Would anyone read a blog about my dreams???

August 16, 2006 10:11 PM

Would anyone read a blog (if I wrote one) about my nightly dreams, or would that suck for everyone but me?

For about four years I've been writing down my dreams and am getting pretty good at it. Im also a writer for a local newspaper, and I realized recently that my dreams are far more interesting that anything I've written about real life. This seems like a great idea to me, but would anyone read it????

P.S. I did a search and realize there is already a ton out there, but still is anyone reading this stuff??

posted by nintendo to Writing & Language (35 answers total)

Response by poster: P.P.S. Any good Title Ideas (...).com ???
posted by nintendo at 10:13 PM on August 16, 2006

Best answer: Read Kerouac's Book of Dreams. Realize that that's interesting largely because its a view into the mind of someone insanely interesting to begin with, and even then many people can't put up with it (I love it, personally).

Basically, the dreams themselves are worthless. The dreams symbolically are interesting - if you can write your dreams in a way in which the symbols are clear & there is an obvious message/point to them, as in a concise story, it could be interesting. You would have to be a very good writer, & have very interesting dreams, for this to work.
posted by devilsbrigade at 10:17 PM on August 16, 2006

If your dreams are surreally funny or interesting--David Firth's work is mostly based on his dreams--then I think you could make for an interesting site. Also, make sure the website is pretty, and you break it into plenty of paragraphs and write concisely so it doesn't seem overwhelming to the visitor.
posted by Citizen Premier at 10:23 PM on August 16, 2006

Just thought you'd be interested. everything2.com has had a Dream Log for a while.
posted by suedehead at 10:28 PM on August 16, 2006

I love Slow Wave. It might be interesting if you gave yourself a similar highly constrained format.
posted by mr_roboto at 10:35 PM on August 16, 2006

I love hearing about interesting dreams; I'd read it if the dreams are weird enough. Also, I disagree completely with devilsbrigade: I think it's better to just present the dreams as they are. Better to hint at symbolism than to bludgeon people with it.

P.S. You might like Slow Wave.
posted by equalpants at 10:37 PM on August 16, 2006

aww, crap
posted by equalpants at 10:38 PM on August 16, 2006

I wrote my dreams down for years, but i would not ever actively read a blog of someone else's transcriptions of their dreams.
posted by iurodivii at 10:42 PM on August 16, 2006

I record all of my dreams in a blog-like fashion. The only people who read them, though, are a few close friends and family who are fascinated by my weird dreams. And, also, the "sex" theme is the most popular and receives all sorts of hits from strange search results ("male midget sex free" is one I distinctly remember). I don't keep it for the readers, though; I enjoy keeping a searchable record of all my dreams and their themes.
posted by rhapsodie at 10:50 PM on August 16, 2006

There is nothing more boring than other people's dreams.
posted by evariste at 11:08 PM on August 16, 2006

SOMEONE will read a blog about ANYTHING.

probably lots of someones.

but it usually helps if what's being written about is interesting/captivating/engaging/well written/scandalous/explicit/troubled/pained/confused.
posted by ab3 at 11:11 PM on August 16, 2006

Most likely not, unless your dreams a super plus exciting/interesting/prescient.

But as the cliche has it, if you build it, they will come.
posted by oxford blue at 11:21 PM on August 16, 2006

I have to disagree strongly with the "only if your dreams are interesting" crowd. A good writer can write about nearly anything, no matter how boring, and make it interesting.

If the dream is interesting to you, show us what makes it interesting. To accomplish this, it might help to make a distinction (in your own mind, not in the blog/journal) between the real you and the you-as-narrator. Think of the you-as-narrator as a character; once we care about this character, we'll care about the dreams.
posted by treepour at 11:23 PM on August 16, 2006

A blog's content is not the only thing that attracts readers. For me, how well the blog is written is just as, if not more, important.

So long as you don't come across as a myspace-twit, filling your blog with LOLz and OMGz, then I would probably enjoy it :)
posted by TheOtherGuy at 11:30 PM on August 16, 2006

Fart Party sums up reading about/listening to dream descriptions pretty well for me.
posted by birdie birdington at 11:39 PM on August 16, 2006

Once, I found myself wandering through a sepia park. I think it was night. There were many lamps throughout. Occasionally I would feel lost. But later, I would forget to be lost, as go the logic of dreams such as these. At one point, it came to my attention that the gas lighting was special. They were not simply keeping the park illuminated. They were keeping the park in existence. It grew to be quite obvious that if the lights were to go out, and all went away into the darkness, so too would the park. About then, as I was staring into the curious light, I was woken by meowing cats. In this half-conscious state, I mused over the relationship between lights and the lit. But after shoving felines aside, I returned to the dream. There I strolled up beside myself. I was now fiddling with the gas light. It let out a meow. Startled by my sudden appearance or by the meowing gas valve, I turned around to look at myself. Somehow finding little to say, I decided to relay my findings. "There is always an audience." Then, with a cat paw on my face, I woke.
posted by TwelveTwo at 12:06 AM on August 17, 2006

My friend says, 'don't tell me about your dream unless I'm in it."
posted by lois1950 at 12:08 AM on August 17, 2006

I frequently blog about my dreams. In fact I posted one yesterday. The handful of people thst read my blog may or may not read my dream journal posts, but I'm sure it's a low point (and a low point for a blog is, of course, a very low point). I would be interested in a blog about dreams but, without some rock-solid writing and regular updates, I would forget about it fairly quickly.

