what methods have you tried to apply to get yourself to stop dreaming

[drifter]

I've read in this forum of people trying to stay away from things that trigger them to go into a fantasy world like music, some stopped eating certain food

[Sarah]

I used to like to think of my daydreams as a potential novel, screenplay, etc. I wrote a few of the more rehearsed scenes down a few years back.Since my daydreams are usually pretty silly (very detailed but fairly one-dimensional characters and a tendency towards wish-fulfilment type stories lines, ie not much conflict, just a string of cool things happening) they didn't make particularly great pieces of writing.

Rediscovered some pages a couple of weeks ago when I was tidying the flat. Scary having your dreams in a more concrete form since someone could find them and read them. Couldn't bring myself to destroy them or throw them out though. Reading them again now, it was interesting to see ways the characters had changed, or to remember where a current storyline had come from.

Writing my daydreams down didn't kill them, but it did help to move things on in the storylines. When I was writing the scenes down, I'd realise that some things were a bit too straightforward and easy and think "well, if I read that in a novel, I'd think it was really cheesy and dumb". That would result in me going back to the daydream and having something different happen, which helped to reinvigorate scenes I'd become bored with. (Not sure whether that's a good thing, if you're trying to quit!)

sarah stone said:

I read a great idea: write down your daydreams.  It's scary to do so, but maybe getting them out of your head and onto paper will "kill" them, or maybe you'll become a novelist...either way, you're not burdened by them.

 

P.S. I don't have the courage to try this.

 

[sarah stone]

That's really interesting - thanks for sharing.

Sarah said:

I used to like to think of my daydreams as a potential novel, screenplay, etc. I wrote a few of the more rehearsed scenes down a few years back.Since my daydreams are usually pretty silly (very detailed but fairly one-dimensional characters and a tendency towards wish-fulfilment type stories lines, ie not much conflict, just a string of cool things happening) they didn't make particularly great pieces of writing.

Rediscovered some pages a couple of weeks ago when I was tidying the flat. Scary having your dreams in a more concrete form since someone could find them and read them. Couldn't bring myself to destroy them or throw them out though. Reading them again now, it was interesting to see ways the characters had changed, or to remember where a current storyline had come from.

Writing my daydreams down didn't kill them, but it did help to move things on in the storylines. When I was writing the scenes down, I'd realise that some things were a bit too straightforward and easy and think "well, if I read that in a novel, I'd think it was really cheesy and dumb". That would result in me going back to the daydream and having something different happen, which helped to reinvigorate scenes I'd become bored with. (Not sure whether that's a good thing, if you're trying to quit!)

sarah stone said:

I read a great idea: write down your daydreams.  It's scary to do so, but maybe getting them out of your head and onto paper will "kill" them, or maybe you'll become a novelist...either way, you're not burdened by them.

 

P.S. I don't have the courage to try this.