Requested by: LunarAquarius

Alrighty, I'll go over how to write each one in a realistic way, and then how to help your readers tell them apart in your stories!

DREAMS

Dreams are usually more abstract than we give them credit for. They're never precise. They're warped versions of reality. Too often we write extremely realistic dreams when that isn't how they really work. 

A good example is the dream I used in Mutant and Proud.

I was crying. My ears were ringing, the noise painful. Even with the ringing I could still hear shouting from around me. My hands were out in front of my body, shaking.

"I'm sorry," I whimpered, "I didn't mean to! I didn't know I could do this."

Scott and Logan were stiff as boards, motionless.

My tears dripped down my face and fell to the ground. They turned into a lake. The lake was as red as blood.

More realistic than not, but the ending tells us that it's really a dream. The mind can take people you know and memories you have and use them, but something will be different. Sometimes you'll know in the back of your mind that it is a dream but you won't do anything about it.

FLASHBACKS

Flashbacks are more likely to happen while you're awake/mostly conscious. They have to have a trigger. It could be a saying, person, or object. Flashbacks don't pop up for no reason. Flashbacks could also be a simple, real memory, or extremely vivid from something like PTSD.

Our memories suck as humans. It's a fact. We can know the general story, but our mind will fill in the things that you can't remember very well. Flashbacks won't be entirely accurate. The longer it is the more likely it is to have mistakes/parts where your mind just has no idea what actually happened.

DIFFERENCE

While writing, it can be hard to figure out how to let your readers know it's a dream or a flashback. Italics will be your best friend for this. Use italics for inner thoughts, memories, and dreams. Use italics and bold if you really want to.

If this still isn't enough, make it clear. State it directly that the person fell asleep, or that they were sent into a flashback from something. If you want to be more subtle, then have them come out of it in a certain way. Groggy with an alarm going off, or snapping out of it when someone began talking to them.

Request are open and so is asking questions!

~Lydia