How to Record Dream Staircases That Multiply in Different Directions

Record multiplying dream staircases by mapping their directions, marking visible connections, and separating each remembered change into its own sketch. Keep uncertain details labeled and preserve the geometry as it appeared.

This guide is for someone trying to describe or draw that specific scene: staircases becoming more numerous while extending in different directions. The task is to make their arrangement and multiplication readable. A useful record should show what connects, what crosses, and what changes, without supplying an unseen building around the stairs.

The method below adapts concepts from drawing and storyboarding. Those sources explain visual recording techniques; they do not document this dream. Any example arrangement is explicitly illustrative.

Establish what “multiply in different directions” actually describes

Begin with the shortest description supported by the scene: “Staircases multiply in different directions.” Then expand only the parts you can specify. That sentence establishes increasing number and differing orientation, but leaves the mechanism, starting arrangement, materials, and endpoints open.

Distinguish how additional stairs appeared. A flight might divide at a visible junction, another flight might appear beside it, or more stairs might become visible as the viewpoint changes. These produce different records. Use “split” when a division was visible; use “appeared” when the arrival was visible but its construction was not. If only the increased number is clear, write exactly that.

Make a brief inventory before developing the drawing:

• What is the earliest arrangement you can describe?

• Which directions are distinguishable from the viewing position?

• Where, if anywhere, do flights visibly join?

• Did you see new stairs forming, or only the arrangement before and afterward?

• What is the last arrangement you can describe?

A missing count can remain missing. “Several flights, exact number unclear” preserves more useful information than a precise number chosen to complete the composition. Likewise, the earliest remembered arrangement need not be a single staircase. Do not turn an incomplete beginning into an invented starting state.

Map direction and connection before drawing individual steps

Start with a small arrangement sketch using a single line or narrow strip for each distinguishable flight. Add step edges after the main paths are placed. This is a proposed recording method: its purpose is to give each staircase a traceable position before repeated details crowd the page.

Give flights simple labels such as A, B, and C. These identify parts of the drawing and imply no order unless you explicitly assign one. Describe direction relative to the view: toward the upper left of the page, across the page, away from the viewer, or toward the foreground.

Keep page direction separate from ascent. A flight drawn diagonally toward the top of the sheet is not, by that fact alone, confirmed to ascend. If the steps visibly rise while the flight recedes, record both observations. If the direction of ascent is unclear, retain the diagonal and label ascent as uncertain.

Inspect every crossing. Does one flight hide part of another? Is there a continuous shared surface? Is there a visible gap? The Minneapolis Institute of Art identifies overlap, size, and positive and negative space among the techniques used to depict space. These provide useful categories for checking the relationship between flights. Elements and Principles — Minneapolis Institute of Art (https://new.artsmia.org/programs/activities-for-self-guided-groups/worksheets/elements-and-principles)

An illustrative drawing choice would be to label two crossing flights A and B, interrupt B where A conceals it, and add “connection not visible.” If a shared landing is remembered instead, draw that landing and identify the flights it joins. The example demonstrates two recording choices; it supplies no layout for the dream.

Preserve the gaps as carefully as the stairs. Getty defines negative space as the empty area between objects. Applied here, a narrow wedge between two flights or a broad opening beneath a crossing can become a useful reference shape when checking their placement. Vocabulary for Describing an Artwork — Getty (https://www.getty.edu/education/k-12-learning/describe-listen-draw/vocabulary-for-describing-an-artwork/)

Use perspective only where it matches the remembered view

Perspective offers a way to describe depth. The University of Delaware’s drawing resource defines linear perspective as a system for translating three-dimensional space into two dimensions and identifies eye level, also called the horizon line, as a basic element. Linear Perspective — University of Delaware (https://www1.udel.edu/artfoundations/drawing/perspective.html)

For this scene, begin with visible relationships: which flight appears nearer, which narrows into the distance, which underside is exposed, and which edges seem to converge. Add a horizon or construction lines only when they help reproduce those relationships.

Avoid forcing all the staircases into one tidy arrangement. If separate groups appear to recede differently, retain their separate edge directions. If the remembered geometry cannot be reconciled into a consistent perspective drawing, preserve the local relationships and annotate the unresolved join. A recording can contain a clear contradiction.

