Just discovered this (and have no memory where - here? Dorothea Brande? Julia Cameron? Can't remember, but: last thing at night, just before falling asleep, write one sentence from your WIP. Next morning you'll wake up with a scene ready brewed in your mind before any other thoughts occur. Get up and write it down. Effortless plot development. feels like structured automatic writing. Weird and deeply satisfying.

C

I often think up 'great' sentences to include in my chapters, just before falling asleep, but am too tired to write them down so try my best to remember them by word association.
It never works.
I still have a one about an ice cube and fish which I can remember thinking would be an absolute corker, but have absolutely no idea what it means.

I can absolutely relate to that. I wake up in the wee hours of the morning with ideas and sentences flowing through my brain, and I know I should get up and start writing, but I do want that extra little bit of sleep, so I don't. And as hard as I tell myself that I'm going to remember, I can't.
I think the tecnique can work, but it is really absolutely imperative to get things written down immediately (and not wait till you've had a shower and a cup of coffee...).
Robin

That's true Robin. I've tried it both ways, and the delay deadens it.

Thanks for that, Cherys - I have written that down in my 'tips' folder...

Deb

Once got up in the wee small hours to write down a sentence which had woken me up with its clarity, brilliance and drama. The next morning I went into the study to find I had written: "Comedy is shaped like a lozenge."

Not found a home for that one yet...

That's something I've meant to do. I can really see how it would work.

Sibelius, I can empathise.

N

Ah, but this is the difference - not the middle of the night jibberish, but last thing at night clarity, that tells you what you really want to tackle next in your writing.

If you leave it till morning then the brain has had a chance to come up with some good ideas. If you interrupt in the middle of the night, all Porlockian, then you do get: the lemon was in her socks!!!!!

LOL Sibelius and Cherys.... love the examples!

Deb

I once thought of a classic line while driving on the motorway. I pulled a pen and a crumpled up piece of paper out of my handbag which was perched on the passenger seat and wrote it down while driving. This is NOT recommended.

I hope you used that line Gillian - it had to be worth the risk.

Oh Gillian - please don't do that - you're scaring me!!!! Pull over and write it down, then drive again...

I've been thinking about writing things in the middle of the night - it actually works for me. The writing is awful though, and since I can't see what I'm writing I tend to forget where I was in the word and writing things like 'writinging' and 'contemplive'. And the writing doesn't follow the lines and is messy and big. But it's decipherable... I actually get some of my best inspiration at night or early in the morning.

Deb