Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Riled up Writer (or Help! My Brain Won't Turn Off!)

Tip of the Day: Measure your room before you buy a ping pong table off of Craig's List.

When I get cranking on a story, I hate to go to bed even when it gets late. In a way, it's a great feeling. I drag myself away saying I need to go to sleep bc I have to go to work the next morning.

Many times that I force myself to shut down the laptop and go to bed, I should've just kept writing bc my brain won't shut off. And when that happens, I can't sleep. Thoughts and ideas for the book are writing themselves into my brain.

Then I'm torn: Do I get up and go back to writing, or let the ideas stew in my head and get them on paper the next day? Will having the thoughts ferment for a night make them stronger or diluted?

Honestly, I usually stay in bed and toss and turn until sleep overtakes. The next day I jump back into my book with vigor. Are the new words written as I imagined them the night before? I'm not sure. But I know that I'm still psyched to write.

What about you? Do you jump back into night time writing, or try to get your zzzzzs?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

5 comments:

Steph Su said...

I had one of those moments last night, but I forced myself to stop after 2 hours of late-afternoon writing, otherwise I knew I'd be up all night. I think it depends on a variety of things: where in the story you're at, how easily you can fall asleep after such stimulation... Hope you find out a way that works for you! :)

Kate Fall said...

If I really can't sleep, I write a few keywords down. That usually stops my brain from panicking that I'll forget anything important if I sleep.

DeenaML said...

Steph -- glad I'm not alone! :)

Kate -- I should try the key work idea....

Kristina Springer said...

Zzzzzzzzs.

Emily Marshall said...

Interesting question Deena. This definitely happens to me too, but I usually get up and write. If I don't I won't remember my ideas. But maybe I need to just sleep, so I'm motivated in the morning to get right into it.