CommentsI’m glad it has a name! I was staring at my ceiling for hours the other night, thoughts rushing through my mind. I have the issue of needing more of that last minute adrenaline. I write so well under pressure but that pressure was always in the form of paper deadlines only hours away when I was in college. I find it difficult to set my own writing deadlines and stick to them. The adrenaline is much harder to summon when they’re my own deadlines. I always used contests as mini-deadlines. The entry date makes it real for me. That’s great for the first three chapters or so and for polishing. The deadline for the Golden Heart in 2007 helped push me to finish my first manuscript. Anyone else have any ideas for setting your own deadlines? I can use some pointers on this! I hear you, Jeannie! If only we could bottle that adrenaline, and dole it out in (semi) healthy doses!! Hmmm, bottling adrenaline…I think there’s business proposition there. I mean, adrenaline is a perfectly legal substance right? My midnight disease hits me at both ends, as it were. I can crawl into bed at midnight or one and as I drop into oblivion, a character will tell me – almost always via dialogue – exactly how to fix a problem. Unless I’ve done this for several nights running, I’ll force my butt out of bed, right it down and crawl back into bed. Where the ritual may play out over and over for the next two hours until I’ve either given up and re-written the whole frickin scene or the character has released me. Unfortunately, when I wake up my notes may or may not make much sense. I am not a night person, which is why I get hit at “both ends.” I WILL wake up at 5AM. If I go to sleep at 3, I will wake up at 5. I may or may not be able to go back to sleep immediately, but if I can’t, I’ll crash again at 9, just as my husband is trying to leave me in charge of a 4-year-old. This is more suicide by insomnia than productive creativity and I can’t say I recommend it. ;D I am the same way. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live in a siesta culture? I would love to take a two hour nap in the middle of the day. Unfortunately, that’s when the rest of the business world wants to do work. The cats outnumber the humans in my house — often by 3 to 1. And with cats, any time is the right time to take a nap! Sometimes I think I need a dog to keep the energy UP in this sleepy house, but then I’d have to, you know, take care of it. All my cats require is food, water, clean litter boxes, warm laps, cotton blankets, scratching posts, vet visits, teeth cleanings, emergency vet visits, butt shavings, constant brushing, a screened-in-porch, special water additives, lifetime medication to control a rare immune system disorder… Er, yeah. Cats are so low-maintenance. Cats just want things when they want them. How much more low maintenance can you get? Totally! Like, why shouldn’t I let my cat sleep on my neck? She just wants to snuggle someplace soft and warm. Who am I to deny her that simple request? My dogs sleep a signicant amount of the day away. Or at least when I get home from work they are pretty much where I left them that morning. I assume they slept all day. Tamara, around here we call that “being a horsey.” Only one of our three cats will do that crazy running around thing, but when he does, I swear he gallops. Whenever he gets himself worked up, I like to mock him by saying, in a super-high pitched voice, “I’m a horsey! A big, mighty horsey! Watch me run! Neiiigh!” We have two horses…I mean cats, in the house too! It’s amazing how much they sound/look like a bunch of horses running wild sometimes, and yeah, usually the middle of the night.  Gwynlyn MacKenzie says: I didn’t know it had a name, but I’ve had it for as long as I can remember. It’s almost 6 a.m., but yours truly has yet to hit the hay. For me, night time is the write time. No interuptions. No phone. No meals. I can immerse myself in the story, and if something bugs me, I can relax into a wee cat nap (if the danged cat will let me—he’s such a chair hog!) and wait for the magic to happen. Gotta love the subconscious. Yes, it does wear you down, and the crash and burn can be lengthy (slept 14 hours straight the last time), but for some of us, it’s the only way this whole writing gig works. I’ve always loved the night time too. No distractions and it’s just me and the notebook (now laptop). But I find that you can always find someone online nowadays. I’ve been more distracted lately during my insomnia bouts. Do you find this too? Gwynlyn MacKenzie says: No, I don’t, but then, I don’t go online when I’m writing unless it’s for research or to take a wee break. When I do, I use the ISP from my cable company with whom I have no email address or chat application. Keeps me focused. I need that sort of discipline. On weekend, I only allowed myself access to chat and http://www.thesaurus.com until my goal was met. It helped.  Tamara Hogan says: Stephen King is one of my patron saints, and his advice resonates with me. No midnight disease here. My imagination burns with ideas; I mentally gestate a lot (usually while driving), but in terms of the actual writing? I’m very structured. I start writing at the same time every day. My production is predictable, slow and steady. No “muse” to fight with, wait on, bitch at or negotiate with… but no adrenaline rush, either. No epic twenty page jags of productivity to celebrate. I think part of the deal is that I’ve consciously crafted my writing process to accommodate what I know my body should be able to handle on most days. Living with a chronic pain condition requires moderation in most things, and writing is no exception. In yesterday’s Publisher’s Lunch there was a quote from Robert Parker’s agent (he died earlier this week). One item that caught my eye was her statement that Parker wrote six days a week, and produced five pages a day – no more, no less. His craftsmanlike approach to writing struck a chord with me. Stephen King is also my muse. I finished On Writing on the plane to Dallas with tears pouring down my face. And it wasn’t the part about his accident and his love for his wife that had me weeping. It was when he talked about writing everyday but Christmas and his birthday. Oh, I have to find the quote. It showed such a pure love of writing. I think of Stephen’s wife Tabitha occasionally, wondering what it’s like to be a novelist, living with a spouse who’s a powerhouse best-selling novelist. I think two of their sons are authors as well.  