I apologize if this blog post isn't totally coherent. I have developed a case of writer's insomnia. You know the disease where you're dead tired, but as soon as the lights go out, your mind goes into overdrive? Daytime side effects include spending more time listening to the voices in your head than you do talking to your family, putting the milk carton in the pantry and the cereal in the refrigerator, and watching entire tv shows but not remembering anything that you saw.
This tends to happen when I have a new WIP. My brains decides to store away all plot problems, scene ideas, or conflict issues into a file that it only drags out at night. So instead of drifting off to the land of Nod, I end up running dialogue and story threads in my head until three in the morning. Then, just when I think I'm going to fall asleep, an idea hits me that I fear will be lost by daylight, so I grab my notebook and jot down incoherent notes--waking myself up all over again.
*yawn* I enjoy the creative process, but if I don't get some sleep my WIP is going to sound like a first grade reader: Jack is nice. Jane loves Jack. He feeds her cake.
I'm not sure what the cure is beyond continuing to write so that everything gets on the page and out of my head, so it may be a while before I get a good night's sleep. But I'm open to remedies if anyone has any.
So how about you? Do you ever suffer from this affliction? What do you do to get some sleep? And how long can milk sit in the pantry before it goes bad?
