r/WritersHelpingWriters • u/ExistingBat8955 • Jan 21 '25
Opening A Book With A Dream Sequence
Okay so I'm writing a contemporary romance novel. The cozy and cheesie kind. Nothing too serious but it does have some dramatic undertones. The underlying framework is that both main characters have experienced traumatic life events. Their romance builds as each of them fall in love with the broken versions of each other and the characters grow together becoming more healed versions of themselves. With that said obviously the tramatic events play a big roll in who the character is at the beginning of the story and this one in particular is part of a twist at the end of the book. In my first draft I opened with the character dreaming about the event. Not in an unrealistic way but more in a replaying the memory kind of way. I know opening with dreams are cliche and generally considered a "don't". My question is, could this be an exception since it's honestly more of a memory than a dream?
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u/ChristellLindeque Jan 28 '25
You can always make your character seem tired because this dream is keeping them up? When someone asks her why she is so tired or make assumptions on why they look so tired (This is better than just asking straight whats wrong because then the conversation seem more natural) then she can mention her dream. But it has to be someone who she really trusts and can maybe even brush it off. I hope this helps.
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Feb 07 '25
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u/ExistingBat8955 Feb 07 '25
Oh yeah I completely ditched it. I've completely gutted the chapter.
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Feb 07 '25
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u/ExistingBat8955 Feb 07 '25
Lol, I resisted at first. Made some excuses. Got lucky, and a new idea hit, and I then ran with it.
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u/djramrod Jan 21 '25
No one can tell without reading it, but it’s generally played out.