Sunday 25 August 2013

The Night Writer

I am an evening person. In the mornings, my pajamas are firmly nailed to the bed. It takes real physical effort to drag myself out of my warm lover's embrace (the lover being my bed, in case there were any confusions). I feel most energetic past 5 p.m., am more up to doing chores and such in the evenings, and get my best ideas past midnight.

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During my undergrad, I went to a college close by, so I didn't have to stay at a hostel. There was this one time before a major exam, my young cousin came to stay over for a month. Having a hyperactive, attention demanding 5 year old around the whole day is not the perfect formula for a great setting to study! That's when I started staying up late to study in peace, often till the early hours of the day, and subsequently getting up way after regular people do. I found that I can work best at night, because there are much fewer distractions. I work really well, or even better, early in the morning too...if I get up.

I get my best ideas at night. I want to write, do craft, make cards, draw, cook, bake. But with everybody else's clocks set at a different time zone than mine, and the need to get up on time the next day, keep me from pursuing these ideas. A lot of blogging brainwaves got lost because I decided to pick sleep over blogging at 3 a.m., until I finally found my common sense and started jotting down my thoughts in my cell phone, to explore them further at a more acceptable time. Now I have an ever growing list of prompts. I get the ideas at night, but I realized, I often pen those ideas best at night too.

Now I've found a new solution. I recently downloaded an app for my android phone, which enables me to reduce the screen brightness by a lot (Of course, this still isn't that much better for the eyes). So some nights, I find myself in bed, tap-tapping on the cell, giving birth to my new blog post. These fruits of the night are saved offline, transferred to the laptop the next day, and proof-read before posting. Like this one.

When do you write? Do you have a specific time you're most comfortable with?

 
Yes you're right
I write at night
After daylight has gone.
It's then my sight
And thoughts ignite
Hence I keep writing on.

12 comments:

  1. I love that penguin appearing on your favicon. :) Good choice! Coming back to your question, I can never write at night. In fact, it is going to be our bedtime soon and my brain is failing gradually/ LOL. I can get up early and write but not during the night time. So if I don't make sense here, pardon me. ;)

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    1. Sometimes, when I leave comments somewhere at night, I have to go back the next day and re-read it as I can't be too sure what my night-brain would find interesting that my day-brain doesn't ;)

      Thank you for commenting on my penguin - I made it myself :)

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  2. Ahh I too am a night owl. It's just so much quieter for work to be done!

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    1. Exactly! I think if day time supplied me with as much peace and quiet as the night does, I'd have no qualms working during the day too.

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  3. My gosh. I am in such bad shape at the moment. In the sense, I have been trying to stop this train wreck of a habit of staying awake at night and sleeping in the day time. I've resorted to popping pills, sometimes two of them and I am still wide awake at 5:05am. Nothing works for me. I love it, the time and space where no one else is awake but me. I hear toads croaking and the crickets chirping and I am fast at work, cooking, reading, writing, walking around like a ghost...you name it!

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    1. I feel you...I've struggled with turning my schedule over the right way too. Somehow, the topsy-turvy day is so much better. Night time is peaceful, and I enjoy being by myself then. I've never resorted to pills though.

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  4. I have no fixed time to write :D I just need the idea to keep coming and it just translates into a story.. My best ideas happen in the bath :D :D

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    1. There's something really therapeutic about bathing...most of my ideas originate there too. I just need to note it down immediately after, so I don't forget!

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  5. I'm always too tired to write at night, I find the best time for me is usually late afternoon. I get blog post ideas mainly when I'm out walking. :-)

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    1. I find night-time the most peaceful, with the least distractions :) If the afternoons and evenings were less distracting, I'd happily write then too!

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  6. Late afternoon to mid-evening I think is my most productive time at work. I noticed I usually receive sparks of ideas and solutions while driving at night. Though I usually don't have a fixed time blogging, I noticed it's hard to combine both (designing and blogging) in a day so I've been blogging mostly on weekends, hence my absence. Much as I love my day job, it bleeds me dry by the end of the day. :)

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    1. Blogging does take up quite a bit of time and energy. I'm guilty of not blogging more often too!

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