Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and leave
yourself notes?
I do this when I’m on a writing binge, which happened a few times during my little blogging break.
For some reason, my brain
works out all the plot holes in my sleep, and I wake up and have to write it
down before I forget and so I can go right back to sleep. I do need me my beauty sleep when I'm binging.
These notes don’t say much, just a word or two that should help me get
where I need to go. So here is a little fun peek into my night time genius. Yup, this is what the notes looked like (the ones I can read anyway):
Cracker Jack coloursNo pants in a tornado
Kill the dog
Piss off God
Pa knows what Cal did
Potatoes
What does this list mean? Anyone can venture a guess and go
ahead, it might be fun to see what you would do if this list was at your head
in the morning.
This is what I did, hopefully I was close to what my night time genius wanted:
Cracker Jack is the name of my MC’s teacher, well not her real name but it’s the name he calls her. Colours means she’s going to use a laundry reference he won't get. See how my brain works in the dead of the night?Tornado is a scene I wanted to add in to up the stakes. Straight forward. The no pants part... well, what if my MC got caught with his pants around his ankles when the tornado showed? I mean, what if, right?
Kill the dog is an expression I use to not tick the reader off but in this case, I had to actually kill the dog. Don't worry, I got someone else to do it.
Piss off God is another expression I use to up the tension by making the MC go against his beliefs. (Will God be vengeful?) This clearly related to the why his pants weren't covering his ass when the tornado hit. Yup, God was pissed off something fierce about that one.
And Pa knows what Cal did. Cal is not the MC. So this is a subplot that will relate to our MC. What did his brother Cal do?
As for potatoes, we were out.
So what do your lists look like? Where else do you make lists?
13 comments:
I hope you know those notes just made my day. Our muses must be working on the same schedule though because I totally did the same thing the other night too! Except I'm too lazy to write anything down, so I woke up and texted myself an email with the word Fergalicious, which makes just as much sense as kill the dog. :)
Hi, Tanya. Yes, I do this too, but unfortunately they're illegible when I come to read them in the morning and I can't remember what any of the comments were. I make lists during the day, too. I always have a note-book handy so that if some 'genius' thought comes to me I won't forget it. This all sounds intriguing, Tanya. And sweetie? The wise-woman wouldn't piss-off God!
Great minds think alike.
It's pretty amazing how the brain works.
Madeline, I love that idea, I'd be able to read a text! Although not sure what I'd do with Fergalicious. Hahahaha.
Valentine, it wasn't a woman. lol.
Richard, I know! So fascinating. In fact, you just gave me an idea!
Oh my goodness, YES! This happens to me pretty much all throughout binge writing. Actually, I don't sleep when writing. Nope. I plot while pretending to rest. ;)
yeah.. me too.
I take notes if I find something interesting.. like a tag line, or a quote, or some idea..
list can look pretty bizarre to others:P
Ha! I'm impressed you remember what those things mean after waking up the next morning. I usually stare at my notes in confusion. :)
LOLOLOL! I love how your brain works! I don't wake up from sleeping to write notes. I can't fall asleep because of the scenes or ideas running through my head. So I reach for the Kindle or the pad and pen and write myself notes, too. I think my notes are a little more fleshed out than yours because I want to be sure about what I meant when I wake up.
-Vicki
So have you ever written down a note at night in the dark? I've had to do that before. Luckily there's been a piece of paper that I know is open and then in the morning I can see how bad my writing in the dark is. :)
Crystal,ha! Nice to know you're a fellow binger. :)
Jyoti, ah yeah, and I tried to do this with recordings once thinking it would be easier, but I didn't want anyone to know what I was talking about so it was all in code and came out: MacDonald Coma. Yup. Still trying to figure that one out.
Shallee, it's all a guess really. hee hee.
Vicki, I once told myself I needed to flesh them out more, but that required a light and the result? Superman shooting out of bed like the world needed him. Oops.
Suzi,hahaha! Yes! I do this! And sometimes the notes overlap and it's a scribbled mess. And one time I missed and wrote on my nightstand. ohlala.
I don't often get up in the middle of the night to jot down an idea, but when I do, I'm always glad. I have learned the hard way that if I think I'm going to remember it the next day, I should think again.
I liked your list. It's a poem of sorts. :-)
It's funny, I have steno pads all around the house with notes I jot down. Later I put them altogether :). I used to keep one by the side of the bed for late night notes, but they've stopped coming :( during the night.
Oh I am glad I am not the only one... I have been trying to clear out my files of scribbles this past year, and found I couldn't even read or understand a lot of them. I consolidated what I could into WIPs. Dreams are so rich for reaping aren't they. Happy writing!
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