(continuing my occasional series of weird and wonderful things that never, seriously, never, happen to me)
… been struggling to write anything of significance for the entirety of 2020 and came up with bupkis, but just for laughs on the 8th of January 2021 you decide that, by-gosh-and-by-golly, you will write 3,000 words on a new story every writing day (not every day but the one’s designated as writing days) …
… and by the end of January you’ve settled into a steady rhythm of writing 2,000+ words every day, and not only are they words that form congruent sentences but they’re good words …
… and one night you have a particularly brilliant scene pop into your mind fully formed …
… and by the time you’ve finished it’s three-o-clock in the morning and you still need to wind down so by the time you actually do get into bed it’s nigh-on 4am …
… and just as you’re falling asleep another scene pops into your mind, only this one’s not quite so well-formed so you decide you can get away with just making notes on the notepad that you take everywhere with you these days, without getting out of bed again and possibly disturbing your spouse who’s asleep in the next room and who’s not sleeping well at the moment anyway …
… and you reach across your bedside table to find a pen because the one you were using has run out of ink and you bump your lamp and send it crashing to the floor …
… and you get out of bed, pick up the lamp (it’s still working) and your pen, which has rolled under the bed …
… and get back into bed, get your writing tools reorganised, and knock over your bloody lamp again?
Nah. Me neither.
Widdershins Worlds 
There could be a message there, Widds…
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Yep, nail your table lamp to your bedside table! 😀
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: )
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There’s an easier way once you’re asleep — repeat the context of the wonderful scene 21 times, and you’ll remember it in the morning.
And mostly, it wasn’t quite as compelling as the darkness of night showed it to be.
Occasionally, though, there are those moments that bring clarity to a work already done, half-done, or dreamed of.
Half the work of rewriting is the dreaming part. Half the work that comes before the first draft is the dreaming part.
Sooner or later, they come together to fix the bits that didn’t start off as sound as the dreams.
But the staying awake until sparrow-fart and tapping away like a lost raven … yes, done that. But not now. Now, I’ve figured out that sleep produces better work, and the good bits will always come back at the right time, or they weren’t the right bits.
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I used to be able to do these ‘midnight runs’ twenty, thirty years ago, but these days the price is a bit too steep … sometimes though, every now and then, it’s a wonderful thing to let that wild young woman come out and play for a bit. 😀
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We become more discerning with age, understand what’s more important — until that wild child peeps out and dares us … and how can we resist?
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Heh, heh, heh 😀
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Ha ha. I can see it happening. I hope it’s not foretelling . . .
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Which bit? The late nights or knocking over the lamp? 😀
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Both!
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Hah! 😀
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I wish.
I get tiny sparks of what it might have been if I’d started writing with the brain I used to have.
But then THIS story wouldn’t have happened. I’m arrogant enough to think that it’s worth it. Not really, but it comforts me in the many dark times.
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Hm, if we don’t believe our stories are ‘worth it’ then why write them? … we may question how ‘good’ they are, but every word is worth it. 🙂
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Some people write – and market – for money. Good luck to them.
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And the moral is to use smaller wine glasses…
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Abso-tively! 😀
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We can’t get excited about your apparent startling success when we know what the last line will be – but that doesn’t stop us hoping 🙂
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Heh, 😀 … I’m very chuffed with myself actually. 🙂
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X
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lol. The pitfalls of being a writer.
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Heh, 😀 … yep! 😀
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Thanks for the follow 🙂
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My pleasure 😀 … pleased to meet’cha. 😀
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Ha ha. Well, it hasn’t happened to me either. I do jot notes in the dark in a handy notebook that sits on my beside table. It’s a miracle if I can read them in the morning. 🙂
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Heh, heh … definitely one beside the bed … another in the bathroom – easily accessible from both the toilet and shower, one in the truck, one in my backpack, one on my desk for thoughts after I’ve backed up everything onto an external drive for the night and turned my computer off … and so on, and so on! 😀
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Ha!
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It sounded suspiciously perfect in the beginning, but when you got to the bumping your lamp – well, I could do it too 😉
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Heh, heh, heh. 😀
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I love it. I hate it. It’s a constant struggle. But you keep on keepin’ on.
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Indeed we do. 🙂
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