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Topic : Re: How do I blur the line between dream and reality? I intend to write a science fantasy where dream world plays as important role as reality. The dream world stated has quite a distinct feel - selfpublishingguru.com

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You, the author, are creating both the "real" world, and the dream world. From that point of view, neither intrinsically has more reality than the other. Bizarre things may happen in the dream world, but then, bizarre things happen in reality all the time. When things that contradict reality happen habitually in a narrative, we call that "fantasy fiction" and it's something that many readers are happy to suspend disbelief for.

The upshot is that if you treat this secondary world as its own, legitimate reality, and respect whatever rules you set up for it, it will be just as real to the reader as the primary reality. YOU are creating the rules for this universe. There's no way for the reader to judge that the secondary world isn't a valid alternate reality unless you undercut it in some way.

With that in mind, make sure that everything that happens in the dream world has real stakes and real consequences. Everything that happens in the movie version of "The Wizard of Oz" is a dream, but it doesn't feel like a cheat to most viewers, because it has a complete story arc, in which Dorothy genuinely has to grow and change. The dreams that cheat the readers are the ones that short-circuit the protagonist's journey or that give him or her unearned escapes or rewards.


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