The 2AM Dilemma

Djmac1031

Consumate BS Artist
Joined
Aug 15, 2021
Posts
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You're working on a new story.

It's coming along well, but you don't have it all worked out just yet. Still, you're happy with the progress so far.

You go to bed at a reasonable hour, but you can't sleep. Your mind is on the story; the plot, the characters, the path it needs to go.

Scenes start playing in your head. Dialog, conversations between main characters, important bits of information needed to be conveyed to move their relationship and the story along.

Finally, you roll over and grab your phone or computer or whatever you write on, and the notes begin.

Random, disjointed, out of order. No quotation marks or punctuation, Maybe not even complete sentences. No. Just the crux of it, the important bit you dread forgetting by the next morning. The rest you can flesh out later.

Finished, or so you think. You roll over and try to sleep, but more ideas come, expanding on what you just jotted down.

So you write those down, too.

The cycle repeats, several times, until finally it's all out in a jumble of badly typed notes.


Finally, your brain shuts off and you can go to sleep.

You wake up the next morning, tired, but happy to have done it and exited to get started taking that mess of random ideas and words and putting structure to it.

But first, of course, you gotta go to work.

Tell me it's not just me.
 
I've learned to just drift back to sleep and ignore them. Maybe its me, but back at the start I would either write them down or sometimes even get up and do some writing and....inevitably I would later end up getting rid of what I wrote because upon looking at it, it just didn't seem to fit the intent of the story. From that point on, I'd just ignore it at night, but of the idea was still persisting by the end of the day I'd use it.

Understand, we're not always rational when we wake up in the middle of the night.
 
Sounds like me too. Fortunately I have a veteran muse slash former Erinyes with a phd in psychology and excellent editing skills to organize the chattering spirits into a reasonable order and a holyphant with an elite military background and a crack security detail to keep them in line.
 
My current medical issue has knocked out my preferred life cycle to the point that I'm not writing. I normally get up about 1030 and go to bed at 0300 am, with writing happening between 1100 and 0300. My current meds schedule has me going to bed at 1100 and up at 0700. Writing hasn't been happening. Luckily, I have a deep backlog of already-written stories/books and have plenty to review. Don't know when the writing will come back, though.
 
My current medical issue has knocked out my preferred life cycle to the point that I'm not writing. I normally get up about 1030 and go to bed at 0300 am, with writing happening between 1100 and 0300. My current meds schedule has me going to bed at 1100 and up at 0700. Writing hasn't been happening. Luckily, I have a deep backlog of already-written stories/books and have plenty to review. Don't know when the writing will come back, though.

Sorry to hear about your medical struggles. I hope things improve for you soon.
 
Yeah, that's pretty much the same for me. Only I never have to get up more than once. I blurt it all out into the file, usually in all caps, in one long stream of consciousness. The next day I'll look at it and go "Ohh, that's gooooood!"
 
DJ, I could have written your first post myself, word for word. And it would go for ANY project I've ever been working on, whether it's the new barn doors or a scale model I'm starting. But with writing, it's WAY worse.

When it's clear that's the kind of night I'm in for, I just take a Benadryl. It helps me get sleepy enough to overcome the issue, but not as strong as some sort of sleep aid. I need my beauty sleep.
 
DJ, I could have written your first post myself, word for word. And it would go for ANY project I've ever been working on, whether it's the new barn doors or a scale model I'm starting. But with writing, it's WAY worse.

When it's clear that's the kind of night I'm in for, I just take a Benadryl. It helps me get sleepy enough to overcome the issue, but not as strong as some sort of sleep aid. I need my beauty sleep.

I find meditation / ambient relaxation music very helpful most times.

I have an eye mask with built in headphones, slip that on and zone out.

Most nights that works, unless I'm obsessing on a story lol
 
You're working on a new story.

It's coming along well, but you don't have it all worked out just yet. Still, you're happy with the progress so far.

You go to bed at a reasonable hour, but you can't sleep. Your mind is on the story; the plot, the characters, the path it needs to go.

