Give Yourself a Gun, It Helps a Ton - Ep. 46 of Intentionally Blank

Brandon and Dan discuss their dreams. Literal dreams-not the hopes they have of making something come to fruition. Specifically Brandon’s uncanny ability to control and manipulate his dream sequences using his talent in story-crafting.
You can join the discussion and vote for your favorite podcast title at r/sanderson: / sanderson
Can be listened to almost everywhere podcasts can be found.
Produced by Adam Horne
Sound engineering and editing by Daniel Thompson

[@thefabulouskitten7204]

"I can fall at such an angle so as to not hit the ground", so Dan what you're saying is that you're a Windrunner

[@raebertgrayson5766]

Rather, it sounds like he's an adherent of the late Douglas Adams theory of flight, a la Hitchiker's Guide to the Galazy: the main thing that flying requires is the ability to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

[@shadowhawx]

Unfortunately back when I worked at a Barnes and Noble in Maryland, Brandon walked in and wanted to sign his books and I had no clue who he was. He had a flyer saying he was going to be finishing the WoT series and I remember not being excited that someone else was going to finish it and probably wouldn't do it justice. I have always regretted the interaction. I had not read Brandon's books at the time and had no idea how much his books would mean to the future me. I also feel bad about checking with the manager about him signing his books as I had never had someone come in before asking to sign. Oh yeah, he did WoT justice and the ending still makes me cry.

[@evame2507]

He completely did it justice but I just want to say that he didn’t write the ending- Jordan had written various parts of the books previously, including the end of the series.

[@shadowhawx]

@@evame2507 Yeah I wasn't sure back then how it was going to work but learned after about the process he went through.

[@orionh5535]

Was this in bethesda?

[@shadowhawx]

@@orionh5535 Frederick

[@Ieyena]

I went to the university where he taught. When he first started teaching his creative writing class and decided not to take it. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I then later saw him doing a book signing at the University bookstore and walked right past him. I now feel like a major heel and wish I could redo those events in my life. I understand your pain.

[@RMDragon3]

So basically, Brandon can't even stop himself from writing stories while he's asleep

[@christer20032001]

The next secret project will be dream books probably

[@psychologymajorptsd62]

The sign of a proper author, planning books in your dreams.

[@aerynmusick4548]

I love that the story beat is fantastical because it’s a dream and not because it’s coming from Brandon friggin Sanderson

[@nokturnallex2160]

I get the same thing with the Lucid dreams, usually at the very start of the dream I'm not sure if it's a dream or not, but then I just logic my way to figuring out it's a dream. Then as I slowly wake up I gain more control over the dream. Happens most often right before I wake up, but then I have to write it down if I want to remember what happened. There's almost always someone I recognize in it, but there's also complete strangers.

[@Machtyn]

It's not uncommon to dream about work. Generally mine are nightmares!

[@Richardiii2]

"If I can be cruel to two different groups at the same time... I will" - Baby-Faced Dan

[@alexh4935]

The Lopen, “Aye, we can do it, Gancho, but it will be a tortuitous path requiring men of the most courageous temperament.” Kaladin glared at him, “You mean torturous?” “Or, perhaps, fortuitous?” said Sigzil. “I meant what I said,” declared Lopen. “It’s not my fault you lot can’t keep up with my well-bred Herdazian education.”

[@MrExeetor]

I actually used ur "Planet rolling on a planet" as a base for my roleplaying session we had this Easter. (13th year in a row we have roleplaying and boardgame weekend with friends during Easter). I made the rolling planets exchange materials and the "big" planets material was very magical in nature. So countries fought about owning the area close to the "equator". And my group of players got put into an prison camp for hardened criminals who where sent out into the "Grinder" as they called it. To gather magical crystals and crystal-powder to turn in at the prision camp to get access to better living quarters and better food at the camp. This also lead to gangs forming in the camp that in turn stole crystals to turn in to get an even better life inside the camp. The whole sessions was about them fleeing the camp.

[@ameritus9041]

That sounds.... like a heck of a lot of fun.

[@henryarmstrong3040]

That's awesome

[@FrshChees91]

Well that sounds amazing

[@BrandSanderson]

That's awesome! Make sure Hoid shows up next session. :)

[@wooshbait36]

Sounds boring 🪴

[@drewforchic9083]

Ok, this week's Food Heist was obviously perpetrated by the Dragonborn.

[@sjuyal85]

Just one person's cheese gone. If it was the dragonborn the whole city would be cheeseless

[@drewforchic9083]

@@sjuyal85 Based on how much cheese was taken from her alone, I think that might have been the whole city's stock.

[@stormbreak13]

Hearing how Brandon describes flying in dreams, and the weird familiarity that comes with it, and it actually having physical demands and needing exercised hit the nail on the head for me. I genuinely do feel bad for people who don't get to experience the sensation, it's better than most things in the waking world imo

[@B-MC]

yeah flying is like swimming in the air to me; its slow, but I can physically fly from my bedroom to the lounge feeling the walls and all. it feels so real its crazy.

