(And, yes, I’m going to pretend that really is a word even if it isn’t.)
Every once in a while I have one of those moments that make me think, “Hey, I may actually be a writer.” They’re somewhat rare, but they do happen.
And last night was one of them. I went to bed and I was laying there and my mind just wouldn’t stop working. It came up with an entire scene for this novel. And I thought, “I’m sure I’ll remember it in the morning. It’s 10:30. I really don’t need to get out of bed and write this scene right now. Do I?”
But I did. So, I crawled out of bed, turned back on the lights, turned back on the computer, and spent the next hour and a half typing up a 3,200 word scene.
Then I went back to bed. Except I still couldn’t get to sleep because now my mind had moved on to the next scene in the book.
So…I got up again. Turned on the lights again. Turned on the computer again. And wrote for another half hour. (It was a short scene – thankfully.)
And then I went to bed again. And my brain still wanted to keep going with the story. (I told it to go to hell. I’m still not really on Prague time, but no longer on U.S. time, so I didn’t want to completely mess myself up. Not that it matters to anyone except the cleaning lady…)
But I did end up getting up really quick to scrawl down about ten lines of the final scene of the book, because I was pretty sure I was going to lose that one if I didn’t at least put it down somewhere. But I was not turning on that computer again. No way, no how.
Fantastic, right? 4,200 words towards a novel. That’s awesome. And, with the writing I did earlier in the day, it was the most I’ve ever written in a single day. Yeah, me.
Problem? It wasn’t for the novel I’m working on. That’s right. I am now 6,000 words into one novel and 4,000 words into another. And they’re both popping right now. I have scenes in my head that need to be written for both.
So, seems I’m going to try writing two novels at once for a while. Haha.
Good thing I have no life…
M.H. Lee 
Sounds like me. I have multiple stories half-finished on my computer. But I look at them as insurance against writer’s block. Even when I finish one book, there’s always another one or another short story to take up.
I also keep a notebook and pen by the bed for when I feel I need to get up and jot down an idea or some lines of dialog that I don’t want to lose. I try not to let myself think of scenes too much as I’m going to sleep. I’ll let myself have ideas, but I try not to get down to the actual dialog, or I will inevitably think of something really good, then lose it.
It’s funny. Before I actually started writing I thought I could never come up with enough ideas. But after I started writing I found there were too many to possibly cover!
That’s a good suggestion re: the ideas vs. scenes. Now if I can just force myself to not think in scenes…
Congrats on the progress! I’ve been in a writing slump lately. I’m so exhausted by the time I get around to writing that very little comes out.
Thanks! I’m glad to finally be picking up some steam again after a long lull myself.
Hope you get past the slump soon. I know people advocate for the “butt in chair” idea that you should try to write every day, but I think there’s also sometimes value in acknowledging that things are just too much at the moment and that trying to force yourself to write won’t help.
Maybe keep jotting down ideas and catch up with some of your fun reading instead and let the pressure to write build until you just have to write?