Can’t this wait till morning?
January 10th, 2008 by Sara
Sigh…
4:03 in the morning. Of course, that’s when I get the idea.
Not when I sit down at my computer in the middle of the afternoon and stare at the blank screen. Not when I’m trying to solve that finicky problem with my picture book manuscript. Not when I have a notebook easily within reach.
4:03 in the morning.
I fumble around in the dark and my fingers ferret out a pen. No paper. I scrawl a word on my hand, so I’ll remember the idea. But that one action releases a torrent of words. If I’d been that dutch boy, Holland would just be one giant lagoon by now.
So, I scrawl another word, then another, till I must look like Noah Webster got drunk and tattooed my arm. I lay in bed fixing that weird phrase in my book that’s been bothering me for weeks. Then moving 
on to a whole new book, scheming it out. I keep my eyes closed, still hoping I’ll pick up on the subtle hint. Finally, I wave the white flag pillowcase. I crawl out from under the snuggly covers, abandon my handsome, sleeping husband and fluffy dog foot warmers for the quiet scratching of pen on paper.
Scritch-scratch. Scritch-scratch. Sigh.
Smile.
I might just have something here.
Or is that just the sleep deprivation talking?
Posted in Writing
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7 Responses to “Can’t this wait till morning?”
January 10th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
After that fantastic Schmooze you gave last night on picture books, I can’t believe the muse was banging on your subconscious at 4:03AM to get you up and writing! There is just no mercy.
Sara, you stated last night that after reading 300 picture books, you had an Ah-ha! moment. What was that? What did you “get” after reading 300 p/b? You had said, “Now, I get it.” What did you get?
I admire you so much in your quest to read 1000 picture books. I read so many of them, myself, I think I will start keeping count.
Thanks for sharing what you learned in this experience.
Hugs,
Edie
January 10th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
You are such a great writer! I feel like I was with you this morning! I hope the the ideas burst the dam ( but not tonight :)
Meg
January 11th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Hilarious. I envisioned your arm filling up with words like the tree branches on your home page. This happens to me, too, and yesterday I wrote about the inconvenience of my characters bugging me.
I am impressed you’ve read 1000 picture books in 100 days! It’s taken me almost three times as long to do that, and I haven’t logged all of them in LibraryThing–what a great idea.
Enjoyed your blog; I’ll be back.
January 12th, 2008 at 11:25 am
I love this post!! And I know all about inconvenient, but you gotta do it. Yesterday at about 5 AM I had to get out of bed to scribble down a whole picture book. (Me, too!!) I spent an hour mooning over my genius, afterward. Then I got very tired and it suddenly seemed ridiculous. (But was it?? Time–or you guys–will tell…)
The other day I had this huge epiphany while writing in my journal. Good thing I was already writing, right? The next morning, away from home, I tried to remember what that epiphany was. It was gone from my brain. I had to wait a whole day to get home, flip open my journal, and re-read my own brilliance. (It was still pretty good, but my hopes had made it huge by then.)
;)
r
P.S.
And I concur with Edie–GREAT SCHMOOZE THE OTHER NIGHT!!
January 12th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I’ve found my light up in the dark pen and a little notepad to be really useful. I used to get up, turn on the light, search for pen and paper, and by that time both I and my guy were completely awake. Much better to only wake him up gently, so he can fall back asleep sooner. Also, by my not getting up (just reaching over) I’m able to keep the fluttering muse hovering just so, and the idea gets on the page more completely.
In the morning, it’s often illegible, and I have to strain to figure out what was so brilliant I had to jot it down…But I love the idea of writing it on your hand, arm, and body - like an inspiration tattoo… hmmm - there’s a fabulous character in there, somewhere!
Namaste,
Lee
January 15th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
That’s funny!!! This has happened to me, too! But for some reason, any ideas I have in the wee hours of the morning just don’t gel. In fact, any ideas that come to me when I’m not writing never work themselves into the actual writing. So, sigh, I have to sit down and write and see what happens.
It makes me wonder, though, why this happens to us.
Great post!!!
:D
January 18th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
You know what makes me sooo happy about this post (well… *one* of the things that makes me so happy about this post!)…. that you used the word ‘lagoon’ :) I got a big beaming smile when I read it… dont know why but it just felt good and big and round and like the word was so relieved it got used :)
btw… it’s 4am here in Bombay… ha!
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