There was a really good Zippy the Pinhead comic where one guy tries to dissuade his friend from talking about his dream, which is guaranteed to be boring. If I was at home, I'd scan it, but I'm not so I never will.

/unhelpful
posted by elr at 1:08 AM on August 17, 2006

...I realized recently that my dreams are far more interesting that anything I've written about real life.

To you. To others, maybe not so much. News is interesting because it is real; if it was fiction, no one would care about another car crash on another local road, but a real incident might matter to people. Likewise, if you really can fly and you really drove a train through a tunnel, well, that's possibly interesting, but another guy talking about how he dreamed he was flying and dreamed that he drove a train into a tunnel might not be so fascinating.

But you should post some and see.
posted by pracowity at 1:19 AM on August 17, 2006

My friend says, 'don't tell me about your dream unless I'm in it."

Exactly. And that's why people love their own dreams -- they're always in them.
posted by pracowity at 1:20 AM on August 17, 2006

Generally I'd agree with the usual "There is nothing more boring than other people's dreams." quote, but how about twisting them into something more unusual? Maybe write the blog from the point of view of your dream-self, who goes to sleep when you wake up and almost acts as a distant observer of/participant in your life? That kind of thing could be interesting if you're an interesting writer with an interesting life, but it's bound to have been done before.
posted by malevolent at 2:12 AM on August 17, 2006

Write for yourself. I have a blog and couldn't care less that nobody else reads it. I have to get this stuff out of my head.
posted by intermod at 4:16 AM on August 17, 2006

I would not read your blog. This is a huge pet peeve of mine. I cannot stand having someone tell me about their dreams. It's like talking on the phone to a four year old.
posted by popechunk at 5:45 AM on August 17, 2006

It might be interesting if you made it a dream database, where users sent in their dreams and you did some kind of collective log-analysis of the collective unconscious.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 6:23 AM on August 17, 2006

I enjoy reading the text on bags of fertilizer and hearing about what you had for lunch, but I draw the line at other people's dreams.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:04 AM on August 17, 2006

Kelly Link's books have a dream-like quality to them. And they are excellent.

You might be able to embelish your dreams into good stories rather than writting your dreams strait.
posted by gmarceau at 7:10 AM on August 17, 2006

There is nothing more boring than other people's dreams.

Seconded. Write them down if you must, but don't expect other people to read them.
posted by languagehat at 7:12 AM on August 17, 2006

It depends on how good your dreams are. Do they read like a Stephen King novel, a Russ Meyer movie, or a description of a Owsley acid-trip?
posted by JJ86 at 7:14 AM on August 17, 2006

My dreams are always vivid, and often lucid, but I can rarely explain them in an interesting way. Still, if you can bring a journalistic approach to yours (and it sounds like you've been practicing for a while before deciding to publish) then it could definitely be worth reading (for some reason, I love hearing about dreams myself, and loved reading TwelveTwo's above, for instance.)

But that's not the point. It's a blog. With rare exceptions, blogs aren't known for their readership. My blog is only read by a few of my close friends (shameless link here) but I write it anyway just so I can write sometimes.

You're keeping a journal of your dreams anyway, so just change the format, and anyone who wants to read it will be happy to find it there. Do it.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:29 AM on August 17, 2006

If you have dreams as crazy as Dion McGregor (complete with a podcast of sleep-talking narration), then yes, you should do this immediately. If you don't, maybe just stick with the dream diary.
posted by sluggo at 7:38 AM on August 17, 2006

Don't write a blog for other people. Write it for your own benefit. If other people enjoy it, that's gravy.
posted by adamrice at 7:45 AM on August 17, 2006

I wouldn't read it, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't write it.
posted by baylink at 11:21 AM on August 17, 2006

It's down right now, but the forums at ld4all have an area for dream journals. You'd be right at home, particularly if any of your dreams are lucid.
posted by bink at 1:29 PM on August 17, 2006

posted by Rash at 2:26 PM on August 17, 2006

These folks love to read each other's dreams why not just join them...built in audience.
posted by m@ at 10:26 AM on August 18, 2006