[@noelhann5262]

I’ve only experienced a flight dream once and it wasn’t really traditional flight. Basically I could propel myself upwards short distances, like a double jump in a video game except infinite, and then I could kind of skydive down to control my direction. It felt familiar enough, like it just kind of came naturally. Also pikachu was there and could do the same thing

[@DisneyBatchman]

@@noelhann5262 I've had lots of flying dreams, but this sounds more like an entire other category of dreams that I've had, called super-something. Usually it was super-jumping. You jump, and it's a jump, but you can stretch it as long as you need to, by just kind of 'holding on' to it. I've done super-jumping in numerous dreams. But there have been one or two times that I've done some form of super-running or super-swimming, as well.

[@jonelectronics510]

I love the fact Brandon is still signing stuff, almost every stream he is signing stacks of pages.

[@saeedajaib]

Unsigned novels will soon be worth more.

[@MemphiStig]

Yeah, this is a great fan service gesture, but it completely devalues his signature.

[@chrisashford3379]

Okay Mr. Sanderson, I see those custom figures on the shelf and I'm just gonna throw this out there: I would buy the snot out of Cosmere action figures. A couple of knights with Shardplate, some super-ariculated Mistborn figures, Vasher with Nightblood (include some effect parts), I would buy them all!

[@charlesphelps9804]

Are those the dolls Janci made for him on the Skyward stream?

[@chrisashford3379]

@@charlesphelps9804 Apparently, I missed that stream.

[@TheLordofMetroids]

IDK about action figures, but i would love some static molded figures.

[@storieswithc]

Brandon's bad story idea reminds me of a scene in "The Anadalite Chronicles" by Katherine Applegate where the aliens (who are kinda like....deer-shaped aliens) freak out when they watch the human girl tear off her "hooves" (re. shoes) to run around in the grass. I read that book randomly in grade 6 after picking it off my teacher's bookshelf and I credit it for blowing my mind and starting me down a lifetime journey of love for fantasy and science fiction / reading in general. Good memory ☺️

[@SethTurnerPrinting]

Great books. My oldest is reading them now.

[@justriskit4423]

Yes! Thought of that immediately

[@jeremiahblackman7421]

I’ve never heard the way I dream put into words so well. Didn’t know that the way Brandon dreams isn’t just the norm

[@calebmarmon1310]

I’ve had many dreams where I seemed to be observing the dream as a movie/story and somehow participating at the same time. And as I realize the logical flaws, it would change in real time or suggest that I remembered it incorrectly. A lot of retroactive changes happened with “don’t you remember X happened?” “No… well kinda. Oh yeah, it did happen that way. How could I have forgotten that?”

[@FoamyLatte78]

I dream exactly the way Brandon described! Its always hard for me to explain how it works so I’m glad he was able to put it into words lol

[@chloeahey]

I dream very similar to him! It was really cool to listen to!

[@EwokPanda]

"Let me ask you a question, you never really remember the beginning of the dream do you? You always wind up in the middle of what's going on." "I guess, yeah" "So how did we end up here?" "Well, we just came from the... uh...." "Think about it Ariadne, you create the world of the dream."

[@gammaactual1379]

Wait- I thought I was the only one that happened to in dreams. When I was a kid my mom told me “I’m the director I can change how it ends” when I used to have nightmares and I also frequently wake up workshopping my dreams and will wake up having replayed them and changed them. So crazy that someone else does that!!

[@kindrednerdsunited7513]

This podcast helps me get through the week and it's pretty fun to talk to fellow Brandon Sanderson fans have a good week guy's

[@Donnerjkks]

Same!

[@kindrednerdsunited7513]

@@Donnerjkks how are you

[@saeedajaib]

Have a great week!

[@TheMaryWriter]

I also a fantasy writer who has lucid dreams similar to Brandon. However, I am more of a discovery writer than an architect so I respond to the plots of my dreams differently. I dream in narratives and will rewind stories and play them through again with different details to discover how characters will react to a slightly different situation. My frustrations come most often when a person is acting stupid or out of character in a way that doesn’t make sense to them or the plot. For example, last night I dreamed that a tornado was coming at my family’s house. As we watched it change directions and head towards us, I told everyone to find something secure to hide under. We all retreated from the window…except my father, who promptly hid under some sort of tiny side table and large potted plant. Rather than panic because he was obviously going to die I thought, “Oh my gosh, how can he be so stupid?” I don’t fly or use powers in every dream because they don’t always match the rules of the world (I’m a detailed worldbuilder). In cases when I do lose my ability it is oftentimes when a villain shows up, twisting the plot and forcing me to discover a new way to solve an issue. Similarly, I will also lose my ability to physically engage with the dream because my (real-life) battle with chronic illness and chronic fatigue will manifest into the story. In those cases, I rework the genre of the dream to work with the illness. I am very aware that the world I’m dreaming of isn’t real, but I often chose to forget that it is a dream allowing me to play with the story.

