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Sci-Fi Romance Idea

Let me provide a bit of a preamble before I get to the actual premise because I think i it's important.

I had a dream the other night with a mysterious woman - unrecognizable to me when I woke up but it's been haunting me ever since. One of those dreams you wish you could go back to yet you have really no memory of the events that took place. It's a strange feeling but I'm sure we've all been there.

So, I've been thinking of a story revolving around this idea which I'm calling Dream Therapy.

The plot would be about a depressed man who undergoes dream therapy regularly. A weekly escape from his mundane life. During one of these sessions he dreams of a woman, and the story would be told through his dreams as well as his real life. She's perfect to him, and he longs for her when he's awake.

The therapist states that the dreams are not constructed in any way, and that everything he experiences, including the people in them is fictional. But somewhere along the way he realizes that the woman in his dreams is another patient undergoing the same therapy as him at the same time.

As for the conflict, that's where I'm struggling. The most rational would be the journey to find this woman, but that's kind of obvious and I wanted to stay away from that.
 
You could make them meet at the fairly beginnings of the story and the conflict can be the woman in the dream is identical to the one in reality but only in appearances, and her characteristics aren't at all like the ones he sees in his dreams. ( The same can go for the woman's conceptions of him ). Then they can struggle to figure out how they can help each other become the person they see of each other in their dreams.
 
Or you could make it whenever they meet each other the dreams go away . and for some reason the dream has a stronger effect on both of them. So they are torn apart between choosing the dreamland to be together or the reality.
 
As for the conflict, that's where I'm struggling. The most rational would be the journey to find this woman

Perhaps, you have some life experience to interject here. What is the conflict when pursuing any woman? Usually, it is another man, a jealous friend, or her mother and father. Or, she may not see the worth that you know you have, hence you have to prove yourself by doing certain things, or handling situations.

For your scenario, one possibility could be that the doctor, who is managing and manipulating these dream tests, is someone who really likes her and has disdain for the guy who is connecting to her dream self. The doctor may have already had a run in with the male patient, hence extra motivation to even harm the guy in his dream state -- maybe even putting him in a coma, where he really tries to get through to her. Now, she has to fool the doctor into thinking that she doesn't care about the male patient.
 
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I'm going the Black Mirror approach in that the technology just exists. There will be a brief explanation as to what's going on but it isn't something to be focused on and elaborated. The people "in world" know all there is to know about it and that's that.


But, the therapy is handled in a high tech fashion, rather than something like Inception and how they're put under. The brain is manipulated and the production of serotonin is inhibited to promote REM sleep almost immediately. People tend to have more lucid dreams while under REM sleep and they're able to recollect their dreams better that people normally dreaming. So, this will be a therapy free of any drugs needing to be ingested or taken intravenously.


As for how these two will meet...well people today don't fully understand dreams, and neither do the people in this world. There's a real life theory of a "hive mind" where consciousness is somehow all related, so I'd play off of that. She's in his dreams, and he's in hers, at the same time. Not every time, but still.
 
I'm going the Black Mirror approach in that the technology just exists. There will be a brief explanation as to what's going on but it isn't something to be focused on and elaborated. The people "in world" know all there is to know about it and that's that.


But, the therapy is handled in a high tech fashion, rather than something like Inception and how they're put under. The brain is manipulated and the production of serotonin is inhibited to promote REM sleep almost immediately. People tend to have more lucid dreams while under REM sleep and they're able to recollect their dreams better that people normally dreaming. So, this will be a therapy free of any drugs needing to be ingested or taken intravenously.


As for how these two will meet...well people today don't fully understand dreams, and neither do the people in this world. There's a real life theory of a "hive mind" where consciousness is somehow all related, so I'd play off of that. She's in his dreams, and he's in hers, at the same time. Not every time, but still.

For this high tech idea, have you watched the tv show " Maniac" ? It's exactly the same thing you are going for here. But since it is a tv show, it covers a lot more than just relationships. If you haven't watched it yet I suggest you give it a try. It may give u some ideas.
 
For this high tech idea, have you watched the tv show " Maniac" ? It's exactly the same thing you are going for here. But since it is a tv show, it covers a lot more than just relationships. If you haven't watched it yet I suggest you give it a try. It may give u some ideas.

I’ve heard about the show but never checked it out.
 
Dang. I really dig some of the suggestions here. The combination of sci-fi and psychological thriller type stuff sounds wonderful. Please keep us updated if this project takes solid form.
 
Dang. I really dig some of the suggestions here. The combination of sci-fi and psychological thriller type stuff sounds wonderful. Please keep us updated if this project takes solid form.

Ugh I really need to start writing. I'm going to make this a short for the time being.


I always focus on the concept first, even before the story. I think it's kind of a fault.
 
I always focus on the concept first, even before the story. I think it's kind of a fault.

Not a fault - a necessity. The concepts are the only thing set in stone; all else is fluid. You know, the old Bible verse about building a house on sand or on a solid foundation.


An idea or two that popped into my head and wouldn't go away……

He dreams of his dream girl doing various things in the dream world, then but sees other women doing them in the real world.

Or…

(Variation on above) What he sees his dream girl doing in the real world is not the same as in the dream world; the differences are disturbing.
 
It starts off as him seeking to find the woman - she's his romantic fantasy, perfect woman etc.

But when he does find her, his life begins to take a disturbing turn (taking a cue from Alcove Audio's post above), as he discovers her involvement in dangerous (illegal?) activities.

The end is that he has been manipulated to seek her out and ultimately do something illegal (terrorism?) at the behest of those running the "therapy." Can end well or badly, as you prefer.
 
Thanks to everyone for the replies. I'm really not sure where I'm going with this. Regarding the concept, this is what I know so far:


-A high tech therapy method to induce REM sleep immediately. No drugs taken orally or intravenously.

-The dreams are in no way manipulated by the therapist or the person doing the dreaming. Meaning they can't plan what their dream will be, or knowingly change things within...like Inception.

-During one of the MC's therapy sessions, he meets a woman. He tells the therapist this and is told how it's common for people to take familiar things or recent things and implant them into their dreams. But he swears they've never met as he would remember.

-He dreams of her again, and at some point finds out that she is a patient at the same facility he goes to. She has done therapy sessions that overlap with his, leading him to believe that somehow their consciousness became "intertwined." This kind of ties into the real world "hive mind" theory where everyone is somehow connected.


That's all I got. I don't have any plans of malicious intent on the part of the therapist or the woman he's dreaming about. But maybe the struggle will be character related. I'll be telling this from the POV of the man, by the way. He HAS NOT met this woman prior to the dreams, but somehow she is another real world patient of this same therapy who managed to weave her way into his dreams. He is essentially in her dreams as well when you think about it. The explanation on HOW this happens isn't important and is just one of those "this is what happens in this world" type of things. Similar to the Pre-Cogs in Minority Report. Their actual abilities aren't explained, and we just kind of accept that.

So, as I'm typing this out, maybe the actual conflict will be him trying to connect with the real world woman. Maybe as one of the dreams is ending, he tells her to meet him at some place when she wakes up. She doesn't, so the next time they interact in their dreams they wonder why they can't connect in person...something like that.

It's a bit of a mind-fuck, and I'm working this out as I go.
 
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