Dream Sequences: How to Craft Them While Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Dream Sequences: Avoiding the Lazy Screenwriter’s Crutch

It was all a dream! First the audience gasps. Then they sigh and roll their eyes. Through overuse and poor execution, dream sequences have unfortunately become a lazy screenwriting tool that often offers little to the overall story.

How many times does an audience have to witness a character die a horrific death only for them to spring upright in bed? It can seem a cheap tactic, one that attempts to heighten the stakes for the audience whilst simultaneously creating no lasting consequences. Quite simply, it is a fake-out.

In addition, screenwriters have begun to lean on the dream sequence as an easy way to communicate exposition. This is because they are trying to follow the age-old rule of screenwriting, ‘show don’t tell‘. However, rather than trying to find ways to visually communicate a character’s backstory or motivations within the story, they slap it in a dream sequence and hope for the best.

By doing so, they are missing out on what makes dream sequences so powerful. What is more common to the human experience than our nightly hallucinations? Dreams are a uniquely human concept. You can use them to delineate a character’s complex nature in a subconscious rendering of their innermost thoughts, feelings and fears.

If you use dream sequences to convey themes, influence your character arcs or even make them part of the story structure itself, then there is a place for them in your screenplay. Don’t use them as a crutch, or a way to solve a plot hole. Just use them as a visually interesting way to tell your story that may, in turn, help your screenplay stand out.