Nightmares?

[Lafayette]

I would like to hear some opinions on writing nightmares.

I'm debating on writing my nightmare for my main character in first person then when he wakes back to third person. Is this a big a big no no?

To be honest I have mixed feelings writing this in first person. I'm thinking of doing this in first person because I feel it would be more emotional, whereas third person may be be too detached, but I'm not sure of how I should go about it.

For the record most of my novel is in third person.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Nightmares, dreams and flashbacks are often in first-person for the immediacy and emotion.

 

[zmunkz]

Agreed, go for it. Not sure I'd open the book with it, but if it's somewhere in the middle, sure.

 

[Lafayette]

Not sure I'd open the book with it, but if it's somewhere in the middle, sure.

It's in the beginning of the third chapter.

 

[Venusian Broon]

As the others have said your idea in principle is absolutely fine. Especially the change in PoV.

Just be careful on the execution of the dream. As Tvtropes puts it in: All Just a Dream - TV Tropes if you use a dream as a way to put a plot twist in your narrative it will likely 'really grate on the audience', no matter where it is.

An example that springs to mind is right at the end of the final Twilight movie, where the big fight scene is revealed to be a 'dream' pushed into Michael Sheen's head. Absolutely dreadful.

You're not doing this, it seems, but FYI the 'Story starts but is revealed to be a dream' is such a tired, worn and terrible trope, I believe it's the sort of thing that will get you an instant rejection in a submission to a publisher . I think you would have to be a god-like genius to make it work. File that along with 'Story starts with character waking up' or 'Character described themselves by looking into a mirror'!

 

[tinkerdan]

I've used all of these::

You're not doing this, it seems, but FYI the 'Story starts but is revealed to be a dream' is such a tired, worn and terrible trope, I believe it's the sort of thing that will get you an instant rejection in a submission to a publisher . I think you would have to be a god-like genius to make it work. File that along with 'Story starts with character waking up' or 'Character described themselves by looking into a mirror'!

::in my published works.
Because I know you are not suppose to

 

[Venusian Broon]

I've used all of these::

::in my published works.
Because I know you are not suppose to

God like genius

Mind you I haven't read if it works, it may make me groan like Twilight's fight did

For the first ever chapter I wrote, not published of course, I didn't realise that I actually had put in the last two in simultaneously. I've filed that under, 'inner novice writer seeping through my subconscious'.

Seriously though, I'm not saying 'thou shall not', just 'if not handled with extreme care, likely to provoke negative reaction'!

 

[Phyrebrat]

Dreams and nightmares are crucial in my stories to give a sense of tone, comments on the POV’s psyche and to instil an oblique sense of dread. I’ve never considered writing them in anything other than the usual close third but I’d think it’s a perfectly fine choice for you to do that.

I try to introduce the section with something like, ‘in the dream he was...’ and often write it in italics.

pH

 

[Droflet]

Just finished writing a book with a nightmare in it. I'm scared to death of 1st person but it worked well enough in (very) close third.