Writing and Sleeping / Writing and Driving

The last 14+ hours have been weird. Weird good, though - in a way. I had an abstract for a presentation I'm doing in April that was due today. I was working on that - definitely a different style of writing. Of course, I would much rather be spending time with my characters and writing my book. But, I had to focus. So, that I did. I got the research, references and the abstract itself done in a few hours. By the time I was done, it was "bedtime". One problem though - I hadn't really written much and I wanted... well, needed to.

So, it was 10:30pm and I stayed up doing miscellaneous things as well as trying to get some writing done. Please understand that if I don't go to sleep "early" I won't get much sleep at all, at least lately. I've been getting up at 3am or 4am the last several weeks. So, going to sleep at midnight, I knew that I would probably wake up at 3am or 4am. I hoped I could at least sleep until my alarm went off at 5:30am, but I doubted it. Sure enough, I was up just before 4am. The thing is, I can't really hate that I wake up that early, because I wake up with ideas floating through my head about my characters.

So, it's 4am and I'm thinking of my story where I had left off before I went to sleep. It's kind of like it was when I was in school and I'd get stuck on a math problem. I'd go to sleep then wake up in the middle of the night knowing how to solve it. Not sure if that happens to anyone else, but it does to me. Apparently, now it's happening to me with my writing. A part that I've been trying to figure out and think about in my waking hours, seemed to get worked out when I slept and I woke up knowing what was going to happen. I laid in bed going over and over it. I didn't want to physically get up at that point, because I really needed to get some rest. But I replayed it so many times, that I couldn't forget it. I loved it!

I didn't get too much of a chance to write it down before leaving for work. But I was okay with that, like I said, I wasn't going to forget it.

Then the next thing happened... another epiphany. As I was driving to work, I had another flash of a scene that was perfect and belonged in the chapter I was working on. But now, I'm driving 65 mph on the freeway and can't write it down. Unlike lying in bed, I can't go over it in detail because I'm trying to drive (and not crash into others - that would be bad). I actually considered pulling over to the side of the freeway to write it down. But I couldn't be late for work. If I pulled over, I would lose track of time and be late. I kept driving. When I got to my exit, I got to a signal light. I seriously considered pulling out my netbook to type out the dialogue I heard. But, again, I didn't. I thought about it again at the next light too. I just wanted to get to my classroom so I could write.

Naturally, when I got to my classroom, I was so anxious that it because hard to write. I had to relax my mind enough to get it out of my head and into my computer. I managed to get it out just before the first bell rang and students started to arrive for class. I love that addition to the chapter. There's so much "hidden" stuff to it... hidden to the characters themselves. But perfect for the overall life of them.

Okay, maybe that wasn't the last 14+ hours, that just happened during the 4am and 7:20am. So, more like a 3.5 hour period. A lot of ideas and clarity in that time.

Stats

My husband, out of curiosity, wanted to know how many words I had written for Book 2. Last time, I kept an Excel file going with the chapter titles, number of pages, word count per chapter and the running total. I didn't think about doing it this time. I just kept writing and writing and writing.

So, because he asked, and curiosity got the best of me, I did the same exercise for this book. I started it on October 5, 2009. From then to yesterday (when I did it), I'd written 71,905 words and about 266 pages. There are 10 completed chapters and several started or in progress ones. Some of the started ones will likely be melded into another chapter because they are scenes that I've seen and needed to be sure to include and aren't stand alone chapters. It's just been over three months. Wow! I didn't think I'd written that much.

This made me look at my book calendar. My book calendar is where I outline my story and what needs to be done, what major events I've written or still need to write. I filled in the other pieces that I hadn't yet and figured out where on the dateline things fell. I was really surprised to see that I do have a large chunk of stuff done. I didn't think of it that way as I was writing. As I said, I just write...

I did get distracted the other day. I got reading something and couldn't put it down. It was a few hours of reading, and I really enjoyed it, but I felt bad that I didn't get a chance to spend time with my characters. Have I mentioned before how much I love my characters? Spending time writing and with my characters is something I struggle with when I think about reading books. I want to continue with the habit of writing everyday, even just a little, and I'm afraid if I get into reading a book, I'll be put in a tough position to choose. I don't want to have to pick between someone else's characters and my own. At least right now, when I'm in the middle of a story. It's already tough to be sure to write here, when I could be working on my book.

It's Friday. Lunch is almost over. My students are laughing, working on the computer, eating lunch, throwing stuff away and I should look back over the last thing I wrote in my book. I love the weekends - although this weekend, I have a commitment for my "real" life that I have to do, so that will be less time to write. But that doesn't stop me from thinking about my book and brainstorming/daydreaming about it while the workshop that I'm chaperoning is going on. The other part of my weekend will be great - writing, hanging out and talking about my story with people that I've shared this with. I'm excited!