While laying in bed in the middle of last night and not sleeping as one does, the muse decided to sprinkle her fairy dust upon my rest-deprived noggin. Thus came a realization that the new book currently under editing for its later chapters was missing a scene which, in the much-abused and paraphrased words of The Dude, really tied the book together. Where to wedge it in was even included in the moment of 'well-duh!'.
After work today despite it being the end of the week - one full of many fires needing attention - the fingers managed to twiddle out on the keys the requisite twenty-one lines of text as demanded by the midnight visitor.
When considering that this wasn't a one-off occurrence but something which has happened many times before, I do wonder what comes first: the insomnia or the inspiration. Was I not sleeping because the sub-conscious was too darned annoyed at the conscious for not having figured this missing puzzle-piece out yet? Or was the inspiration more due to not being able to sleep and thus being stuck in that halfway state of trying to step away from the day-to-day burdens of wakefulness opened a door for some nifty ideas to stride on through.
This happen often to other authors too? Maybe we are doomed to experience restless yet magically productive nights even when not trying for it while knowing full well that 'gee, the alarm is gonna go off to get my butt to work really soon. NEED SLEEP!'
Hopefully it'll let me snooze on in tomorrow.
Mmmmm sleeep...
Comments
Not just for writers
All creatives are like this imho. Artistic and non-artistics alike though engineering is really an art as much as it is a science so engineers tend to churn out solutions unconsciously too.
It is sleep depriving too.
OTOH, I think the lack of Muse support would be many times more frustrating so I personally count my own blessings.
Showers
I've found showers provide pretty darn good engineering solutions. The ones from the middle of the night are often rated 'interesting idea, but nope, that wasn't it...' lol
I have similar problems.
I used to be able to use story creation as a method of putting myself to sleep, but these days it has the opposite affect. Now, I get stuck on the details and can't turn my mind off. The real problem comes from getting too far with the storyline. If I get too far ahead of where I am in writing the story, I end up with my muse getting finished with the story before I can get it written and then I find it difficult to write it. Stories, as I write the are living breathing things that flow from my muse to the keyboard. Trying to write it after my muse has worked out all the details is like resurrecting a corpse.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
pretty much how it works
I do most of my own writing between 11pm-3am.
Scientific explanation:
You have two modes of thinking, one where you are focused and basically on rail-tracks, its the most productive but not the most creative.
The other is unfocused this occurs when you're tired, drunk, in the shower, waking up or going to sleep or have adhd, your thought process struggles to go in a straight line and winds up jumping tracks or tangents a lot leading to a lot of fun ideas for good and terrible and creativity in general.