[@Marco_Onyxheart]

I've had dreams where I had such strong feelings that I woke up with them. Both emotional and physical. Like dreaming of someone who doesn't exist, and is the most beautiful person ever, and you're absolutely in love for a day after. Or waking up incredibly sad. I've also dreamed of a cat scratching me and exposing the nerves, and I could feel the exposed nerves for two days after that.

[@mussoletart8485]

oh i have had that too. meeting your perfect someone in a dream :(

[@MarkusBartus]

Somebody shoud make a meme where Brandon is writting stories even when he's asleep. Also if Brandon is able to control his dreams that means he has lucid dreams which is really rare for a person. Or he is able to enter into Tel'aran'rhiod.

[@AngryPieMan]

Brandon is a dream walker confirmed.

[@carlosandino5524]

Wow, I never heard anyone else being able to edit the dream. This has happen to me before.

[@thefabulouskitten7204]

It's pretty rare but we exist. I have it all the time too

[@meganechan720]

I can edit my dreams sometimes, though not always

[@rukhtalos8587]

When I remember dreaming, it’s that type of dream.

[@johnnycomelately9400]

I feel like "Automatic shotgun" could easily backfire into a nightmare...

[@menghao737]

Having a mantra isn't bad though if you're trying to change your dream. I wanted to change my nightmares as a kid so I kept telling myself I would and one night I finally did. That's how I started lucid dreaming. Automatic shotguns are one of my favorite tools for zombie dreams, it's easier to materialize one if you imagine it's strapped to your back and then reach for it knowing it will be there.

[@mooommo14]

During deep dreams the logic centers of the brain aren't active. So Brandon's brain is doing its best to write a good story but there's no logic to it at all. Super fascinating and kinda funny.

[@diepie5144]

reminds me of those ai-generated stories, where the ai has absolutely no idea what's true and so says things that vaguely make sense using the structure it learned

[@mooommo14]

@@diepie5144 YES EXACTLY

[@jamesweible5357]

That isn't true in my case, I can logic through a dream if I need to, but I always put into a "shallower" version of the dream to do so, so possibly I'm no longer technically dreaming...I'd have to get tested to know for sure.

[@mooommo14]

@@jamesweible5357 Rem sleep is when deep vivid dreams occur. You can dream during other phases of sleep when more of your brain is being used.

[@jamesweible5357]

@@mooommo14 ahh, i see, thanks for the clarification

[@terryschmitt8050]

I can totally relate to the dreams, except my dreams are games. They don't make sense in retrospect, but I remember dreams that are framed around me being a character in a game. The worst are the ones where I get shot at the end, or something similar, and I have the thought, "oh man, I loss this one." Then I wake up.

[@anythinggggg]

For me it's very similar but I'm dreaming I'm watching TV. If the dream goes south I'll often slip into the observer or camera viewpoint and not even wake up.

[@obviousalias132]

The monsters in Dan's kids' dreams now have automatic shotguns Edit: my best remembered lucid dream I was free diving and realized I didn’t need to come up for air which was really cool

[@zhoradaiyu5184]

Knowing me, I'd probably phusically be holding my breath and wake up gasping. That is an awesome dream!

[@menghao737]

I just realized something. I'm a lucid dreamer, and I've "flown" for years in my dreams, but my technique is almost exactly the Windrunner gravitational lashings. I would find a spot visually and pull/lash myself too it. Early on there were times I would lose control and fly out into space or crash into the ground, but I got as good as Kaladin eventually. Also, it sounds like Brandon Sanderson is a lucid dreamer too. I also dream in narrative as well.

[@menghao737]

I love this discussion. I've also had dreams in comic, cartoon, purely auditory, I've had dream narratives pick up years after, revisiting the same dream with the same people years later yet it feeling like it were just yesterday. Dreams are weird for sure, and can be truly amazing, especially for lucid dreamers.

[@johndipietro9301]

The part around 33 minutes or so made me realize I must have been having a SERIES of recurring dreams about school last year. I have some odd memories of classes I was supposed to attend and just never did; now I'm thinking they were just really vivid dreams...

[@useazebra]

Pre-depression, most of my dreams were detailed narrative. Some included full soundtrack and post-production. Some were legitimately amazing stories--like one where I hid in a closet that turned out to be full of unassembled alien zombie body parts that all turned toward me and started trying to grab at me. Great stuff. Depression basically erased that part of my mind. The dregs of "narrative" left in my dreams consists of frustrating and fruitless work tasks that make me wake up exhausted. I don't think I've ever told anyone that. So there it is. A tragedy in 600 characters or less.

