Talking 'Bout Those Night Moves...

Well my friends, it appears as though my creative drought is officially over.

I was visited by an old friend the other night.

The “Middle Of The Night Idea For A Blog Post.”

You see, back when I was regularly writing my old blog, I would oftentimes lie in bed, unable to fall asleep. And what would happen when I was lying there with nothing else occupying my thoughts, was that my brain would go into overdrive. And before I knew it, I would start jotting down idea after idea for potential new posts. It became such a regular thing that I started keeping a notepad and pen on my bedside table, so I would have quick access to jot down whatever insanity happened to be occupying my thoughts at the time.

Naturally, once I stopped writing, those midnight ideas stopped popping in my head. Of course, it also didn’t hurt that I was getting older, had a couple kids and the stress of whatever job I was doing at the time, which subsequently made my late-night insomnia a thing of the past.

In other words, I was usually so friggin exhausted by the time I went to bed that I would be asleep within five minutes of my head hitting the pillow.

And, that is still the case now. However, I also don’t sleep peacefully throughout the night. And that is when my old friend took the opportunity to come say hello.

This is because as I’ve gotten older, I’ve developed this little issue that has basically given me the bladder of a 92-year old man. Therefore, I usually wake up at least once a night to empty the little guy out. Now normally, I’ll just get up, stumble my way into the bathroom, do what I need to do and head back to bed.

However, last night – as I was trying to avoid stepping on one of the cats on my way back to bed – I had a little creative light bulb go off in my head. I remembered putting a couple old notebooks over in the sitting room area of our bedroom, so I went over to get them. After tripping over something in the process – and thus, waking up the Mrs. – I found my notebook and pen and hurriedly scribbled my thoughts before they left my head as quickly as they got there. And, in my ADD-ravaged brain, that happens more than I care to think about.

I got back into bed, pleased in the knowledge that I would have a new topic to tackle, when all of a sudden; another great line came into my head. So, I turned over, grabbed the notebook and scribbled away. Another couple minutes later – another line. Now, I was wired. For the next 15 minutes, ideas flowed into my head like river of banality. And, somehow I managed to get them all down on paper. I briefly contemplated getting up and going into the spare bedroom with my laptop, but again – it was 2:30 in the morning on a work night – and daddy needs as much beauty rest as humanly possible.

Still, it was a major breakthrough in my almost five-year attempt to resurrect my creativity. And I was thrilled.

However, although I often get a lot of great story ideas while I’m in bed, there are a few drawbacks.

First of all – when this happens, the ideas seem to stream in one after the other. It will usually go down how it did last evening – I’ll write an idea down, try and go to sleep and get another idea about two minutes later. This will last for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. Not the worst thing in the world on a Friday or Saturday night, but at 2:00 AM on a Wednesday when you have to be up at 6:00 for work? Not as fun.

Then there’s the whole problem of trying to write without waking up the Mrs. Back in our old places in Boston, it wasn’t that big of a deal, because there was so much light outside, that even in the middle of the night, I could usually see well enough to write down whatever idea I had to write.

Now, it’s a lot darker around our house, and naturally – a lot tougher to try and write. Take for example, this passage on my notebook this morning:

“Constantly waking up in middle of night. Worry will eventually wojap sjh0aeu aujoaujs”

You get the point.

You would think that one way around that problem would be to type my ideas on my BlackBerry. However, that won’t work either. The internal light on my BlackBerry can be used in an emergency to guide in planes during thick fog or a blackout, so that really doesn’t work very well for discreet note taking.

However, these are only minor inconveniences in the never ending quest to keep my four dedicated readers entertained. And, let me assure you – Scott, Josh, Prince Abidjan of Nigeria and Penis Enlargement Guy – now that I am creatively free again, there is nothing to keep me from spewing out more of this inane drivel on a regular basis. Everything I do, I do it for you.

You’re welcome.