Night writing

[sadron]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Madican]

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]

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

[rubarbb]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Nice to hear that there are so many of you. :) When I get own apartment, I try night writing for real.

[expatbrat]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[Inspiewriter]

Me too, but anything that comes by dream fades so quickly, and I can never get it onto paper the way I envisioned it.

[swvaughn]

"Nighttime is really the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone else is asleep."
--Catherine O'Hara

"At night, when the objective world has slunk back into its cavern and left dreamers to their own, there come inspirations and capabilities impossible at any less magical and quiet hour. No one knows whether or not he is a writer unless he has tried writing at night."
--H. P. Lovecraft

Maybe there is something to this writing at night bit. :D

I write nights, but at the moment it's because I have a day job that forces me away from writing during the day. If I had the financial freedom to ditch the day job *sigh* -- which is freelance writing and editing, but it ain't fiction -- I could and would write during the day.

But I'd still write at night, too. There is something about being awake (not necessarily alert and aware, because most nights I'm so beat the last thing I want to do is remain in an upright position) when all the world around you is asleep (or at least, the world you can reach) that is... delicious. Almost forbidden.

Don't know what it is. But I'll keep doing it. :D

[Writer2011]

Most of the time i'll write from 10pm onward--but if i'm tired then no, I won't write at all.

[Southern_girl29]

I wait until my husband and daughter are asleep, and then, I start writing. When I was working on Psychic Straits, I did butt in chair from 10 p.m., to midnight every night and was able to finish the book in a little over a month. I find that I'm more productive at night, able to think better, and are more creative than during the day.

[Sean D. Schaffer]

I wait until my husband and daughter are asleep, and then, I start writing. When I was working on Psychic Straits, I did butt in chair from 10 p.m., to midnight every night and was able to finish the book in a little over a month. I find that I'm more productive at night, able to think better, and are more creative than during the day.


Interestingly enough, I did an experiment last night. I went to bed at 5:30 this morning because I wanted to see if my night writing was better than my day writing.

I now have a third draft finished on an Erotica short short that I started just last night. At a little under a thousand words in length, it's probably one of my better stories.

My point is I am thinking I will probably go ahead and write during the eveningtime more often. My imagination was as sharp as a tack and I was able to do lots of work with much more vigor.

To the OP, thanks for putting up this thread. I'm inspired now.

:)

[heyjude]

Count me amongst the 3am-ers. My best ideas come at that exact hour, esp. for my first book. It's annoying but Tylenol PM usually does the trick :)

[Shady Lane]

I usually get the most done sometime between 10 PM and 3 AM.

Although 11/12 AM can be good, as well.

[jmindigo]

I seem to do my best writing when it's dark out. When it's bright out people think they can go do things and it distracts me. Also, I cite the night sky as one of my inspirations.

[KingRat]

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.

Willie Nelson did that with his songwriting and for the same reason you cite. I tend not to write my late-night thoughts down either, but for a different reason -- I'm lazy.

[SilverVistani]

Very muchly yes. And it is an awesome feeling.

But when you already go to bed two hours later than you need to ><* Not so much at that point. That tends to be my problem.

[emcrane]

I'm only able to write very late at night. That's when the world is quiet enough for me to hear what the characters are saying. :)

[Cindyh2k]

I LOVE to write at night - when hubby and kids are sound asleep, and the only sounds are the night-sounds of the house and the neighborhood - no worries, no interruptions, just me - writing. Ah.....the sweet thought of it.......

[RLB]

I'm only able to write very late at night. That's when the world is quiet enough for me to hear what the characters are saying. :)

That was a very auspicious first post. Welcome to AW.


I write at all times of day. If I can't fall asleep, I'll go write. I have never, however, woken up in the middle of the night and got up to write. Once I'm asleep, I'm down.

[Hillgate]

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.

Completely agree. Also I don't feel so bad about opening a bottle of wine when it's late...not that I'd advocate writing when under the influence. As the great George Orwell wrote, 'two glasses good, four glasses bad'. ;)

[Sean D. Schaffer]

Completely agree. Also I don't feel so bad about opening a bottle of wine when it's late...not that I'd advocate writing when under the influence. As the great George Orwell wrote, 'two glasses good, four glasses bad'. ;)


I thought it was 'Two glasses good, four glasses better'.

:D

[Hillgate]

As long as we don't all end up crawling around the carpet on all fours :)

[Danger Jane]

I usually get the most done sometime between 10 PM and 3 AM.

Although 11/12 AM can be good, as well.

Me, too, terrible as it is for my school schedule. I often get on a roll around 11:30-1:30 and can't stop. Well, if I have to get up at 6 then I force myself to stop around 1:30 but usually that throws the story off a bit when I start the next day.

[Beware_of_Italics]

I'm a night owl and definitely prefer writing at night. The problem there is I won't force myself to stop writing until around 5 am. (Unless I'm just too tired to last that long).

[Sean D. Schaffer]

These last two nights that I've written during the late night have really been prolific for me. I've started two short stories and am almost finished with one, and my work on my novel really gets kicking around 11 PM or Midnight. I'd almost forgotten what it was like to write during the eveningtime; now, I can't imagine what life would be like without this quiet, prolific portion of the day.

