When I’m writing, I can spend the entire day trying to get those voices in my head to talk to me, tell me their stories. Whether or not it works, the moment I turn out my light and try to fall asleep, the characters inevitably come out to play.
I’m never sure whether to be delighted or annoyed. My ultimate reaction usually depends on how comfortable I am and how many sleeping cats are pinning me in place. Then there’s the spouse factor: after the final goodnights have been mumbled and we’ve lived in silence for several minutes, it’s just cruel to turn the light back on, no matter how great the dialogue in my head and how convinced I am that I will not remember it in the morning unless I record it right then and there. (Naturally, I still haven’t remembered to stock my flashlight in my nightstand, although I’ve learned never to be without a notebook and a pen. Which is why this whole thing was written in the dark. See?)
Of course, just because I succumb to pressure from my chatty characters or Dolores, my on-board narrator, it does not mean that the words were worth the shuffling and fumbling required to capture them on paper. Even if they are legible (at best, my handwriting is a poor imitation of cursive), when I’m in the zone of near-sleep my ability to judge writing quality is questionable.
Take, for example, the night when I absolutely, positively could not sleep no matter how I tossed and turned. If anything, my desperation only pushed that blissful unconsciousness further away. Finally, I settled into thinking about my book. You see, I had a character to name, and this seemed the perfect time to do so. In my sleep-deprived state, I decided that I wanted something unique, so I reached around for the most beautiful, unusual first name I could find. Once I settled on it, I was so happy that I knew I needed a last name to go with it. And so I thought and thought and finally came up with the perfect companion to that first name. It was so lovely, so wonderful, that I couldn’t wait to assign it to a character the next day. Since this was before I learned to keep a notebook handy, I committed it to memory, rolled over, and promptly fell asleep. When my alarm rang the next morning, I had the nagging thought that I was forgetting something. So I fished around in my memory for a while, and came up with it: the name. Only in daylight did I realize that I had, with no sense of irony whatsoever, named my character Dream McKnight. Sure, the name could work, but it would be the bane of the character’s existence, not something of which she could be proud.
With incidents like that, it’s no wonder I record my nighttime ramblings so reluctantly, even if I’m usually glad that I did so.
Ah, the nightime epiphanies. They seem golden at 2 a.m., but around noon the next day, “I had to be sleep deprived.”
Sidenote: I do most of my writing at night. That should tell you how much I revise.
Curious question: What is with the green triangle guy? (I’m guessing an assigned picture to all my comments. Jeez, I need to get wordpress.)
I think we’ve all done that. It’s the best when you’re in a weird place (hotel room, family member’s house, something like that) and you DON’T have a piece of paper around and you write on anything just so you won’t forget what you were thinking about…! For me, sometimes it’s best to let the information stew for a while, because my mind has a way of making it better that way. If I wrote down everything I thought of and kind of cemented those thoughts, it wouldn’t be very good! LOL…
Just saw your blogroll… I read PostSecret, too! In fact, I read that just before I read yours today!
Buy a digital voice recorder. It’s the best investment you could make.
Melissa, so true! But every once in a while a gem comes through and I’m glad I wrote it down. As for the avatars, WordPress lets me give random avatars to people who don’t have them already. Likes like you get Mr. Green Triangle Guy. Use him wisely. 😉
Yes, Kyle, that’s happened to me, too! It’s also a problem when I don’t have a bookmark, since I’m constantly losing mine. I’ll stick about anything flat inside a book to hold my page. As for PostSecret, it’s one of the (many) reasons I love Sundays!
Leafless, I thought about that. Lots of other writers have said the same thing. I would still risk waking up my husband if I spoke into it, though. But I might get one for other times.
See, my problem is that if I think of something good while I’m trying to fall asleep, I have to repeat it to myself at least a dozen times so that I can be *sure* that I’ll remember it the following morning.
Of course, the result is that I either wake myself up OR I get so excited about whatever I’ve just come up with that I simply have to get out of bed and type it up.
My solution is that I banish all thoughts of stories, characters, and settings until the early morning hours when I’m laying in bed and trying to think of a good excuse to stay there. 😛
I actually thought Dream was a cute name! Not too sure about her last name though! *G* I like getting all these insights into how writers work. What about a booklight instead of a flashlight for your notepad?
A booklight definitely would work.
Argh, I hate it when inspiration hits me just as I’m about to drift off…and I’m too lazy to turn on the light and seek pen/paper. I come up with some kind of memory trick to ensure that it will be the first thought in my mind upon waking…but that almost always fails. Oh well, it probably wouldn’t have seemed so brilliant in the light of day.
Steph, I have that exact same problem! And even when I do write it down, that’s usually not the end of it. As for banishing the ideas, I can’t. I think I’m worried that I’ll stop some breakthrough idea that would never come back again.
Thanks, Bookmom! And I agree — it’s not bad. But when paired with McKnight? Clearly I was sleep deprived! And I like your idea of a booklight. That might work.
Dru, I also have a headlamp. I’ll probably pick up a booklight when I’m somewhere with a good one, but I can use my headlamp in the meantime. It’s a little brighter, though, so a headlamp’s definitely preferable.
That’s probably true, Allison. I know my sense of good writing is totally out of whack when I’m tired.