ‘undesirables’ are incarcerated or the nature of your dystopia, but the new dream connections could allow them to have remote intimacy in their isolation.

 

[AlinaX]

In dreams the possibilities are infinite and our hungers uninhibited. How does the sex evolve over time except into the fantastical and extreme, and how does that affect waking life?