Writers and Their Dreams

Has the verb "to dream" a present tense? ~Wittgenstein

Clearly, it has. But I guess the real question is: "Can we ever use it?"

In a correct, meaningful context that is. Let me explain using all-powerful (and aesthetically pleasing) dot points:

• You can say, "I am dreaming" to someone and not really be dreaming--you are awake (hence talking to them...unless you are one of those weird people who converse in their sleep). 
• Or, you can say, "I am dreaming" in a dream to someone, but technically you're just talking to yourself. So maybe that doesn't count as saying something (as it is in your head); combined with the fact that it isn't really a question, as a question (if your one of those especially weird people who use complex logic to prove complex stuff) doesn't really exist unless it has an answer--otherwise the entire point of a question is undermined. 

I must apologise: I'm in a bit of a philosophical, slightly incoherent mood today. Mainly because it's Friday. And then I read a blog post by author Steph Bowe (which you too can read here) about dreams and writers and writers who use dreams in their acting out their writerly writer-ness.

My answer to Steph's question is thus:

Yes, I do dream a lot. Yes, I remember a lot of them (presuming what I remember is a significant portion of my dreams, because I don't exactly recall the ones I don't remember).

Have I ever turned a dream into a piece of writing? Not directly. But I do use some of my dreams in inspirational ways, such as writing down a particular image I dreamt about, etc. and then incorporating that into my writing. 

Although, when you read up on a lot of writers (particularly famous ones, as they're the ones who are most often written about) they often do (or did) use their dreams in direct ways. The poet Gwen Harwood articulated many of her dreams in her poetry, sometimes turning an entire dream into a piece of writing, or a sequence of pieces.

Why is this?

I'm not quite sure whether or not it's because writers dream more, or recall many of their dreams (however it is largely accepted by society that writers, and indeed artists etc. are much more sensitive to the world.)

I think it pivots instead around the fact that creative people don't dream more, don't recall more: they simply use more of their dreams in their creative output than non-creative folk--whether it be using the dream directly as a source of material, or simply using it as a springboard to further ideas, further inspiration.

What do you think? Perhaps you'll find your own opinion expressed in a dream.

Then again maybe you already have; you simply don't recall it.