[@drewforchic9083]

Did someone reskin Barbies into Stormlight figures behind Dan? ... Was it Janci?

[@elihainsworth5956]

Yeah, she gave them to Brandon as a gift on a recent livestream

[@drewforchic9083]

@@elihainsworth5956 Ah, I've been avoiding the livestreams so I can go into the secret projects blind.

[@herosmith5662]

@@drewforchic9083 That livestream in particular was from the Skyward Flight release stream, so no Secret Project spoilers if you're still interested

[@obviousalias132]

@@drewforchic9083 it was a cytonic specific livestream; there shouldn’t have been any secret project talk in it I believe

[@drewforchic9083]

@@herosmith5662 Oh, I must have just missed that one or mistaken it for a secret project. I will check it out.

[@xrosyxposyx]

I dream the same way as Brandon but have never been able to explain it to anyone. I don't get scared in my dreams either. In fact, my "scary" dreams are usually some of the most entertaining. The only thing is that I have to work within the constraints of the "dream plot" so I don't necessarily consider myself a lucid dreamer. I can't rewrite a scene but I can't make myself fly or make a unicorn appear out of nowhere lol my favorite are "plot twists" that click in place on their own because then I don't see it coming either. Urgh, the more I listen it's crazy how similar we dream.

[@Zechs00GT]

I loved that Brandon signed airport books. I never found a copy myself but always that it was the coolest thing. Some fan stumbling a new treasure or someone taking a chance on something they never read only for it to be a signed copy.

[@chloeahey]

Best podcast episode ever, dreams, famous friends, hearing my friend Udy has been dreamed about by Dan Wells, mentions of places I know. Very nice. Please do another one just like it. Also thanks for sharing the cheese heist

[@Dr.Starbound]

Brandon dreams: advanced time travel questions and storyboarding Dan dreams: WANT TO DO A RACISM?

[@DisneyBatchman]

I had two dreams that formed a strong part of two stories I wrote. One was a lucid dream that turned into a short fantasy story (something like 2-3k words), one was not lucid, and turned into a distopian future novella. It helps if you are one of those people who manage to remember long, involved dreams in great detail, on a regular basis. Let me put it this way ... back in college, I had a professor who almost never gave perfect grades, and stressed the importance of writing papers to the range he asked for, as if you went much longer, he would grade you more and more harshly the longer you got, for wasting his time. He wanted papers right about four pages. I did a 9 or 10 page paper (might have been even longer, it's been 35ish years, the details become less clear) that was a categorization paper on dreams that managed to pull one of only 4 o5 perfect 10s for the semester out of like 300 students writing 10 papers each. I love my dreams! (And yes, Brandon, I'm the one who has sent a mention of you in one of my dreams after meeting you at a book signing!)

[@JamesBurwellActual]

Wow. This talk makes me realized that there's a lot more commonality in dreams than I thought. I've had close variations of most of the dreams you described, including the flying, the school/class scenario, etc.

[@BeastOrGod]

One day, somebody is gonna auction an unsigned brandosando book for millions!

[@khyellie]

I'm no storyteller, but I also dream the way Brandon does! Redoing scenes over and over. I'm not thinking about story beats cause I don't really know about that stuff, but I'm constantly trying to redo a scene to change the outcome or make it more interesting. So that's cool. Although in the more nightmarish ones, I'm trying to change the outcome and no matter how many times I replay it, I can't get my behaviors to change

[@robertpopa2628]

Lucid dreamer here too, started it to combat nightmares when I was 8 or so. I don't do the workshopping, but I very well could. Was never told about lucid dreaming, I just did it.

[@shara30000]

Ngl, most of these podcasts i have on in the background because otherwise silence is way too eerie for me to focus. There's something about the two of you having a normal conversation that i find calms my nerves immensely.

[@Felipe-nw3hx]

I wonder if Brandon was writing a Shallan scene right before going to sleep when he had the dream... My dreams are almost always related to something I was doing before sleeping

[@daze4135]

I'm also a lucid dreamer; whenever I have a memory of a dream after I wake up, I *lucid*.... I'll show myself out

[@BarokaiRein]

People who play a lot of videogames or especially those playing RPGs tend to have a lot of control over their dreams too. RPGs seem to be best at giving you control at least from my personal experience of talking to friends and some studies I've seen online.

[@marshwiggle8364]

ive had two lucid dreams in 39 years, and its pretty stinking awesome.

[@professor_paladin]

Thanks for the Pensacon appreciation, Dan! My wife and I loved getting to meet you back in, I believe it was 2018, and appreciated when you clued us in to this podcast when it was still just an idea 😃 hope to get you back here soon!!!

