Ian MacGregger

@WellsNicky

When Ian put a call out on Twitter for authors to come forward and share where and when they get their brightest ideas, I had one immediate reaction: dark of night!

For me, the brightest ideas come at night. As in, in the middle of the night when I’m supposed to be sleeping; and typically when I am trying very hard to sleep. Invariably, my brain kicks into gear and that’s the end of that. I do have two young children and a day job of sorts, so what was once amusing has become a bit of a problem. But let me back track a little.

I am a writer. I am a new writer, but I have been writing for a long time—you’ll all know what I mean by that. I work in the day, and I can be a bit of night-owl. Obviously the bulk of my writing work gets done in ‘normal’ hours, and I have great ideas during that time, too.

But when I am fully in the throes of writing a book, it appears my brain can’t switch off. And instead of resting and letting me sleep, it goes into overdrive at night. Imagine the scene… the kids are peacefully asleep for once, the husband is gently snoring next to me, the room is dark, the church clock is chiming away the hours. I’m a nearly, so very nearly asleep and then BANG! The adrenaline rush alone of a good idea is enough to make me sit bolt upright in bed. For it is then that the best wording ever, the solution to a thorny problem, a funny scene, a new character trait pop into my head from out of nowhere.

I used to lie back and murmur to myself, desperately trying to fix the thought in my head for the morning. Of course, that proved a recipe for disaster as sleep would slip from my grasp entirely. For a while, I would trudge downstairs, slippers and dressing gown hastily thrown on, switching on as few lights as possible to set down my great idea on paper—at least in broad strokes. That strategy worked well, but would leave me wide awake, too. Incorporating computer use into this strategy turned out to be catastrophic, as I would then open the document and write a couple of thousand words. Which is great… except, of course, the kids still get up at six!

So now I have a big notepad by my bed on the floor, with a biro conveniently stuck in the right place, a blank page. Now when I get accosted by inspiration, I grab blindly for my trusty pad and start scribbling. Yes, in the dark, without switching on the lights. I write down the keywords that I will need to remember my bright spark in the morning. I write big, and I spread it out wide so I don’t scrawl all over my own ideas.

But guess what? It works. Simply because I’ve got a memory prop and some (just about) legible props, I can get back to my idea in the morning without any problem. And, more importantly, brain thus relieved of the strain of having to remember my best idea ever, I can actually go and get some sleep.

One day, when I’m rich and famous (tee-hee!) I will auction off these notebooks and they will make me famous and even richer (yeah, right). Joking apart, they are a great record of the evolution of each work in progress, and a fantastic help.

Needless to say, I started writing this piece in the dark, in the middle of the night….

Nicky Wells is the author of Sophie’s Turn, Part 1 of the Rock Star Romance Trilogy. Visit Nicky at her blog at http://nickywellsklippert.wordpress.com/ or find Nicky on Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Nicky-Wells/240322162658246

Twitter link: https://twitter.com/#!/WellsNicky

Sophie’s Turn is available in Kindle edition: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sophies-Turn-Romance-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B005C1GIFS/