I posted a comment on a Linked-In writer’s group page just now, explaining how my last two completed stories had their genesis in dreams.  One night, a couple of months ago, I dreamed that some type of small, furry mammal entered my house and started to talk.  Maybe it was a bear cub, I don’t really know.  But I woke up and thought that there must be a story somewhere that would benefit, if not exactly revolved around, an animal coming into a house and talking.  I mulled it over for an hour, got an idea, and then went back to sleep.  Then, maybe the night after, I dreamed that some sort of spacecraft was falling on me.  Whew!  I managed to wake up before impact, so call that one a nightmare.  Danged if I didn’t think again that there must be story hiding there.  But what?  Another hour’s lost sleep until I had the germ of an idea.  I won’t say more about these stories right now, at least until I’ve tried to have them published. 

Dream are stories that everyone tells themselves.  They have meaning and function for the dreamer, even when the elements of the dream are obscure or unrecalled.  When we write  stories, we hope to present a picture that interests and holds meaning for others.  To have a clue as to what may be meaningful to our readers, we should capture the meaning to ourselves in our own dreams.