And then she woke up. (The End).

How do you place altered states of consciousness in your stories?

This is a very interesting question to me. Without giving too much away, altered states of consciousness and/or reality are the hinge on

show/tell

Writers are commonly exhorted to 'show, don’t tell.'

Here’s what I think about that. 

Writing the bad guy

If you’re creating stories, sooner or later you’ll need to write a bad guy.*