While I don't mind "it's all a dream" endings. There are cases where they don't make sense. There was this one game which was like a catch the imposter game turned out to take place in a dream and in one ending if you choose to be the monster, it ends with you just being a monster and no wake up scene and it's so confusing because if it's a dream, why aren't we waking up?

If you are writing an it's a dream ending.

Now, if you are writing your own story, and it was based on your own dream, just say, "Oh, this was based on an actual dream I had." That makes it a little interesting because people do want to see what's inside your head, you know?

Some People don't mind dream endings as much when the story is based on an actual dream. You're telling the story of what happened in your brain. Some people like me accept it because real events (such as someone telling us what happened in their dreams rather than making up a fictional dream) are beyond our control after the fact.

It is better to tell us before we play that this was based on a dream.

How “It Was All a Dream” Endings Can Work

I don't mind "it was all a dream" endings, even in games. Although they can make a game feel pointless to some, they don't necessarily ruin a story. If the story was entertaining and immersive, the experience can still be worthwhile. If the ending makes the entire story feel pointless, perhaps the story wasn't engaging enough in the first place.

As a child, I still enjoyed these kinds of stories. Alice in Wonderland handled the concept particularly well. Part of its appeal is how it embraces the idea that anything can happen. Reality becomes unpredictable, and things defy the laws of physics.

Think The Matrix.

1. Lean Into the Dreamlike Nature of the Story

Dreams can contain aliens, monsters, and other impossible events. Rather than simply adding monsters because the story takes place in a dream, lean into the dreamlike nature of the experience.

Make impossible and illogical things happen. If the story involves hallucinations, explore how strange and unpredictable they can be. You could even establish early on that the story takes place in a dream, allowing viewers to become curious about what they'll experience. Although, with hallucinations, it's not like the dream world. You're going to interact with real things. It's like being blind if the hallucinations covers your entire vision, you can't see reality and bump and trip over everything.

However, the dream should still serve a purpose.

Make it matter. Make it count. Connect the dream to the character's real life, perhaps through trauma or personal struggles. If you want to avoid heavy subjects, you can still create a wholesome and entertaining story.

2. Don't End the Story When the Character Wakes Up

My advice is not to end the story immediately after the character wakes up and returns to normal life. Instead, continue the story with a new adventure or connect the dream to something happening in reality.

Here's an example of how I would approach this concept.

James's Dream

James dreams that he kills someone. Even if viewers don't initially realize it's a dream, they witness his actions and reactions.

Dreams don't process events the same way waking life does. Your judgment and reasoning can differ because when you're asleep, the logical part of your brain is shut off while the emotional part if kept on, allowing you to accept strange situations without questioning them.

James asks himself, "Did I just kill someone?"

Interestingly, he's concerned about the killing rather than the drug runs or gang banging.

In the dream, James is a Crip who kills a Blood. He also kills other people, including people wearing red, but one killing is not accidental, he just did it because he thought they were a blood but they weren't -- they just wore red.

Initially, he feels terrible. Eventually, his guilt fades, and he returns to his usual activities. He's shocked by how quickly he gets over it.

When the Dream Becomes a Real-World Problem

As an adult with OCD, James becomes afraid that he might kill someone.

Half the movie takes place in the dream, while the second half follows him panicking over the possibility of becoming violent. His guilt fuels his OCD, making him believe that unless he performs certain compulsions, such as tapping a wall 50 times, he might actually kill someone.

He's worried because he not only has an anxiety disorder but he sees himself in his dreams as doing what he would have done in that situation in real life because he simply chose to do so, so him killing people jarred him as he never wanted to be involved in any of that activity in real life when the logical part of his brain was fully functioning, he felt he knew he has the possibility to kill.

Here's the thing: James doesn't wake up in the end in this part of the movie because This is the real world.

His dream has consequences, not because it predicts what he'll do, but because of how he interprets and reacts to the dream.

3. Make the Story Unpredictable

Once James enters the real world, several possibilities could make the story more interesting.

• A supernatural experiment: Perhaps a monster created the dream to experiment on James to see what he'd do for fun or work and continues to manipulate him in reality.

• A dream within a dream: James might discover that he's still dreaming, making the movie increasingly surreal as he keeps waking up and waking up. His goal can become to wake up for real and since his logical part of the brain is off, he worries he's in a coma, and he could be if you wrote that in.

• An ambiguous ending: James tests whether he's awake. Everything behaves normally, suggesting that he's in the real world, but viewers are left wondering whether something is still wrong like a black tentacle like a silhouette shows up out of the corner.

• A sequel: The movie could end with James discovering that he's awake, only to reveal that the entity from his dream exists in reality, too.

Alternatively, you could include the supernatural revelation in the same movie rather than saving it for a sequel.

Whatever direction you choose, the story should explore how these experiences affect James's OCD.

4. Turn His Fear Into a Psychological Thriller

Throughout the movie, James tries to prevent himself from killing anyone. He's not necessarily trying to overcome his OCD; he's reacting to his fears.

His therapist reassures him that having a disturbing dream where he kills someone doesn't mean he'll act on it. Dream behavior doesn't automatically reflect someone's real-world intentions.

However, this reassurance could introduce another stage of James's OCD. This can happen in real life -- dreams can affect OCD and worsen it, not just nightmares. I speak from personal experience.

He becomes afraid that his reasoning will shut down while he sleeps. He might worry that he's losing control or become too afraid to sleep because he fears sleepwalking and hurting someone.

This could turn the story into a psychological thriller, horror movie, or psychological drama.

The conflict isn't simply about whether the dream was real. It's about how James interprets the experience, how his fears affect his life, and whether he can distinguish his intrusive thoughts from his actual intentions.