[@Arezoo298195]

It’s definitely lucid dreaming. I too am a lucid dreamer but the part of me that’s half aware is most often offering sarcasm on the weird crap the rest of my mind has come up with.😂 I don’t know if this is true for all lucid dreamer but for me, I used to suffer night terrors as a child and I ended up making up new endings to my dreams when I woke up so I could go back to sleep and eventually I did that so often that I no longer needed to wake up to change my dreams. It’s funny but I didn’t know this was a thing one could learn until I was in my twenties but as a child I had convinced myself that I had a super power and I needed to keep it secret or I would somehow lose it! 😜🤣

[@David_Doing_David_Things]

Nightmares to me are usually in a concentration camp or execution line and all I can think of is getting back to my family. Tried grabbing a gun once but ended getting shot in the leg. I’ve realized I was dreaming a few times. First time it ever happened I realized I couldn’t get hurt so I spent the rest of the dream banging my head against the counter….what a wasted dream! Love flying dreams- every flying dream I have now I usually come to the realization: in the past I had flying dreams, it’s so cool knowing this is real now…and then I wake up :(

[@DisneyBatchman]

There are times that isn't even a nightmare. I had one dream where I was caught by a bunch of crooks, tied to a tree, and literally shot into pieces in the dream ... but because I was sitting there saying to myself 'well this is different,' and feeling no fear or pain, it wasn't actually a nightmare!

[@Ieyena]

Hands down favorite podcast in the world. Also thanks to you guys I now pay attention to news about food heists. I would love to randomly get a signed Brandon Sanderson book. One more thing I totally do the thing that Brandon does in my dreams with rewriting them. I can actually restart dreams if I wake up and fall back asleep fast enough. I didn't realize that other people didn't do that. Now if I could only write stuff like he does in real life and not just in my dreams. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@DisneyBatchman]

Had one very cool dream when I was back in high school, where I was being chased around this weird scifi setting, and was captured and thrown into a jail cell with somebody else, then got woke up by something. When I went back to sleep a few minutes later, I appeared in a different part of the area, and went back to break myself and the other person out!

[@markbowser3978]

I always sort of thought nightmares weren't about the content of the dream and it was about just being terrified in a dream. Its like when you are strangely emotionally engaged in a dream. Sometimes people have nightmares and wake up screaming and the dream wasn't about anything obviously scary. ex. they couldn't get the deck of cards to shuffle and for some reason it is a nightmare. Anyone experienced anything like that? I'm not sure that happens to me, but I almost never have nightmares.

[@jotobrosmusic3928]

Just woke up - I was dreaming of having a serious conversation with a villain about ideology and why you shouldn't kill people to achieve world peace or something. Pretty rad ngl

[@Caithris85]

I was 83% certain that the cheese rolling and chasing thing was just Skyrim untill they said it was done in England. Thanks for obscure facts!

[@oliviaaaaaah1002]

I love the idea of Brandon as the protagonist of a horror movie seeing the monster, screaming, then stopping in confusion to pull out an automatic shotgun and shoot the monster.

[@zachricca4546]

Only Brandon

[@gregorio7945]

I constantly think in stories as I daydream, basically watching movies I've been working on for weeks. Because of this, I often dream in stories. Not because I write a lot, but because I distract myself. I can't always change the way my dreams go, like Brandon talked about. I think it's a very author thing, at least for fantasy/sci-fi writers.

[@ZacChilds]

The way Brandon dreams is very similar to how I do. The difference is that most of the time when the part of me that sees it as a story tries to revise the story, it doesn't quite work. I try to change the story but it changes in an unintended way, or just doesn't change at all. Then I keep replaying that piece of the story over and over trying to get it right until I get frustrated and wake up.

[@shcheerchic1011]

Holy shit! Someone who actually dreams like me! The way you describe it is exactly how it works for me except since I’m not an author, I’m not redoing it because I want foreshadowing or anything but because I just didn’t like the result I got

[@citizensguard3433]

Hey!! I used to live in Fort Worth! (Wasn't mentioned but it's the sister city to Dallas. Its the FW in DFW). And yes, I definitely agree about the Dallas Airport. Been there many times.

[@kateg9437]

Whenever I dream of flying, I am swimming through the air. Literally doing breast stroke. It has been that way since I was about 7, but I find myself flying a lot more since I got back into swimming at the start of the year.

[@joshuataylor7978]

I have basically the exact same experience dreaming as Brandon describes. My dreams are always in third person and anytime something happens I don't like I can go back and redo it, this actually changes the way I behave in dreams though because I know there's no consequences but not necessarily that I'm dreaming. There is one exception when my dreams aren't this way which are nightmares to do with a phobia

[@kelseydame7153]

I had a recurring dream when I was young where I threw myself out of my bedroom window and taught myself to fly. It was a progression, but once I was proficient I could do it in any dream I had. Brandon is describing the experience of sleep!flying (down to the back of the head/muscles required) the exact same way I experienced it

[@voidsabre_]

Pensacon is my local convention! Love pensacon. I've missed the last two years unfortunately, didn't know you were a fan of the event Dan! If you come next year I'll be there to have a chat with you for sure

[@danwells9305]

Definitely planning on it

[@UnhingedBear]

I actually live in Pensacola, and was quite surprised to hear Dan name drop our convention as his favorite. I will have to attend more often.

