A bad time for good ideas

Shane Fitzsimmons · Sep 6, 2007

I do the same thing quite frequently. Or I'll come up with a great name for a character, pass out, and wake up not having a clue what it is.

Sometimes I consider getting up, but it frequently takes me a while to get to sleep and getting up and walking around can totally destroy that. And I already only get 5 hours a sleep per night.

JoNightshade · Sep 6, 2007

I agree with those who say, if it's good enough, it will stick. Although I freely admit that your brain could be very different from mine.

I can do ideas and dialogue in bed before I go to sleep, and often this is where I do a lot of my brain-work for writing.

For me, it's not a matter of having "ideas," it's figuring out "how the story goes." My brain treats writing a bit like a puzzle: based on these circumstances and characters, what happens next? In my brain, there's usually only one "right answer." So once I've discovered it, I know the answer. It's not something I'll forget.

melaniehoo · Sep 6, 2007

This keeps happening to me & I force myself to get up and write them down. Perhaps I should move the paper to the bedroom...

It also happens as soon as I shut down my computer. I've just come to accept that I'll come up with a good idea as soon as I'm done for the night. So I write down my ideas and that gives me a place to start the next day.

EDIT: I've also found ideas come to me when I'm in the potty. Stuck on an idea? Head to the john! It worked when I was still with an ad agency too.

Writer14 · Sep 6, 2007

Whenever an idea pops into my head i drag myself up off my feet (if i'm about to go to sleep) and scribble it down.

The objective is to be able to make out my handwriting the next morning

ZannaPerry · Sep 6, 2007

seun said:
I've developed the habit of having what seems like a great idea for a story - about ten seconds before I fall asleep. Of course, the idea is either terrible or gone by the next morning.

Does this happen to anyone else or is it just my brain being a total bastard?

Ha! If I have an amazing dream that could play out like a movie or play, I write it down because it was that memorable.

Otherwise, if I lay in bed, ready to fall asleep any second, my mind tends to wonder to my current WIP, and what the characters might think when they fall asleep. Well, when my mind tends to think on some dialogue then I immediately stop and think on something else because I never, and I mean never can remember my dialogue the next morning, and it sucks because I usually get some of my best dialogue sequences just before I fall asleep.

It's a bitch....

ZannaPerry · Sep 6, 2007

Writer14 said:
Whenever an idea pops into my head i drag myself up off my feet (if i'm about to go to sleep) and scribble it down.

Me, too, I do that too! Just last night I did that. And even if I am sick, and remarkably can think good enough, I keep a stack of notebooks under my bed to write down in. Even when I'm too lazy to get up. It's handy.

seun · Sep 6, 2007

I think I will do the pen and notepad thing by the side of the bed. And if any of ideas turn out to be decent in the morning, I'll let you know.

Akuma · Sep 6, 2007

It's a weird marriage with your muse. Seems like the only time you "need" some action is when she/he doesn't feel like it. And then they have the nerve to nibble our necks as we are falling asleep.

"Not tonight, Muse, I have a headache. . ."

A bad time for good ideas

Shane Fitzsimmons

JoNightshade

has finally arrived

melaniehoo

And thus we begin the edits

Writer14

Christina.

ZannaPerry

^ Just Me & a Sharpie

ZannaPerry

^ Just Me & a Sharpie

seun

Horror Man

Akuma

Rare Writer Pokemon