You know when you try to read when tired, it’s pointless right? Reading is a different cognitive process to writing. Creativity is much more freeform, which is why so many writers swear by writing as soon as they wake up in the morning when the words flow unselfconsciously. Editing, on the other hand, is much more like reading. It requires deeper cognitive effort to both digest the text and to deploy our critical faculties effectively. So my rule is to never edit when tired. Writing has its own agenda.
I've never heard it put this way, but I think that's true. I was having difficulty reading something hard the other day (philosophy), and yet I could make some notes. Thanks.
I have periods of insomnia due to being schizophrenic. I call it the no-sleep blues, which I took from an old song by The Incredible String Band. I can go days with no sleep at all. When I got the no-sleep blues, I often have the shadow of madness fall upon me. It comes with a certain level of mania, which I use to ride a creative surge. Bit like being on pure amphetamines and a hallucinogen. I write while in these altered states, and what I get is good gear. A kind of ecstasy. A delirium. Oblivion, the last dream. I communicate with spectral beings in another dimension and receive visions, which I convert into magic symbols for to transmit the images into other peoples' minds. Of course, I edit it all later, but the raw material is interesting and poetic. It has a rhythm. And, to be honest, it don't need a great deal of editing either. A few words changing for repeats. Not much. Certainly not a rewrite.
Couple of days back, I was up writing past midnight all through to half six, the dawn of the next day. What I had down was fantastic. Even if I do say so meself! I reckon exhaustion can put you in an altered state of consciousness, which opens the ego to the shadows of the subconscious. I don't know if being schizophrenic alters this in any way. Schizos are often in a state of psychosis, and their conscious is overwhelmed by the subconscious, so who knows? But it might be interesting for 'normal' people to explore.
I'm knackered today. I was knackered yesterday. And the day before. And, to some degree or other, every day going back around four years, when my first child was born. Coincidentally, that's the period of time I've technically been a professional creative writer. I've written a graphic novel in that period, the story for a video game, and various other bits and pieces, as well as 10s of thousands of words of commercial copy in my day job.
Every now and then I'll have a day when I feel a bit strange and kind of great. After a bit I'll realise it's because I've had a few nights of (relatively) OK-ish sleep. I'll have jumped from around 60 percent brain capacity to somewhere in the mid-70s. I won't have been entirely aware I was only at 60 percent before, because that's become the baseline.
I haven't worked out a good way of writing while knackered. I do wonder, though, how much I could have got done if I'd sucked it up and spent 15 or more minutes doing a bit of comics writing every single day, rather than procrastinating my way into day job writing instead on at least half of them.
I look forward to one day writing with my non-knackered brain.
If unsolicited exhaustion is mostly a weekday state (excluding baby feeding) then weekend lie-ins, when morning alarms don't abolish them, is when lucid dreaming kicks in (excluding young children jumping on the bed). Combining the results of both exhaustion and dreams might be a rich font of creativity.
In a similar boat (it’s December after all), I’ve been keeping in mind George Saunders’ thought about the different writers and readers we bring to our pages each day.
So today I won’t tell myself the lie that these sentences will withstand tomorrow’s judgement. But maybe they will lead me somewhere
Most important, any screen work gets a brand new file every day (sometimes several times a day) with date (and time) and any notes about the changes I’m making. My own personal time machine
As someone who is frequently exhausted due to chronic illness, I heartily agree with much of what you've said here. I do some writing while exhausted, but I seem to have a real knack for getting thee! most! amazing! ideas! when napping (or trying to nap). I think we're more open to possibilities that we'd dismiss if fully awake and cognizant.
You know when you try to read when tired, it’s pointless right? Reading is a different cognitive process to writing. Creativity is much more freeform, which is why so many writers swear by writing as soon as they wake up in the morning when the words flow unselfconsciously. Editing, on the other hand, is much more like reading. It requires deeper cognitive effort to both digest the text and to deploy our critical faculties effectively. So my rule is to never edit when tired. Writing has its own agenda.
I've never heard it put this way, but I think that's true. I was having difficulty reading something hard the other day (philosophy), and yet I could make some notes. Thanks.
I have periods of insomnia due to being schizophrenic. I call it the no-sleep blues, which I took from an old song by The Incredible String Band. I can go days with no sleep at all. When I got the no-sleep blues, I often have the shadow of madness fall upon me. It comes with a certain level of mania, which I use to ride a creative surge. Bit like being on pure amphetamines and a hallucinogen. I write while in these altered states, and what I get is good gear. A kind of ecstasy. A delirium. Oblivion, the last dream. I communicate with spectral beings in another dimension and receive visions, which I convert into magic symbols for to transmit the images into other peoples' minds. Of course, I edit it all later, but the raw material is interesting and poetic. It has a rhythm. And, to be honest, it don't need a great deal of editing either. A few words changing for repeats. Not much. Certainly not a rewrite.
Couple of days back, I was up writing past midnight all through to half six, the dawn of the next day. What I had down was fantastic. Even if I do say so meself! I reckon exhaustion can put you in an altered state of consciousness, which opens the ego to the shadows of the subconscious. I don't know if being schizophrenic alters this in any way. Schizos are often in a state of psychosis, and their conscious is overwhelmed by the subconscious, so who knows? But it might be interesting for 'normal' people to explore.
I'm knackered today. I was knackered yesterday. And the day before. And, to some degree or other, every day going back around four years, when my first child was born. Coincidentally, that's the period of time I've technically been a professional creative writer. I've written a graphic novel in that period, the story for a video game, and various other bits and pieces, as well as 10s of thousands of words of commercial copy in my day job.
Every now and then I'll have a day when I feel a bit strange and kind of great. After a bit I'll realise it's because I've had a few nights of (relatively) OK-ish sleep. I'll have jumped from around 60 percent brain capacity to somewhere in the mid-70s. I won't have been entirely aware I was only at 60 percent before, because that's become the baseline.
I haven't worked out a good way of writing while knackered. I do wonder, though, how much I could have got done if I'd sucked it up and spent 15 or more minutes doing a bit of comics writing every single day, rather than procrastinating my way into day job writing instead on at least half of them.
I look forward to one day writing with my non-knackered brain.
If unsolicited exhaustion is mostly a weekday state (excluding baby feeding) then weekend lie-ins, when morning alarms don't abolish them, is when lucid dreaming kicks in (excluding young children jumping on the bed). Combining the results of both exhaustion and dreams might be a rich font of creativity.
In a similar boat (it’s December after all), I’ve been keeping in mind George Saunders’ thought about the different writers and readers we bring to our pages each day.
So today I won’t tell myself the lie that these sentences will withstand tomorrow’s judgement. But maybe they will lead me somewhere
Most important, any screen work gets a brand new file every day (sometimes several times a day) with date (and time) and any notes about the changes I’m making. My own personal time machine
As someone who is frequently exhausted due to chronic illness, I heartily agree with much of what you've said here. I do some writing while exhausted, but I seem to have a real knack for getting thee! most! amazing! ideas! when napping (or trying to nap). I think we're more open to possibilities that we'd dismiss if fully awake and cognizant.
Thank you.