[@sortitus]

I used to have dreams in the way Brandon describes a lot. Now it's maybe once a week, but I also remember dreams a lot less than I did when I was in my teens and twenties.

[@DarkPhoenix6853]

27:04 "..."one of the Lannister cousins who is sleeping with Cersei..." Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?

[@susannahlewis8464]

Oh this is really cool. I don't dream exactly the same as Brandon but kind of similarly. I dream almost entirely in narrative as well. As I'm beginning to wake up, I start workshopping the story. It's how I've trained myself to remember my dreams. I actively choose to remember them if they're interesting, and I don't bother workshopping them if they're boring.

[@althechicken9597]

It's pretty normal for me to be able to fly in dreams and I completely understand what Brandon means about knowing what "muscles" it takes

[@TheRider2012]

I have the exact same dream that Dan has, where I'll run and jump and as my feet are just about to hit the floor I kind of lift them slightly and it stops them hitting the floor and I can bob along for ages doing that and pick up real speed. Eventually you have to hit the ground and run and jump into another burst of pseudo-levitaion/delayed gravity. I spoke to my dad about it and his eyes lit up because apparently he has the EXACT same dream,

[@blugobln85]

I have two kinds of dreams, and in neither case am I aware its a dream and I have no control over it (and a nightmare is one in which all my decisions are failures): 1. strange adventure of no particular purpose; 2. extremely vivid and real feeling of some cataclysmic event.

[@trombaritone86]

The dream talk is fascinating to me. I basically never remember my dreams immediately upon waking up. Occasionally I know I had a weird dream because my brain is still processing things and I'm left with a feeling of "what on earth is going on?" Every now and then I'll retain a small piece of a dream, but it disappears within minutes of waking up. For me sleeping generally consists of laying in bed for a while, and then I wake up. No memory of dreaming anything.

[@DisneyBatchman]

Can't promise it works for everyone, but if you work at it, you can usually greatly increase your dream recall. I know early on I could only remember a dream every two or three nights, but when I really started working at it, I could eventually remember 3 or 4 a night. I used to have a set routine for when I woke up in the morning, thinking of more and more places I grew up in, to give myself a chance to recall any dreams I might have had that connected with that place. I'd think about the house I grew up in, room by room, then my back yard, front yard, neighboring yards, local streets, local mall, grade school, jr high, high school, college, each job location I worked at, and so on. Usually somewhere along the line, one or two dreams I'd dreamed that night which touched on one of those places would come back to mind. Had one day where I was running late to work, jumped into my car, and turned on my Nextel radio, and the first time that tone beeped in with a call from work, it brought back to mind a dream I'd had the night before, where I was using the radio.

[@susannahlewis8464]

I know SO many people, including myself, who have had the dream about just not going to your college classes. I find it's often with honor student types like me that would never ever do that.

[@Silentstaraptor]

Wow, this is the best description of how I dream that I have ever heard!

[@DisneyBatchman]

The topic of dreams fascinates me, and I can't help but comment multiple times during this episode, and wish I'd seen it earlier, where there would be more chance that people would see the comments and have a dialog about them. Kind of like Brandon, I had lots of nightmares when I was a little kid, very, very little as I got older. Now I only have a real nightmare every few years. And that isn't because things can never be scary in my dreams, but more in that if things are getting too bad, I usually realize something isn't right, and somehow take control and turn things around, one way or another. I had one stressful dream where I was being chased, and no matter what I did, I couldn't seem to escape, not even when I reached the point that I could fly ... then things went on long enough, and I got scared enough and angry enough, I somehow created a world-shattering nuclear explosion that ended myself, and the people who were chasing me, and I woke up ... going "that was intense, but it ended fairly well." A week or two later, I had another dream where I was being chased by a bunch of cops because of some sort of misunderstanding, and as things continued for a little bit, I turned to one of the cops and told him "Don't make me blow up the universe again!" All the cops left me alone after that. 8-D

[@thisrsrsnamect5599]

I had the college class dream dozens of times while in school. Its weird that seems to be a universal thing, I have talked to several others with similar experiences

[@alexrechkin7]

I have same experience with dreams as Brandon - rewinding and editing, flying ect, but not all the time just occasionally or rarely. P.S. also i had some magical things happen in dreams, that became basis for fantasy creatures and magic system and in one case it evolving to potential series of stories im developing right now.

[@nedboy8370]

I have control over my dreams, too. I fly almost every night. The night before last, I had full power to make anything I thought of happen. I tried out every major super power and succeeded, so I created a new reality and went there to torment orcs and goblins. Weird stuff.