Katrina W says: Hi Jeannie! I’m not a midnighter, but I do so love the deadlines. It’s like you say, I HAVE to have a deadline and I never realized maybe it was because of an adrenaline rush. I’m normally very structured and my routine cannot be interrupted or I am cranky. If I don’t have a deadline, I might find myself working on one paragraph for two hours, so it really functions to keep my perfectionism at bay. My only advice for setting your own deadlines is to have daily goals, both writing and writing life IE a workshop or reading craft blogs. Yes. Daily. It helps develop writing as a habit, like Tamara mentions about Robert Parker. Great post – thanks for sharing. I definitely strive to write a little everyday and it does help. I also try to create big deadlines around something like a holiday. I just like to look at the date on the calendar and see if I’m going to make it. It’s a very seductive thing, staying up all night to work on a project. After midnight, there are no conceivable demands on your time. There is nothing else you should be doing — except for sleeping — so you feel free, unencumbered by the need to care for your children or do housework or perform any other chore or task you might otherwise feel you need to do. It’s just you, all alone, and your brain says, “I’m free! You’re mine now, lady. No sleep for you!” I suggest one specific remedy: Buy a voice recorder, and when your brain tries to sidetrack you when you want to sleep, talk to the recorder to get the words out of your head. Don’t try going to your computer to write it out. You’ll never get back to bed that way! Just talk it out, preferably in the dark so your eyes can stay “asleep,” and get back to bed. I’ve also heard of keeping a notebook by the bed too. That might keep hubby from looking at me funny. I think you made a great point that part of it is at night is when we feel we’re free to do things. This is our time and no one else’s. Jeannie, what a great post. I often find myself hopping into bed, only to drag myself out again a half-hour later when a certain scene refuses to let me go. Once I write it–once I get it out of my system…I can go back to bed and fall asleep instantly. For me, I think it’s knowing that if I go to sleep without getting those thoughts down on paper, they may be lost forever. Jamie’s voice recorder is a great idea. I’ll have to give that a try. I like to think of my story before I fall asleep. Usually it’s just a part of hashing through things and I’ll remember what I figured out in the morning, but there are definitely times when the ideas have enough pull to keep me awake and then, just like you, I just get up to type a few things before going back to bed. Sometimes “A few words” might be a couple pages and hours later. My digital voice recorder was a Christmas or birthday gift. They can be surprisingly expensive, but oh-so handy, especially when you’re driving. Never scramble to find a pen and paper while you’re at a red light again! I work best when I’m alone. Just having people in the house inhibits me. My husband periodically checks on me, eventually insisting I take a break. The son will have a question or a favor to ask. But when people ask what led me to write, I say insomnia. I go to bed early with my husband who has to get up early for work, but my mind is busy plotting in the dark. Isn’t it nice to have supportive people around to make sure you eat and sleep? My hubby will check on me as well, always very concerned that I’m okay. “I’m writing,” I’ll say, as if that explains the zombie expression, the absent-mindedness, and the reason I didn’t answer the first three times he asked. He’s learning to nod and slip away when that’s the answer.  Beth Langston says: I love deadlines too. Right now, I create them artificially. “I want to enter contest X, so I’d better get those pages polished.” And I can stay up til 2am looking for the perfect word. My family thinks I’m nuts– (”come on, honey, you need to eat something!”)–but they also know I’m really happy after the deadline has passed and I met my goal. Beth Little mini-goals work for me. Contests and sometimes just promising a reader pages by a certain time. For some people, critique groups give them incentive to keep writing. It does feel good to accomplish those goals, even the small ones. I definitely the type of person that thrives on the stress & pressure of real deadlines. Without them, I tend to let myself get away with far too much. Back in college I used to have no problem burning the midnight-oil. Now, it’s a little more difficult, but there are still times when I’m so wrapped up in my story, or a plot problem, that I have trouble sleeping. Usually I just toss and turn and then curse myself in the morning. LOL. It’s hard to burn the midnight oil when there’s other people, hubby and children, depending on you.  Shea Berkley says: Great blog, Jeannie. I don’t sit up late very often to write. I’m actually quite lazy. I love to sleep, so if I’m going to miss sleep, it has to be for a really good reason. The last time I was up late writing was because my agent wanted three more scenes to flesh out my story. I was so sick of that story by then that I stayed up late and slammed the scenes out just to get rid of it.  Laurie Kellogg says: I actually get the 4 a.m. disease. At midnight, I’m still to exhausted to wake up.  