Yesterday I crawled out of bed and headed towards my laptop, wondering if this is going to be worth losing an hour of sleep over. Because I had no clue what I wanted to write. But write I must, I said to myself. I kind of hoped inspiration would hit me while I stared dazed (and yawning) at the blank word document open in front of me. Nothing gets the creative juices flowing like a blank page just begging to be typed on, right?
Wrong.
I realised that I had been staring at the screen for the past 10 minutes with not much coherency in my thoughts. I decided to put some caffeine in me which would hopefully slap me into consciousness. And it did. Soon enough I was typing like mad, writing like there was no tomorrow. The plot and characters materialised in my head, and on and on I went till my time was up and the other members of the household began to wake up.
I looked proudly at the 3 page word document… half a draft of a short story. I shut the document, pleased with what I had accomplished in half an hour.
I reopened it at 5 am the next day. This time the strong coffee didn’t help. The creative juices had taken a day off. 10 minutes of staring later I crawled back into bed telling myself I needed the rest and maybe if I’m lucky the rest of the story will materialise in a dream.
I'm guessing being articulate at 5 am is a talent I will have to acquire over time.
Damn. I was just about to say 'Wow, let me try that' and you had to go burst my bubble :D
ReplyDeleteBut three pages of a short story in half an hour? Wow, indeed. Maybe it won't hurt to try, after all.
I'm having a bad case of writer's block (or whatever the hell it is) too at the moment and I've been telling myself that I'm no morning person and it won't help :-|
okay maybe I'm exaggerating just a tiny bit.. it was definitely more than half an hour.. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, the quiet mornings do help at times.. no distractions, no noise.. just you and your work...
But for me it depends on how much sleep my daughter has allowed me the previous night? Coz some nights she decides to go all hyperactive on me, that too way past 11:30 pm, that I wonder if SHE just had a shot of caffeine. :D
Everyday comes with its own little madness - some days are good and other's bad. I agree with Judy (above) - really thought the 5 a.m. thing would kick-start creative energy and then I read more :-). Never you mind - just keep the faith in yourself going.
ReplyDeletelol.. sorry to dissapoint you girls...
ReplyDeleteTry the 5am writing and tell me how it went...
* disappoint
ReplyDeleteAha..I don't think you need to get inspired..You write really well..
ReplyDeleteI have read some of your older posts couple of days back...Could not comment at the time..Love the way you manage to pen your thoughts!
CG, you are too kind... thanks a million :)
ReplyDeleteThere is certainly something about the 5.00 am thingy (when the creative juices are flowing).
ReplyDeleteThe strategy would be "to be aware" of one's thoughts when one is in the semi-sleep/dream state (while still in bed) and then concretize them in the mind. These thoughts/ideas can then be put down later by recall.
See comment on this post.
Hey there! Thanks for visiting. I've seen your comments on Judy's blog and to tell you the truth I was wondering when my blog would become worthy of a comment from 'The Visitor'. :)
ReplyDeleteThat post was amazing.. lol. And the comment... interesting and extremely useful knowledge for any writer. I think I'm going to try it tomorrow morning. Thanks.
I woke up once at 3.30 am purely by chance and didn't feel like going back to sleep. I managed to write a chapter of my new book and came up with a plot twist that might have eluded me had I worked on it in the morning! It's a great time to work ya! Keep trying!
ReplyDelete@ Andy: That sounds quite encouraging. I haven't been able to get down to writing as much as I would like to due to the million things to do that crop up each day. But since I'm seriously considering story writing now, I think I need to do the early bird thing.
ReplyDelete