Guess I'm not the only one. Yes, like many of the others here, I do my best work at night, typically between 1 - 4 AM. I ALWAYS keep my laptop, and or phone next to me, and it tends to keep me all night. Usually, not getting to sleep until about 5, or even 6, when the sun has come up.
I don't have it as bad as most people here; if I'm pulling teeth trying to write/draw something then that something tends not to be "something you really REALLY want to write/draw" (at that moment). And my late night ideas tend to be short and probably takes me anywhere between 30 seconds to 3 hours to write down at the very most. (Maybe it's because I write in bed with no energy drinks and only the light from my laptop, so I get drowsy more readily?)
All the time!!
It's either when I'm going to bed, or when I'm driving, or while I'm at work. I have pulled over while driving in order to write the thought down. You have to take inspiration whenever it hits.
Well, I wrote up the premise to a whole fictional universe at about 3 a.m. after being sick with COVID in December 2020, so I can't say it didn't happen to me.
Well, whenever I have that kind of ideas, I try to write them down in a notepad or the notes app in my phone, mostly to remember the key aspects and so, I'll remember the rest later. Then I go to sleep
The notes app on my phone is heaven sent so If I get lightning-struck inspo I just roll over and type it out with my thumbs and pick it up in the am or later on for a more detailed write-out :3.
I'd write it down on my phone. Like a small prompt. For example, I come up with an epic battle that's so descriptive.
I just make a bullet point list and write small details on doc.
And then I go to sleep.
Ideas seem to come more naturally for me when I'm not actively focusing on thinking up a new idea in front of the laptop screen.
The ENTIRE plot for the third Re:Apotheosis book wrote itself this way.
Let's just say I do a lot of adding line items to story outlines very late at night...
I'm showing this comment to my mom the next time she asked me if I'm ever going to learn to drive 
Okay, but have you ever has a whole-ass scene flood into your head where the wording and everything is perfect and you're worried you're never going to find words that fit so well if you don't get it all down immediately? :'D
Well... my memory will be pretty fresh the next morning, so for me, writing down the key aspects in a notepad that I have besides my bed or in my phone to later remember is enough for me to remember the whole sequence.
Sometimes you can't have both the cake and the bread, so it'll depend on what you choose and the responsabilities of the next day. Still, I won't consider anything done within the last hours of the day + exhaustation "perfect" since I consider that the brain is tired enough to not properly see flaws or other aspects.
I feel like I could change the world if I had the same levels of inspiration during the day that I have at night.
Then again, the last note I put in my phone is:
"Motorcycles acting like dogs, excited to see each other etc."
So it's probably for the best that it's restricted to night times...
But yeah as others have said, you need a way to get your thoughts down there and then, even if it's in note form - my phone is perfect for that.
True; I guess the thing is my exhausted brain thinks it's perfection and refuses to go to sleep until I write it down because it fears losing what it just came up with I admit when I look over it the day after, it's usually far from perfection XD
This happened to me a few times,but I had to sleep otherwise I'll get tired when driving to work. I'll just write notes or random words in a journal before I go to bed. My brain can pick up the pieces.
I actually haven't had that happen where the dialogue was perfect and the scene was if I'm being real. I'm hella visual so I will most likely see the scene and hear key phrases (often not even whole sentences) that my brain wants me to work around. Like odds are I'll be writing out specific scenes to draw later when something akin to this feeling happens over scripting dialogue.
If this feeling does happen to me or has and I don't remember, It's bc I was in bed like.... well if it's leaving this much of an impression, you can script it out in the morning Lady. So spin the wheel if I remembered or not, but if I took some notes at least I should be able to retrace my steps.
Depends when I'm in work the next morning, or if I can afford to stay up if it means lying in.
You can't control that motivation, so sometimes you gotta grab hold of it when it strikes.
Oh, this is similar to what I meant actually! Sometimes key phrases come into my head that I feel 'yes, this perfectly conveys what this character is trying to say at the moment', so I write it down, but I also have to make notes about the surrounding context (which aren't perfectly phrased, but felt necessary to me because sometimes the timing/beats of the scene is what makes those 'key phrases' sound perfect to by brain). And while it's not a full script from beginning to end, it adds up and before I know it I've been writing for 2 hours
I also used to think 'if it's really that good surely it'll stick with me long enough for me to write it down tomorrow', but I've woken up with the feeling that 'I came up with something good last night but now I can't remember it for the life of me' too many times now to trust that thought :'D Even if I jot down the important bits/'key phrases', it'll just be a bunch of out-of-context phrases the next day with most of the magic gone XD
closed Oct 2, '22