[writerraven]

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.


hmmm, sounds like me... lol. I work evenings, get home at 1am. and do some writing till 2 or 3. Sometimes I come in too tired to write at all. :( And other times I write a sentance or two and end up deleting a paragraph or two. lol. Other times I write for 2 hours straight, almost non stop. Then it's off to bed and I dream about what's gonna happen next.

I've woken up from a strange dream that gave me my poem "Little Miss", that might not even be a poem at all but I had to jot it down. It was actually a song in my very strange dream... Every time I eat that dang chocolate before bed!!! lol.

Not very often but on occasion I'll write from noon till 1:30 or 2pm. But I'm more of a week end writer these days, when I have time. Having 2 jobs to juggle with a family and trying to write on the side is draining sometimes, but life is life and we make do with what we have. ;)

[christinex]

I like to write in the evening. Not late, because both my husband and I are fairly early risers, but I find it easier to concentrate after dinner, when I feel as if I've finally taken care of all my chores for the day. Between about 7 and 10 p.m. is my favorite time to write. I've been thinking about getting blackout curtains for my office to see if that will help me concentrate better during daylight hours. :)

[BlueTexas]

I'm in the late-night camp. The world just seems quieter then to me, or maybe it's just that there's less distraction.

[xanthalanari]

I used to be a night-writer, back when I was a student. I kept it up for quite a while after I got out into the real world, but my boyfriend's early nights and early starts started dragging me to bed earlier as well and I lost the ability to stay up late.

Now most of my writing gets done on the bus on the way to work, and in my lunch break. I've learned to make the most of those little bits of time so I don't feel bad if I don't write at weekends.

[IrishScribbler]

I get lots of ideas at night, so usually, when I get up to write, it's notes, outlines, rough scene dialogue, whatever it takes to help me remember the next day.

If I got up and actually wrote, I'd never sleep!

[burgy61]

I find that writing at night works best for me its quiet and peaceful. I set the TV on The Tube so it plays in the background. As the music relaxes me it just starts to flow.

[Alexandra Little]

I actually troubleshoot my plots at night and write during the day. I even had a dream once where my MC told me "you know what, I know you want to kill off this guy and marry me to someone else, but I really really really like him." And I woke up and changed the plot based on the dream. It turned out to be much better:)

[raydad]

I have a day job so I write at night and on weekends. My best ideas have come driving to work in the mornings.

[Sandy J]

I'm a late-nighter as well. It's wonderful in the summer when I don't have to face thirty kids at 7:30 in the morning. I tend to get "writer's insomnia" around 4am when I'm heavily into a story. That makes teaching kinda tough. ;) It's not like I'm a morning person anyway... In the summer, I become a night owl, and if I get on a roll, I will stay up late to let my muse have her way.

[Sunny7L]

I keep a small spiral writing tablet for those spur of the moment break throughs, since I write whenever I feel inspired. Sometimes that's in the middle of the night, other times it's in the supermarket. I'm more productive at night, when there are fewer distractions.

[Esopha]

I tend to be inspired at night. The only problem is, I'm usually too tired to force my inspiration into coherent thoughts. Then by morning, those absolutely sublime, super-cool ideas are gonzo. Occassionally, I will lock myself in the bathroom and write all night, but since I've gotten my full-time summer job, I've been doing that less and less.

[Moon Daughter]

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?

For me, an idea will pop up at any time; however, I find that I tend to write better and more clearly at night. I think it's just because everything is unwinding and much more relaxing.

[Beware_of_Italics]

I actually troubleshoot my plots at night and write during the day. I even had a dream once where my MC told me "you know what, I know you want to kill off this guy and marry me to someone else, but I really really really like him." And I woke up and changed the plot based on the dream. It turned out to be much better:)

Now that is Awesome! I think a lot of writers do receive help from higher powers if-you-will. I think that's why so many readers find Claire and Jamie Fraser to seem SO REAL in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I highly suspect that somewhere out there there really IS a Jamie and Claire, and that they're whispering their story in Diana's ear. I think DG is a very good listener. ;) Or maybe she's just a pure genius.

Anyway, LOVED reading about your dream. I think that's really neat. One dream that you chose not to ignore changed an entire story. I love it! :D

Kristin

[J.Ziekemijjer]

i'm pretty new to writing but i have found it very difficult to sleep lately. my mind suddenly finds the next part of a scene which i was struggling to brainstorm earlier, or a problem i ignored resurfaces with a solution.
I have a pen and some paper by my bed now and nightly write down a couple of notes to get me started the following day.

[MissLadyRae]

Another night owl here. :-) I've tried to go to bed with ideas in my head but I just toss and turn trying to imprint the ideas until the next day. I never got any sleep that way so I just gave into staying up late writing and rewriting. It's weird because during the day I try to do some writing but I end up procrastinating with everything but putting words to paper. Then when night falls and the house is silent, my mind comes alive with story ideas. Ahh, gotta love the peaceful, serene night hours.

[thepainpasses]

I find my writing when I'm tired at least 50 times better than my writing when I'm fully conscious. I seem to not let myself have as many hangups about what I'm writing and just write when I'm tired. It comes out much truer.

[BlueTexas]

Another night owl here. :-) I've tried to go to bed with ideas in my head but I just toss and turn trying to imprint the ideas until the next day. I never got any sleep that way so I just gave into staying up late writing and rewriting


This is me, too. If I don't get up and write it down, I will lay there for three hours trying to will my thoughts away. Tylenol PM does nothing to help this.