This is gonna kill me.

[Liar]

Lately, I have found that the only time I'm creative enough to write fiction, is between 2 and 5 AM.

Argh.

Any suggestions? Anybody got a magic device that lets me bottle the momentum while I sleep and use it in the morning instead?

 

[mynameisben]

Lately, I have found that the only time I'm creative enough to write fiction, is between 2 and 5 AM.

Argh.

Any suggestions? Anybody got a magic device that lets me bottle the momentum while I sleep and use it in the morning instead?

If you were an infant, I'd suggest you take crib notes.

 

[Liar]

If you were an infant, I'd suggest you take crib notes.

I'm occasionally infantile. I'll give it a try.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

That appears to be what I'm doing lately too. I just get up and pound out an outline of what I'm thinking at the time and go back to bed and think about the rest of the story as I fall asleep. The next day I read the outline and started typing the story as I saw it in my head as I went to sleep.

Works for me...try it, you might like it.

 

[mynameisben]

I'm occasionally infantile. I'll give it a try.

That's the spirit!

Me too. Who da thunk?

 

[Liar]

Myeah, that won't work. It's the actual typing, the getting-the-words-right part of it that I always have trouble with, making it say just the right things, getting the right tempo in dialouge, the right level of wit for the mood, stuff like that. (It's a stageplay, so it's all dialouge really.)

And that's what I can only do at cruel and unusual hours. Blah.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

LIAR

Ayn Rand actually has excellent advice about unconscious writing issues in her book THE ART OF NON-FICTION. One point I agree with is, youre the executive in charge of you so make it clear you do not write twixt 2-5 in the morning. Your penis may spontaneously fall from your body afterwards but its a small price to pay. In ROB's case it wouldnt be missed or noticed.

Otherwise I keep a legal pad beside my bed for notes.

 

[Verdad]

Maybe it's not necessarily nights but simply the time of day when you know you can shut out everything else and write without distractions. I've had (though not with fiction) night phases but also morning phases, even though I'm not a morning person by nature. What matters more to me is knowing there are x many uninterrupted hours in front of me.

 

[Liar]

There's also the difference between between writing I have to do and writing I want to do.

Writing for food is my dayjob, writing for fun is my hobby.

The writing for food is done on office hours. It doesn't need that burst of energy, just me rolling up my sleeves and getting my lazy ass in gear, as JBJ suggests.

The result is not as good, leaning towards mediocre, but good enough to make my clients happy. It pays my rent and cheeseburgers, which makes me happy. I like cheeseburgers.

The writing for fun has no deadline other than arbitrary goal posts I put up to pretend there's an urgency to finish. If I force it, and try to write when there's no flow, it stops being fun, and then I might as well do something else. Also, the text becomes as mediocre as food text.

Distractions have a lot to do with it, I guess. But it hasn't been like this until just recently, and I can see no change that would have brought it on.

 

[mynameisben]

Spend more time at work.

I have found that the more time I spend with unimaginative, rule bound automatons, the more motivated I am to be creative in my limited free time.

 

[amicus]

One's 'muse' is not a high priced call girl available anytime you choose.

Feel fortunate yours merely insists on the time schedule you have...she could just up and leave at any moment.



good luck!

ami