Avoid Using Nightmare Scenes?

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  • Avoid Using Nightmare Scenes?

    I read that a nightmare is a cliché when used in conjunction with introducing the protagonist and should be avoided. (The author was especially harsh with people using "bolts upright from his bed sweating- to end the nightmare.)

    In my story, the significance of this nightmare will be made known to the audience later. I want to use the incident depicted in his nightmare to be the cause for his alcoholism.

    Another article recommended showing something like this in real time but then I can't use it as a "cause- of his alcoholism.

    So, (1) if this is a cliché, what's a better way to convey this nasty incident in his past and (2) if I decide to go ahead to use a nightmare, is there a better way to end the nightmare than "bolts...?-

    Any movie examples of a good way to handle this would be appreciated also.

  • #2
    Re: Avoid Using Nightmare Scenes?

    It's a cliche, but that doesn't mean don't do it.

    If you want to write a nightmare scene, okay, got it, watch a whole bunch of movies with nightmare scenes and understand when the work and when they don't. The last thing you want to do is not write something because you read you should "avoid it" somewhere.

    I would offer the following cautions, however.

    First, yes, it's a cliche. I've seen it a lot of times. You can flirt with cliches, you can dance with them, but you have to do it with an awareness of the cliche.

    Second, the moment the audience knows something is a dream, it becomes INSTANTLY less interesting. (Unless you're in a movie like Nightmare on Elm Street where dreams matter). Nothing that happens in a dream really affects you, and thus they tend to be dramatically inert. A character in a film being chased by a man with an axe? Exciting! He could live or die! What's he going to do? A character in a film being chased by a man with an axe in a dream? Doesn't matter if the guy gets him or not! He's waking up one way or the other.

    Third, it sounds like you're dealing with the whole problem of exposition, which is a big challenge. A very common first instinct, since you don't want to just tell your audience what happened, is to show it, and this seems like a way to do that. And it is. I'd encourage you to ask yourself questions like, "Does the audience need to know this information now?" Often relatively-inexperienced screenwriters frontload exposition when they don't have to.

    The audience doesn't need to know the cause of his alcoholism, do they? Certainly not right up top. Audiences often need much less back story than you might think IF the dramatic stakes in the moment are clear. We may not need to know why he's alcoholic at all.

    Often, you can find ways to more subtly indicate this sort of thing, if we don't need to know all of the gory details. e.g., someone who is an alcoholic because he saw his family murdered as a kid is going to have a different set of behaviors than someone who is an alcoholic because his child died in a car crash, right? Which one of those two guys has three locks on his front door and bars on his windows, and which one of them triple checks his sister's kid's car seat?

    It's hard to give more specific advice without knowing more details about your project, but hopefully this helps.

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    • #3
      Re: Avoid Using Nightmare Scenes?

      I am working on a script that opens with a child having a nightmare. Not for some cheap reversal gimmick, but because it's specifically related to the plot (in short, kid has dream, monster shows up, kid tries to befriend monster, monster kills kid anyway) and lays out the theme in a really effective way.

      I probably spent more time trying to anticipate how to respond to the inevitable 'you can't do that' notes than I spent writing the scene, before coming to the conclusion that I can just do whatever I want.

      There is only one rule for writing: Don't be boring.





      Edited to add: after re-reading the OP's post- Has there ever been a movie 'about' alcoholism that tried to reduce it to a cause-and-effect thing, and is that a good idea?..... That would be my bigger concern here than the dream sequence.

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      • #4
        Re: Avoid Using Nightmare Scenes?

        Ronaldinho -- re: "Does the audience need to know this information now?"

        Great question. After much thought, my answer is no.

        Also, besides the informational aspect of my nightmare, I was intending that it would serve as a teaser to get the audience wondering what it could mean. I'm now guessing that nightmares as teasers won't work.

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        • #5
          Re: Avoid Using Nightmare Scenes?

          If it's the cause of the character's alcoholism, I would consider holding the dream sequence back as much as possible and introduce the character another way, first. It's no fun to know everything about a character upon first meeting him or her. Audiences like to figure things out a bit before they're handed the "reason" for this or that happening in a movie. It's more engaging. In my opinion of course.
          Advice from writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. "Try this: if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.-

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          • #6
            Re: Avoid Using Nightmare Scenes?

            Originally posted by Ronaldinho View Post
            Second, the moment the audience knows something is a dream, it becomes INSTANTLY less interesting.
            I agree with your summary of dream issues, and I'd say that this point has an extra element to consider...

            Once you play the dream card in a story the audience remembers the trick and becomes wary of it coming around again. So if they see the same character in peril later on they might have a nagging suspicion that this'll be another dream. If you use several dream sequences in a story then it can reach the point where the audience doubts everything.

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            • #7
              Re: Avoid Using Nightmare Scenes?

              Originally posted by socalwriter1 View Post
              I read that a nightmare is a cliché when used in conjunction with introducing the protagonist and should be avoided. (The author was especially harsh with people using "bolts upright from his bed sweating- to end the nightmare.)

              In my story, the significance of this nightmare will be made known to the audience later. I want to use the incident depicted in his nightmare to be the cause for his alcoholism.

              Another article recommended showing something like this in real time but then I can't use it as a "cause- of his alcoholism.

              So, (1) if this is a cliché, what's a better way to convey this nasty incident in his past and (2) if I decide to go ahead to use a nightmare, is there a better way to end the nightmare than "bolts...?-

              Any movie examples of a good way to handle this would be appreciated also.
              Well, you could have him wake up in the middle of a highway-- sleepwalking. Or you could have him strangling his lover when he wakes up.

              You could open the script with the nightmare event as if it is the past and then we move forward in time to him later, now an alcoholic.

              You could show quick jump cuts of images where we do not understand the context. Erratic images-- confusing images-- something that gives us a sense of his torment without really 'knowing' the why.

              There are a lot of ways to handle this type of exposition, but I would consider carefully whether you need to show us the cause at all. Much can be revealed through actions and dialogue, not necessarily a nightmare. This may be a case where less is more will work to your story's advantage.

              I've written both ways for reasons that worked for those specific stories. That's what it comes down to, what works best for your story. And it's a good sign that you're asking the question in the first place-- trying to find the right way.

              Good luck.
              "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy b/c you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowden

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              • #8
                Re: Avoid Using Nightmare Scenes?

                Thanks guys; great food for thought here as expected.

                Finalact4, re: erratic images -- that sounds like something I would consider down the road for other scripts. Can you name a script where this was done? I want to see how you would write this on the page. Thx.

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