Making writing decisions before sleeping

This is a strange issue I have with how much my mood affects what I consider adequate for my story. I think a lot before I fall asleep, and I discovered I have a certain tendency of making important decisions (sometimes even getting out of bed to write them) and, in the following day, 95% of the time, the decision seems stupid.

It's almost always something logical, but the situations I imagine during these moments tend to be a lot more melodramatic than usual. It always feels completely genius when I think about it for the first time.

Has anyone else experienced this?

"You cannot judge a system if your judgement is determined by the system."

I write easier at night, when my imagination's free to ponder my story without worrying. It also happens to be when I'm on the verge of going to sleep. Maybe it's brain energies, like you're about to trip on REM dreaming.

I tried to do a meditation exercise two nights ago, and instead of managing to empty my mind found myself plotting out the future of my Naruto fanfic. They weren't too bad, most of them.

Of course, the way I work, I plot out and outline obsessively ahead of my actual writing, look over things and change them constantly, and then some 50% of the time think of a better idea while I'm writing it and throw everything out. Oh, well.

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

What's this meditation exercise? *head tilts*

I also write easier at night. I think it's that way because I build momentum during the day, and near mid-night is the time that it peaks. Obviously, there's a problem with that.

edited 26th Aug '11 8:38:32 PM by chihuahua0

I like to fuck my sleep cycle over and then write at 3 in the morning...

I am now known as Flyboy.

^ I don't like doing that, but I will if inspiration strikes at that time.

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Am I the only one who often regrets these decisions?

"You cannot judge a system if your judgement is determined by the system."

Probably not, but I think you're approaching it from the wrong way. Instead of saying "this is a bad idea," and then immediately throwing it out, you should challenge the idea of why it's bad. Why would it be bad? Just because you made it at night?

Just as you should prove to yourself that an idea is good, you should also prove that it is bad. Granted, if you can't prove either one, it may just be So OK, It's Average...

edited 26th Aug '11 8:57:25 PM by USAF713

I am now known as Flyboy.

In the day, whenever I have spare time I play Civ or come here or something, not write. So the only time I write is when I'm already in bed, can't sleep, and don't want to go through the trouble of booting up my lappy.

I don't get much writing done...

Still Sheepin'

It's not that it's bad because it was made in the previous night, it usually feels bad because I made it when I was in a completely different mood.

edited 26th Aug '11 9:01:06 PM by Teraus

"You cannot judge a system if your judgement is determined by the system."

Feels bad =/= bad.

Most ideas can be reworked into something good, too. My current project started as an idea for a generic Star Wars Battlefront / Call Of Duty ripoff, and I realized that it was that bad...

...but I had created a really interesting backstory for it all, which was now way better than the game it was framing. Ergo, it became a book.

So, I should say that you should try and see how an idea can be improved—if it isn't already good anyway, and it's just Rule of Perception—before you just scrap it entirely...

I am now known as Flyboy.

I do some of my best writing between ten and two.

Nous restons ici.

I'm like the OP, too. But I generally don't realize the full implications of my decisions until at least a few days after the fact. Mood generally has little impact on my decisions; I've never actually had ideas look different just because I was annoyed about something. Though that might just be due to the fact that writing-based thoughts rarely enter my mind when I'm feeling anything other than 'calm' or 'mellow', an occurrence that's already rare enough as it is.

So, to answer your question, no.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

Sometimes I'll write an entire chapter over the course of a couple of hours right before I go to bed after a long day, and I'll wake up in the morning thinking "What the fuck did I type last night? Oh shit, did I try to write a lemon again?"

I have no beard. I have no beard, and I must scream.

This. Or, worse yet, between 2 and 4.

I find the "idea" mode, where ideas just flow out, is much easier to reach at night when I'm tired.

Mostly my ideas late at night are really good in terms of story direction, but they don't fit in the details. I have to hack off the rough edges and figure out how they can fit.

Sort of like dreams- they weave their own narrative, quick and complex, but when you wake up, you realize it doesn't actually make good logical sense in certain places. But with a little thinking, you can fill in the blanks in the dream and make a more complete, sensible narrative.

Look, you can't make me speak in a logical, coherent, intelligent bananna.

My best writing ideas are usually at lunch, by contrast, but my most productive periods for getting them down are after I should be sleeping.

Nous restons ici.

I have a weird habit of getting ideas while I'm lying down in bed, then pondering them the next day and thinking, "Wait, that's stupid/weird/creepy." I don't know if it's tiredness or something else.

"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

i usually dont even think about my stories untill im about to get to sleep.

its how the core ideas that become the stories are usually made.

Lying in bed trying to fall asleep is generally the best time for me to work out the details in my story and try to work out kinks in the plot. I've probably had a good 90% of my best ideas in the middle of the night.

I'm a night-owl to start with, and I have insomnia. So I'm up late already (about 1 or so). I get inklings of ideas during the day, and may do a little writing then if something really strikes. Otherwise, like the other posters, I am able to piece whatever I was thinking about earlier into something coherent and malleable at night, and then I write from about 1 to 4, sometimes 5. I also surf here during the same time. In short, I fuck up my sleep cycle almost every night. I... also tend to write lemons really, really late at night. Only seems to work when I do it then.

Typically, I like what I write then, and I can usually find a way to work it in, if I take off those rough edges and do some editing.

edited 29th Aug '11 3:41:03 PM by punkreader

One of my favorite insomnia activities is fervent notebook scribblings. The fun part is, once in a more rested and logical state of mind, revisiting whatever I can decipher and trying to arrange it into a plausable story idea.

I like to stroll around the ground floor of my house in the middle of the night, soliloquising in character, often while drinking large quantities of tea and coffee.

Does that make me weird?

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

No more so than actually subjecting yourself to writing, and wanting to do it.

Look, you can't make me speak in a logical, coherent, intelligent bananna.

@JHM: no, I do that. A lot. *

It helps with establishing character voice and diction...my general rule is, if you can't say it, it won't read right.

Congrats on having the stones to do this, BTW. There's nothing wrong with talking to yourself as long as its for a good cause.

edited 29th Aug '11 7:31:44 PM by drunkscriblerian

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~