Comments on: It’s 5AM, And Your Brain Would Like To Speak With You

By: Late Night Juices « The PEEL Literary Arts Magazine

Late Night Juices « The PEEL Literary Arts Magazine — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 07:22:11 +0000

[...] October 6, 2010 Late Night Juices Posted by thepeel under Uncategorized Leave a Comment That sounds inappropriate. I swear it’s not. This blog post is about the Insomnia Creativity Factor, a thing I just made up…well not exactly. Chuck Wendig, a “freelance penmonkey” as he calls himself, owns and operates Terrible Minds, a blog dedicated to his insane ramblings about writing and other nonsense he finds funny. A recent post of his discusses the creative process of working in the middle of the night. [...]

By: Will Hindmarch

Will Hindmarch — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:30:12 +0000

My brain used to keep me up. My doctor calls it “racing thoughts,” and says thinking is bad for me. I don’t do it so much anymore.

By: Scionical

Scionical — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:44:20 +0000

@Paul: You sir, just won one shiny new Internet. Enjoy!

By: John the Great

John the Great — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:43:13 +0000

I’m not creative first thing in the morning.

I’m creative at 2 AM and my brain refuses to let me sleep until I’ve either written something down or thought out endless permutations (sp?) of said scenario until it’s run into the ground.

Not all of us have a Chi-Fox who we’ve taught to take dictation while you lie in bed, you know.

By: Paul DeLaurentis

Paul DeLaurentis — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:10:02 +0000

@Chuck: THis is the only piece of my old goalie gear that's not currently rotting away in my parents' barn. Hell hath no fury like a NE Philly chick woken from a sound sleep.

By: Scionical

Scionical — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:04:12 +0000

Also, Maggie will have to respond with the results of the “Take a letter” test in this house. I’ll likely be in no condition to communicate ever again.

By: Scionical

Scionical — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:03:04 +0000

This happens to me far to often. I need a brain-schedule, one that Pinky McThinkMeat will stick to.

My main thing is, usually after the kids (also 4 and 2) go to sleep, I use the quiet time to work out some new idea – sometimes on a new project, sometimes character issues that are eluding me, and whatnot… so I go to sleep thinking about them, and like some hyper-active slow-cooking toaster my brain shakes me awake with DING BITCH!

If I don’t wake up to that, it has a chat with Mr. Bladder and drags my fat ass out of bed whether I like it or not.

Also, there is a four-foot high drift in front of my apartment doors and it is still fucking snowing. Fuck you Canada.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:44:02 +0000

@Paul:

That is goddamn funny. “Take a letter.”

I’m going to try that with Michelle. If someone could prematurely send me a bag of ice, though, for when she kicks me in the crotchbucket.

@Keith: Yeah, the right-before-bed is a bitch. I mostly train my brain to stay silent then, so I can just… y’know, tumble into Sleepy Canyon. I’m mostly good at it, unless I’ve had late-day coffee.

@Julie: This is definitely one of the things I really want, re: iPad.

Yes.

– c.

By: Paul DeLaurentis

Paul DeLaurentis — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:16:02 +0000

My kids (4 and 2) wake me up all the time; mostly because I’m a very light sleeper. If I have ideas at that point I just wake up my wife “HONEY! Take a letter! Dear me…on the morning of February 2nd at approximately 4am….shit…I forgot what I was thinking. Sorry, you can go back to sleep.”

Seriously, though, pen and paper are always on my nightstand. I tried my laptop but I found that in the moments of fumbling in a dreamless haze I would forget some details. Sometimes technology just doesn’t make something better or easier.

Yes, yes, off to shovel.

By: Keith

Keith — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:58:31 +0000

Julie, I feelz ya. You may find that one day you awaken at 4:30am just to have moments in between those rounds. And when you do, you can call yourself officially old. Me? I’ve become my father in that aspect, at least.

Big Chizzy, I know that feeling as well, and I endorse it. The hard one for me is when those thoughts come not at 5am, but right before drifting off to dreamland for the first time. Talk about kicking your sleep in the nuts.