This is one of those questions that readers and writers have very different opinions about. Those who teach writing are pretty united in saying that it’s a bad idea to start a book with a dream. “But it seems so clever,” you say. “There’s that zingy moment when the character wakes up and the reader realizes that none of what she’s learned so far really happened.”
Set Up for a Let Down
Well, yes. But there’s also a certain element of breach of promise in that scenario, isn’t there? Gentle Reader has gotten emotionally involved in the action up to now, and then… BOOM. Sometimes there’s the additional wrench of not being altogether sure where dream ends and reality picks up. I’ve put books down in disgust, frankly, because of a disappointing landing.
Do You Dare to Dream?
And yet, I used a dream opening myself once. I had the special reason of wanting to end the book with the same dream as the character died. (Yes, I killed my protagonist.) But it’s risky business, because people often feel strongly about that device, and if they don’t like it, they hate it.
If you’re willing to take the risk and want to open with a dream, consider a few things before you jump in. It has to be done well, or it’s a bust, and those who dislike dream sequences up front are just waiting for an excuse to lay your book down!
1) Keep it short.
Don’t make the sequence go on so long that readers lose track of where they really are. Don’t give them time to get too invested, or they’ll get the bends coming out.
2) Make it interesting.
The truth is, our dreams really interest no one but ourselves, because they’re scripted in a code that’s produced by our own brain and has no significance outside of it. Try to draw the reader along with descriptions that seem significant.
3) Make it important.
That is, they shouldn’t just seem significant, they should be significnt for the story. Is a childhood memory imbedded here that will identify the killer of the dreamer’s father? Is the dreamer’s guilt surfacing for an act we don’t yet know he’s guilty of? Does he keep dreaming someone’s after him, and they really are?
4) Write it well.
It’s the first contact of the reader with your story, and like any other beginning, it needs to be gripping. You might consider whether those first moments of good will aren’t better employed, but if not, make it great.
(PS: putting the dream in a prologue doesn’t relieve the writer of any of these duties! It’s still first contact of reader and book. Personally, I find prologues a cop-out, but that’s just personal taste.)
So if this sounds like a warning… yeah, it sorta is. This is a tricky device and needs to be handled with care. But rules are made to be broken. A really good writer can get away with anything. What do you think?
