Night writing

sadron · Jun 21, 2007

Yes I'm curious. Does anyone of you had this night time writing inspiration? When you sleep and ping! you have to write! I never had it.

But i use to write late evening though.

How inspiring it might be?

Feathers · Jun 21, 2007

Yes. 100% percent yes.
Although, I need to write before I'm tierd-otherwise, its a flop.
I write best at these times, in this order:
When its raining at 11 pm.
When its 7 in the morning (IF i'm not tierd)
When its raining, period.
When its nightime, period.

thats me. Inspira-girl.

RG570 · Jun 21, 2007

I get a lot of ideas late at night, but I don't write them. If they're still in my head in the morning, then I might pursue it. if I forget, it wasn't a good idea to begin with.

AllieB · Jun 21, 2007

Oh, yeah. Often right before I go to sleep or sometimes when I wake up from a dream at 3 am. That's why I keep a notebook and a pen on my nightstand

Danger Jane · Jun 21, 2007

I write mostly at night. Usually when I'm tired. It just comes easier, and there are no more obligations to worry about (or not...

) so I can just write till I'm tired enough to go to bed.

Robert L.B. · Jun 21, 2007

I'm a night owl, and get most of my writing done at night. Though if creativity is aplenty, I'll do it during the day.

Shady Lane · Jun 21, 2007

I do best when I have the whole day. I'll trickle out like twenty words an hour...all day.

rubarbb · Jun 21, 2007

I like to write from around 9 pm until... But I get some of my best thoughts when I'm in the shower, then I have to rush out and write them down...

JoNightshade · Jun 21, 2007

RG570 said:
I get a lot of ideas late at night, but I don't write them. If they're still in my head in the morning, then I might pursue it. if I forget, it wasn't a good idea to begin with.

Ditto. I do a lot of plotting/thinking as I am lying in bed drifting off. I use sleep as my quality filter. If it's that good, I'll remember.

zpeteman · Jun 21, 2007

I often wake up in the middle of the night having dreamt some sentence of staggering brilliance and clarity, then run to the computer and bang it out only to wake up the next morning and wonder what the hell I was thinking.

I also keep 3x5 cards around to scribble spur-of-the-moment notes on. They are mostly filled with arcane nonsense that I can't decipher the day after I wrote them.

Things like: "Running with molten cheese. Shoes broken. Three more, but only if the water doesn't freeze."

One day those cards are gonna pay off though. One day.

joyce · Jun 21, 2007

I find writing at night is when I seem to have the ole creative juices flowing the best. I've also thought of some great idea in the middle of the night and had to get up to write it down.

NicoleMD · Jun 21, 2007

At night, I'm usually too tired to tell good ideas from not so good ones. Still, it's a good time to purge the bad ideas from my brain and make room for the good ones. Blah. What did I just say? It's only 8:30pm, and my brain's already putty...

Nicole

DeborahM · Jun 21, 2007

My favorite time to write is from 6 PM until...?

Then if I'm really involved and focused, when I try to lie down and sleep, I might get an hours sleep then my brain activates and it's no sense trying to sleep so I get up and write until my brain has nothing left.

The next morning (late morning) I'm wasted, but back onto the laptop and cranking it out again. Then I might sleep all that night...or...I might have to wake up again to write.

sf.writer.mdk · Jun 21, 2007

I've got a smorgasboard of writing supplies in my nightstand beside the bed, just in case. But usually, it's not till the following morning if and when I've had any inspiring dreams. On occasion, when the period right before sleep kicks in, called hypnogonic consciousness, I'll have some fleeting glimpse of possibility. I'm ready!

Will Lavender · Jun 21, 2007

Used to love writing at night before I had kids.

Now I'm sleepy by 11:00 or 12:00, usually. Or else I'm worried that one of them is going to wake up, screaming. (There's nothing more creativity killing than a sick or night terror-stricken child.)

If anybody suffers from insomnia, have children. I haven't lain awake for more than five minutes in three years.

WordGypsy · Jun 21, 2007

I have actually been pulled out of my comfy covers because those damn characters just will not shut up! I ususally write at night so it's fresh in my head for dreamland. They've not been pleasent lately. Nasty horror scenes will do that...but yes, I dream sequences and scenes quite often. I write best early early before my edit button clicks on or late at night when i'm spent. Seems like that's when the muse kicks in!

Sean D. Schaffer · Jun 21, 2007

sadron said:
Yes I'm curious. Does anyone of you had this night time writing inspiration? When you sleep and ping! you have to write! I never had it. But i use to write late evening though.

How inspiring it might be?

I used to write only at night. These days, I'm too tired because of medications to write at night. But I miss those days, because they were inspiring to me and were also very busy days for me with my writing. I would not take a break and would just write to my heart's content, sometimes as late as 2:00 AM.

Ah, memories! Thanks for bringing back the good old days.

britlitfantw · Jun 21, 2007

I love to write at night, but lately that's just not practical. (Too much schoolwork to finish in order to graduate.) I tried setting aside 30 minutes this morning to write while I sipped coffee and ate granola, and wrote 2 and 1/2 pages, 1/2 page more than I hoped for. Hopefully when summer comes I'll have some nights to be a night owl.

PastMidnight · Jun 22, 2007

The only time I can get writing done is at night, as I have a house full of children during the day. I have everything set up so that the moment my spouse goes to bed, I can sit right down and type away. I write by candlelight with a steaming mug of coffee and work diligently for at least an hour. It is perhaps the most relaxing hour I spend all day!

sadron · Jun 22, 2007

Nice to hear that there are so many of you.

When I get own apartment, I try night writing for real.

expatbrat · Jun 22, 2007

Nope. I'm a morning person. I like to get up early, go to the gym, and then pull my laptop out somewhere nice and get down to work. I usually write until the batteries run out - this gives me a bit of a time pressure and helps me focus on getting stuff done.

By night all I want to do it chill and hang out with my family - last thing I'd want to do at night is sit all alone at my computer when my loved ones are in another room.

LisaHy · Jun 22, 2007

I used to work shift. I'd come home around midnight, sit at the computer till 4 or 5 in the morning, sleep till 8, write till 1, go to work and repeat. I guess that's how I used to manage a million words a year. Now, not so much. No more shift work, something resembling a social life and a far more critical eye as to what I'm writing. These days, I can spend the hours between midnight and 2am pondering one sentence, go to bed with it unresolved and wake up in the morning grumpy and swearing that I'm a hack...

Cheers, Lisa.

Stijn Hommes · Jun 22, 2007

AllieB said:
Oh, yeah. Often right before I go to sleep or sometimes when I wake up from a dream at 3 am. That's why I keep a notebook and a pen on my nightstand

Did you read my mind?

UKREVIEWER · Jun 22, 2007

AllieB said:
Oh, yeah. Often right before I go to sleep or sometimes when I wake up from a dream at 3 am. That's why I keep a notebook and a pen on my nightstand

I am exactly the same - I love recording my dreams because you never know when inspiration will strike.

Taniray · Jun 22, 2007

For me the most productive time is from 10 p.m. till...
At daytime there are too much noise and too many people around to concentrate on writing.

Night writing

Writing Dark Fantasy

emerging from the writing cave

Tao of Wonka

my name is hannah

Serenity

has finally arrived

Natural born...

I'm really shy...

Onomatopotamus

I need espresso & chocolate!

practical experience, FTW

Everything is what it seems.

Oponionated

Writing Dark Fantasy

Look what we made:

It's probably a tumour

Know what you write...