Differentiating dream sequences to reality

[Rob_Royale]

I've done this before in Dreams of Him and used italics to denote the dream portions of the story. No one complained.
My new WIP has similar dream sequences, and was wondering what you folks have used to denoted dreams/imaginings/hallucinations?

 

[StillStunned]

I use italics, and quite often the present tense as well (I usually write in the past tense). It seems to work.

 

[shelleycat1]

If you are dreaming it’s all perfectly reasonable that you are in a meeting room naked trying to get the projector to work. It’s only when you wake up and want a pee that you realise. So why does the reader get the curtain, so to speak, ripped open?

 

[THBGato]

So why does the reader get the curtain, so to speak, ripped open?

Agreed. I think you can trust readers to work it out most of the time.

 

[TheLobster]

I've got one story with significant dream sequences and I didn't use anything to delineate them beyond dinkuses.

 

[Rob_Royale]

If you are dreaming it’s all perfectly reasonable that you are in a meeting room naked trying to get the projector to work. It’s only when you wake up and want a pee that you realise. So why does the reader get the curtain, so to speak, ripped open?

Good point.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

The one story of mine that uses a dream sequence leaves it up to the reader to figure out. Just for fun, I blurred the lines a little with the ending.

Some readers got it. Some didn’t.

 

[NotWise]

In one case I had dreams, hallucinations, fantastical sequences or high tech (take your pick) interleaved in the story without differentiating. Readers thought it a little odd, but they rated it reasonably well. In another story I had a character narrate fantasy sequences in present tense, while the rest of the story was third person, past tense. Again, readers took it in stride.

 

[Bazzle]

In movies they always use the 1970's soft focus..

 

[HordHolm]

You could always throw in the glissando harp, then they'd know.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

You could always throw in the glissando harp, then they'd know.

Yeah, but if your reader is on IOS it ends up sounds like a theremin, and youe readers might think some sci-fi stuff was happening.

 

[StillStunned]

Yeah, but if your reader is on IOS it ends up sounds like a theremin, and youe readers might think some sci-fi stuff was happening.

I have a sci-fi story that has both dreams and dream-like sci-fi stuff.

 

[TheLobster]

You could always throw in the glissando harp, then they'd know.

It is for similar reasons that I always include a slow, vibrating saxophone tune whenever things get steamy.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

One of my stories, Reclaiming Sofia, opened with the MFC going for a pleasant walk. Things rapidly became less pleasant, then decided uncomfortable, sliding quickly into horrific. A dead woman finally began to scream, louder and louder and she woke up to the sound of her alarm clock, panting, “The Dream! Not again!” The transition was instantaneous and perfectly clear. That wouldn’t of course work in every case, but it worked just fine there.

 

[Whanmore]

If I write a dream i don't necessarily want the reader to know immediately. The best part of dreams is you don't know you are dreaming until you wake up. I always start in the middle of a scene cuz that's what dreams do and I'll do things like beds in random rooms, doors appearing out of nowhere. Stuff like that... I try to bring out that disorienting feeling you get when you wake up.