Diana Layne says: yep, my alarm is set for four a.m. Diana Layne says: After years of not being able to sleep, now that I can, I relish my sleep. For me, not sleeping led to weight gain and health problems, so I’m thankful I can sleep now. I do get up early though, so I can get the writing in before the kids wake up. Sometimes if I’m really tired I’ll promise myself if I get up and write really fast I can work in a nap before they’re awake. those of you who stay up all night or very late and write and then function during the day–I don’t know how you do it! This is one of the reasons I’m trying to find balance. Sleep is so important for mental and physical health and I’ve always skirted by with about five hours. By afternoon, my eyelids are drooping. I’m so glad I’m not the only one. I’m a night owl by nature, and it’s not unusual for me to find myself still tapping away at my keyboard at 2:00 a.m. – which is definitely not good when you have a day job where you’re surrounded by kids, like I do. I’m also crave that mini-adrenaline rush of pushing a deadline, though I have to admit, I’m not nearly as bad as I was in college. Wow, was that an adrenaline-fest! You made me think of something. They say that teenagers’ natural cycles keep them up at night and sleeping late into the day. Maybe that’s why it seemed so much easier in high school in college. I wonder… Guilty on both counts. I’ve discovered I get a lot more accomplished under the pressure of a deadline. Makes sense — I work under deadlines every day for the newspaper … And since I work until midnight, sometimes I’m up til 3 a.m. writing. Kudos to you, Arlene, for still having the energy to write that late(early). Especially after dealing with writing deadlines for the day job. I can definitely relate to the midnight writing binges. At night I keep my laptop on the floor by my bed so I don’t even have to get out from under the covers if I’m kept awake by an idea. I’m routinely typing away between midnight and three a.m. – which can be really inconvenient if you want to talk to your CP about an idea you’re not sure will work. But for me, the midnight disease is just my body clock. I’ve always been a night owl. It isn’t really about adrenaline. I love deadlines and work really well against them, but it isn’t the thrill of cutting it close so much as the fact that deadlines kill my procrastination impulses better than anything else. Diana Layne says: three out of my six kids are night owls. I learned to just leave them up and I go to bed. Since we homeschool, not too big of a deal. The two who are old enough to work both have jobs where they work later afternoon and/or all night. The third one is just eight so no issues there yet. I AM joking of course. But poor darling, what a life …and to lose her at such an early age to the insanity of creativeness, lol. Do we choose this life or does it choose us? I think it may be a body clock thing as well. My mum has always pegged me as a non-sleeper. Apparently I’ve never slept much at night. I’m sure that made me a wonderful baby to take care of. I’m not plagued by “midnight disease” but I’m very familiar with the “fast burn.” I’ll have certain months of the year that are extremely creative and productive (some kind of planet alignment, I’m sure), and then have droughts in between because I’ve burned myself out writing so much (during the day usually – not so often at night unless there’s a deadline). However, I’ve learned to work with these cycles, trying to do more plotting and editing during my “off” months and writing new material when my creative switch is “on.” That’s great that you’ve learned how to make your writing quirks work for you. A huge part of the writing process seems to be accepting what sort of writer you are and working with it. My chaptermate, Eileen Dreyer, called it “binge and purge” writing. She told me she’s tried to change it to no avail. It’s who she is as a writer and she just has to live with it. I don’t have “midnight disease” either. My mind is usually too blank to write but at that hour I do seem to move into the state where ideas sprout and plot problems are resolved. I jot them down and then do my writing in the am. I admire you all who can write late at night! Great post, Jeannie. It sounds like the midnight hour is your time to unwind and figure things out, rather than get all keyed up and restless. That seems like a much more workable system. Oh my gosh, I’m not looney. There are others like me. Hypergraphica, uh. I often go to bed only to wake and write for hours. I love when this happens. It’s like being surrounded with pure white sound. The ideas and words just flow. Great blog, Jen.  Liz Talley says: Really good post, Jeannie. Sorry it took me so long to get to it. But, alas, life intervenes and my writing has been in that corner today. I do have periods of writer high – a crazy stream of really good writing that flows out of my fingertips at lightening speed. Gosh, I love that feeling, I understand the artist at that moment. Nothing could stop me. Okay, maybe blood or power outage, but nothing much else. Too bad they are few and far between. Most of the time, writing feels much like my husband’s job…pulling teeth. That makes so much sense. I could stare at a computer for hours, but when it’s time to sleep, scenes unfold behind my eyelids. I cannot sleep until I get them in print. But sometimes those plot knots get unraveled that way. In fact, I have one in my head right now that might wait until tonight to come undone.  Kathryn E says: It is now 4 a.m. Sometimes, I have spent so much time at the computer that I’ve become dehydrated and ill because of that. Happened only twice, but…yesterday was a case in point.
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I really love this, Jeannie. I’m a put-the-pressure-on kinda girl myself. I work best under stress, which isn’t really good for the health, but it is what it is. It really drives me crazy. I wish I were more…hmmm, stable? Constant? I remind myself that the turtle, NOT the rabbit, won the race. Not that it helps, but still I remind myself.
Great blog!
~D~
I think there’s a certain type of person who becomes a writer. We profess to hate the deadlines, but we secretly need them don’t we?
Yes we do!