Scenes start playing in your head. Dialog, conversations between main characters, important bits of information needed to be conveyed to move their relationship and the story along.

Finally, you roll over and grab your phone or computer or whatever you write on, and the notes begin.

Random, disjointed, out of order. No quotation marks or punctuation, Maybe not even complete sentences. No. Just the crux of it, the important bit you dread forgetting by the next morning. The rest you can flesh out later.

Finished, or so you think. You roll over and try to sleep, but more ideas come, expanding on what you just jotted down.

So you write those down, too.

The cycle repeats, several times, until finally it's all out in a jumble of badly typed notes.


Finally, your brain shuts off and you can go to sleep.

You wake up the next morning, tired, but happy to have done it and exited to get started taking that mess of random ideas and words and putting structure to it.

But first, of course, you gotta go to work.

Tell me it's not just me.
Yep...
At first I tried to ignore it. I told myself, I'll capture it in the morning...
Unfortunately, I woke in the morning unable to remember the best bits...
Now...
I just get up and write. I don't know if my cycle is going crazy, but my brain seems more creative at 2AM than any othr time of th day...
I am learning that I just have to harness it when the urge comes. You have to use it..

Cagivagurl
 
Tell me it's not just me.
This usually happens to me first thing in the morning, and then before I know it, it's mid-afternoon and my stomach is yelling at me. Sometimes when I have nothing going on at night, I'll write after work until midnight if an idea strikes me. But, I usually don't get the idea for a new story at 2am, and if I do, I just make a one sentence note of it in my phone and go to sleep.
 
Much of my story inspiration comes in that semiconscious state as I'm waking up in the morning. When it does, I can go directly to the computer and get a "marker" down for later expansion. When it comes earlier in the night, I have to drag out of bed to get the marker down, or it's gone in the morning. Happily, there's a lot more of the former going on than the latter.
 
And this is why writing on my phone isn't real hardship. I get a lot written as I wait for painkillers to kick in before sleep, and sometimes chunks at 4 or 5am. And on buses and in queues.

Of course, the best lines are those you dream, then forget upon waking...
 
That's my biggest fear. To spend all that time running it around my head only to forget it all the next morning.
Yeah...
I had to learn the hard way.
Not so much for my writing, but my music...
As a songwriter, when that little gem pops up, you gotta grab it.
Because sure enough, when you wake the next day. It's gone. Never to be seen again.

Cagivagurl
 
Yeah...
I had to learn the hard way.
Not so much for my writing, but my music...
As a songwriter, when that little gem pops up, you gotta grab it.
Because sure enough, when you wake the next day. It's gone. Never to be seen again.

Cagivagurl

I've heard a lot of musicians/ song writers talk about keeping a recorder by the bed for just those moments.
 
Doesn't happen often, if it does, I just write down the outline of it, so I ain't gotta think about it.
 
LOL
Not with a voice like mine... Especially at 2 in the morning...
The thought scares the hell out of me....

Cagivagurl

Lol. I'm sure it's not that bad.

I can't remember who it was, maybe Keith Richard's, who told some story about waking up with the riff for one of their hit songs and recording it in the middle of the night so he wouldn't forget.

I'm sure that kinda thing happens all the time.
 
2:18am. I'm at it again.

I was asleep, dammit.

Then woke up with massive chunks of my new story floating around in my head.

Important details, plot points, key dialog exchanges.

Only thing that'll let me sleep is at least making notes.

Hoping it's done and my brain will finally shut down now. I gotta work in the morning dammit.
 
2:18am. I'm at it again.

I was asleep, dammit.

Then woke up with massive chunks of my new story floating around in my head.

Important details, plot points, key dialog exchanges.

Only thing that'll let me sleep is at least making notes.

Hoping it's done and my brain will finally shut down now. I gotta work in the morning dammit.
Oh yeah....
Been there....
You have to capture it while it's there...
In the morning, it could all be a hazy memory...
Cagivagurl
 
I'm a light sleeper and I often wake up around 2 or so. Sometimes I get up and work on a story a little.
 
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