Use a detail sketch when one junction becomes difficult to read. Keep its flight labels consistent with the overall sketch, and state that it is an enlarged detail. Enlarging the junction should reveal its remembered structure, without adding extra steps, supports, or surfaces.

Separate staircase multiplication from changes in viewpoint

A single crowded drawing can show many staircases while leaving their multiplication unexplained. Use numbered sketches when the scene includes successive changes. Vancouver Public Library’s storyboarding guide distinguishes individual camera positions and explains that arrows can indicate movement of the viewpoint or an object. Storyboarding conventions — Vancouver Public Library (https://www.vpl.ca/guides/inspiration-lab-storyboarding/storyboarding-conventions)

Adapt that convention with a short sequence. Draw the earliest remembered state, the next distinguishable change, and the latest remembered state, adding further sketches wherever another change matters. Keep the viewpoint consistent between sketches when it remained consistent in the scene. When the viewpoint changes, label that change separately.

Under each sketch, describe the difference from the preceding one. An illustrative caption might read: “An additional flight appears to the right of A; A remains visible.” A different example would be: “The view turns right, revealing another flight; its formation is not seen.” These captions preserve different kinds of visual information.

If a flight visibly divides, record where the separation begins and what remains shared afterward. If the number increases between two remembered states without a visible transition, label the interval “transition not remembered.” Do not draw intermediate growth simply to make the sequence continuous.

Make arrows unambiguous. An arrow beside a staircase could mean its direction of ascent, its movement, or the direction in which it extends. Write the intended meaning beside it. Where the drawing only needs to show orientation, a labeled line may be clearer than an arrow.

Record material relationships without supplying materials

The topic does not specify wood, stone, metal, glass, color, or surface finish. Include those details only when they belong to the remembered scene. Getty distinguishes texture—how a surface looks or feels—from color, which it describes through hue, lightness or darkness, and intensity. This vocabulary helps separate a visible surface quality from a material identification. Vocabulary for Describing an Artwork — Getty (https://www.getty.edu/education/k-12-learning/describe-listen-draw/vocabulary-for-describing-an-artwork/)

For example, “smooth, pale steps” describes an appearance without identifying stone. “A bright edge along the side” does not establish a metal rail. Keep a material name uncertain when the visual evidence does not settle it.

Pay particular attention to what happens at the point of multiplication. Does a visible surface pattern continue into a new flight? Does the original edge remain intact? Is the junction continuous, separated by a seam, or obscured? Record these relations only where distinguishable. They can explain how the forms meet even when their material is unknown.

If you use shading or texture marks, define any marks that serve as annotations. As an illustrative choice, a lightly shaded patch could identify an uncertain surface, provided a note explains that convention. Otherwise, the patch may read as a remembered shadow or material difference.

Finish with a description that follows the drawing

Write the final prose in the same order as the visual record: viewing position, earliest arrangement, directions, visible connections, successive changes, and final remembered state. Refer to the same flight labels throughout. Replace broad phrases such as “stairs everywhere” with the specific relations the sketches actually establish.

Before finishing, trace each flight through the sequence. Check whether a change in its angle belongs to the scene or came from redrawing it. Check whether a crossing accidentally became a junction. Remove any added landing, background wall, endpoint, or texture that exists only to make the picture look complete.

End the record at the last remembered arrangement. A useful account of dream staircases that multiply in different directions lets a reader follow the stairs through space and through change, while keeping every unresolved connection and missing transition visible.

Sources

• Vocabulary for Describing an Artwork — Getty (https://www.getty.edu/education/k-12-learning/describe-listen-draw/vocabulary-for-describing-an-artwork/)

• Elements and Principles — Minneapolis Institute of Art (https://new.artsmia.org/programs/activities-for-self-guided-groups/worksheets/elements-and-principles)

• Linear Perspective — University of Delaware (https://www1.udel.edu/artfoundations/drawing/perspective.html)

• Storyboarding conventions — Vancouver Public Library (https://www.vpl.ca/guides/inspiration-lab-storyboarding/storyboarding-conventions)