[@DisneyBatchman]

I once had a very cool dream where I could make anything happen by just saying what I wanted to happen followed by the forceful phrase "Do it! NOW!" Was a remarkable dream, but somehow in the dream I knew it was only for that day, and as soon as the sun went down, the power would be gone ... so near the end I was like "The sun is going to go back in the sky forty degrees! Do it! NOW!" and yes, the sun started moving back in the sky,. so I would have more time to enjoy the power. Of course, shortly after that I woke up, but still a very, very cool dream!

[@SickOfDemocracy]

Anyone ever dreamed like Inception, like there's layers to it. You dreamed that you woke up, but. You're not really waking up, you're still in a dream. A dream upon dream upon dream. I've had three layers by far and both times i had them are nightmares and they're horrific.

[@DisneyBatchman]

I've had that a few times. Though most of them were not nightmares. Really kind of cool, though, multi-level dreams.

[@Florkl]

I have the dreams where I don’t realize I’m in a dream, but I think I’m in a movie, anticipating story beats, etc. The problem is I end up thinking, “It sure would suck if this trope that freaks me out happens, but it feels like the part of the story where that would happen.” And then it does.

[@ajh3461]

I get the same thing but with video game logic. So I'll die and think, "now I have to respawn and do this segment over again" Then it happens.

[@Ryuksgelus]

Then older I get the fewer Lucid Dreams I have but I am more and more aware when they happen and have greater control. I just skip forward when I don't like what's happening. Usually out of boredom not fear.

[@McCainenl]

Living in Germany (but not being German), hearing that an author wants to sign books and the bookshop will refuse is the most delightfully stereotype-confirming thing :)

[@danwells9305]

The exception is game stores: most of them have a book section, but they follow different rules than the bookstores.

[@Frogface91]

I don't remember my dreams often at all, but of the ones I do have awareness of, I often repeat scenes to improve them as I become more conscious.

[@Exayevie]

29:19 Brandon: "This one's not a super celebrity but... [drops the only name I recognized]" lol!

[@pretty5793]

Brandon’s comments about flight reminded me about Kaladin and Dan’s comments about falling reminded me about zero. It is pretty exciting to see how their personal experiences come into novels.

[@jelmerprins]

When I hear Brandon talk about his dreams it sounds just like mine. I can do a type of half-flying running thing and defy gravity. Sometimes I actually struggle within the first hours after waking up to run IRL

[@raebertgrayson5766]

Brandon is such a humble guy. I've had occasion to meet him, when he was traveling around with the late David Farland. Got him to sign my notebook. Thanks for your inspiration!

[@storieswithc]

I don't usually remember / become aware of dreams and I've never flown OR hovered in one ever! While my dreams are not usually narrative in the way Brandon's are (I'm not aware of a story, nor am I work shopping) if the dream starts going down a direction i don't like, i have always been able to press pause, go "oh, i don't like that, let's go back" and then change what happens in the dream to something more enjoyable. So...i kinda understand what they're talking about! I guess it's considered lucid dreaming?

[@trielt1]

All this talk of dreams makes me think about how much _agency_ people seem to have in their dreams. Mine are like watching a movie. Sometimes in third person. Sometimes even in black and white.

[@brianandrews6907]

I was so happy to get some signed books from an airport bookstore many many years ago that you had just stopped by. I just realized it was in 2013 because it was right after a Memory of Light came out, which i wasn't reading at the time but I still purchased haha. I'm on book 9 right now and will get there soon! Either way, the Way of Kings from that store was my first signed author book, and now I also own the leather-bound version

[@vexalantron1663]

ooooh, I had so many story dreams that i remember to this day and will remember for a long time because i had a notebook where i wrote these big lucid dreams i got stuck into. They started when i was 8 or 9, now i'm "not yet 20"(if you know, you know) and i had these lucid dreams that i got stuck into until the dream was over and i remember many times trying to wake up from the dream and i just couldn't...Those dreams were also very weird. I had realistic ones where i was on thieving crews with my friends and family and i often ended up driving indestructible cars through roofs and fences and many kinds of infrastructure elements from the cities i grew up in or around. I had several dreams that seemed to happen in the same world about me unintentionally and unconsciously(i know a funny word when talking about dreams) betraying some princess who loves me, and she either transformed or controlled a dragon that chased me out of her seashore dark castle, after which i end up on a cliff above the castle being greeted by these people from a tribe( as it looked like) wearing different pelts from different animals, after which they offered a new face for me to wear and a new identity for me to assume so i could be saved from the wrath of the vengeful princess. then there are the thriller/horror dreams that feel too personal because they involve people close to me. Or dreaming of me having a broken leg and me not being able to move that leg, the exact night before breaking my leg and having to stay with it in a cast for 2 and 1/2 months... I never reached a point where i could correct things from the dreams, but i was fully aware of them and experiencing them like they were real. and now i have sleeping issues... yeah... when i was around 17 i trained myself to lucid dream and i had a baaaad period in which i got stuck in unpleasant dreams or unpleasant dreams kept repeating and i skipped nights because of those so.... don't play around with your subconscious because you might open the wrong doors...:/

[@hallaloth3112]

Dream discussions fascinate me, because people dream in such different ways. I usually don't know I'm dreaming, but my mind does fill in the dream narratively and I'm sometimes aware that that is happening. Because of this I think that's why I also don't really have nightmares anymore. Threats in dreams are dealth with for me are typically dealt with by 'escaping' this can be as simple as finding the way outside the impossibly large building (always check the windows) or finding the right car in a parking lot (no keys required first car you get to someone else isn't climbing into is yours).

