Sleep the fleeting whimsy

"That feeling of your head hitting the pillow after a long day of playing and fixing your writing.... "

So, while talking with a fellow author friend of mine I have come to the mildly irritating conclusion that sleep and authors don't tend to get along. This explains A LOT. Seriously. 

I have always had trouble sleeping, because I had some thought pop in to my mind at the very last minute demanding attention, which then demands expansion... which by the end of all the demands turns in to a list of To Do's for the ever fickle and slave-masterly Muses. This is particularly annoying/obnoxious/frustrating when you as an author have just spent the better part of the day working on something; feeling the stubborn mule of inspiration digging its heels in to the ground say. Well F*@&# that.

As an author of any genre/style it's exhausting trying and often failing in pulling that wanted chapter revision/article/cover art/comic panel out of your mind: all we generally want is a good night’s sleep that lasts for 36 hours instead of the measly 7 we're Lucky to get. Of course what we want as our day has shown us quite bluntly isn't a factor in what is going to happen... it’s a general rule somewhere.

We shut down our computers; put our pens and paperwork away. Stand up, shuffle zombie like to the coffee maker set it for morning then crawl our way in to our bedrooms, flopping heavily on the bed. It's a painstaking process of gather up our worn down energy reserves (in my case its usually running on fumes by then) to climb under those heavy blankets; tug them up to our chins and roll on to our sides trying to sleep. 

As I am sure you have been following by my implications, as sledge-hammer blunt as they have been. "Trying" is the operative word here. Sleep may touch the mind for a split of a second but by then it's already a long time far too late. Our eyes suddenly snap open, a glare being aimed to the heavens. 

......only to find inspiration smacking you in the face as you look up at the ceiling. Next thing you know it's after 4 am and sleep was only a fleeting whim.......

Authors by nature are lazy creatures. We don't want to have to go fetch our bags, binders, pencils especially once we have gotten it in to our heads that it's BED TIME. It's now our turns to dig in our heels and say 'No, I’ll remember it in the morning.' 

Have you ever tried digging your heels in when a mule or donkey decide it's time to run? Good luck with that. 

The muses are no different, once then decide to bestow their blessing of inspiration an author’s mind has no choice but to follow it. Much like a fisherman who runs across the deadly sirens song; All ideas of sleep crash and burn, so we get up, jot down some chicken scratch hoping to appease the muses long enough to go back to bed. That chicken scratch becomes a novel of thought that thread between one another. 

if there is no paper readily available, or exhaustion is too close (as tends to be the case more often than not) we plot and plan till our heavy eyes close, the sand papery feel of them scratching our peepers as they do so reminds us that we need to blink more often while writing. That mild distraction that catches the muses off guard, much like the magpie the muses chase that shiny in to oblivion of sleep. 

When we wake once more: Drag our selves to the coffee maker knowing we had something to remember, something jotted down somewhere. The winds of sleep and shiny distractions erase every word, every thought leaving only a vague impression of what once was. It reminds me of looking backwards on a beach as the tides come in. You have a vague impression as to the distance travelled by the evaporating foot steps, but don't really remember walking so far. 

......Of course only frustration remains the next morning as the cycle begins again. Welcome to the Authors life.

So, if anyone ever tells you the life of an author is simple. Kindly remind them that as my friend so eloquently put it.... "Writers = society’s acceptable insane” and we don’t generally begin our journey that way... it’s a trait that comes from dealing with the muses