[@AKA_Kira]

I used to have several extremely lucid dreams where I could levitate on command, one that I could fly with several muscles, but I haven't in over a decade, this was like a fever dream memory...

[@knittingblackbelt40]

In college I had a physics problem I could not figure out and I dreamt how to solve the problem. The solution absolutely worked. I also became aware as a child I could change my nightmares while I was dreaming them. I would usually give myself special powers and save the day.

[@andrecole56]

In my HS Freshman lit class, for some reason we had to write a short story, and we had just learned about that Cheese Rolling event. Unbelievably, my teacher really liked my story and read it in front of the class. I was mortified, but thankfully she didn't say my name.

[@kassandra4929]

So cool to see someone put into words what it's like to have dreams you can rewrite, or rewind and repeat certain things again and again u til the story is right! Everyone I've told about this doesn't get it. 😂

[@SneakyTogedemaru]

I got so terrified by my nightmares in childhood, I at one moment decided I don't want to see any dreams at all. It worked. Then I decided it's too boring, and I want to see dreams no matter what. It worked. Although after a couple extremely vivid, logical, and emotionally crashing at that dreaming moment nightmares, one of which was basically The Alien but for some reason with an extremely murderous griffon made of darkness and in a gigantic castle-like building of stone with a ton of terrifying things piling up quickly, so I again haven't seeing dreams for a long time. Now I rarely remember if I had a dream, and almost never can recall even a general feeling of it.

[@DarkSol16]

32:00 Honestly, this is so relatable. Even though I have not needed to do anything academic in years now, I still have nightmares of being in a test I wasn't prepared for or of having an assignment due in a few hours that I didn't realise existed, so I'd panic for a bit until I sink into a grim acceptance of the situation before thinking, 'wait a second, I'm not studying anymore, I have a full time job' and then I wake up.

[@WordSarien]

I knew I wasn't the only one who dreamed the way I do! I often do believe the dreams are happening to me (though sometimes it's a movie/play/etc. I'm "watching"), but even in those cases, I can think, "It would be more interesting/make more sense if X happened", and then something changes. My dreams often aren't in chronological order, so sometimes it will kind of "backfill" that information ("oh yeah, X was always true"). I also don't have full control over it. I've never been able to fly or have superpowers unless that was already part of the dream. I've found that such meddling with my dream tends to wake me up, though. I suspect I'm already half-awake when I start making changes, and starting to think consciously again wakes me up fully.

[@Boy_of_Steel]

Yo I had a dream last week and because of that it gave me an entire premise for a book that I'm outlining right now and write into a book perfect timing for this subject thank you

[@brothertaddeus]

Brandon a confirmed Dreamer.

[@annejia5382]

I have different categories in dreams and one of those is the same as Brandon's 😭 i dont feel that alone anymore. 💙

[@DisneyBatchman]

Oh yes, categories of dreams, indeed. Back in high school, I started keeping a list of my dreams, eventually got it to a couple thousand before the list (but not the dreams, or writing them down) fell to the wayside. To this day, there will be times that I have one type of dream that I just refer to as 'oh, another 33 dream.' (33 involved hiking and finding a cave that I started to explore, where I just barely managed to find a secret entrance to continue exploring.)

[@lalalaurenlibby]

The narrative dream idea is so interesting! I have a similar type of dream where I know I’m acting out a story, and I know where the story is going but I can’t change anything. For example, in one dream I was purchasing a certain necklace that I knew in the back of my mind would make me vulnerable to whoever the antagonist of the dream was. But I still acted happy to buy and and put it on immediately. Maybe that’s because I read a lot of stories but don’t write them

[@chrisrothove8050]

I actually dream the same way that Brando does. I tend to jump around the dream re-arranging things. I don't always have as much control of the dream, but I notice as I'm waking up that I'm contradicting what happens and re-writing it lol

[@zotzot5]

the whole falling the wrong way (in dreams) used to happen to me, but i would just slide along the ground. i think that was because my inner ear would wake up before the rest of me, so suddenly gravity was sideways from where the ground looks to be.

[@SethTurnerPrinting]

His thoughts are slow, but always kind. He keeps us all within his mind.