Late Night Writing

Have you ever noticed, those of you who are writers, that at that moment when you’re just about to go to sleep, or should be going to sleep, you suddenly get struck with inspiration that’s so good you can’t wait until morning, partially for fear of forgetting it, to at least start it. So you get out the computer at 1:20 in the morning and you start writing and once you start you can’t very well stop, so by 3:00am you have several pages of something, and a twitching eye from lack of sleep.

This is just one of the reasons I do a lot of writing at night. The other thing is, I have nothing else to do. That really is an awful thing to say since I do spend a good bit of my day playing stupid flash games and watching anime, but that’s far beside the point. Once it gets to that point of ‘yeah, I should probably go to bed’ I usually have run out of ways to procrastinate, and I figure, I haven’t written anything all day… I should probably write something, just to make sure I did at least something. So I start writing. I think ‘I’ll just write a paragraph… or two… or three… and soon I’ve gone off and done something productive and it’s way later than I wanted to be up.

This is the problem with being a procrastinator; you think all day ‘I have time, I can do it in a little while’ and by the time you get around to it it’s very late. But, sometimes it can’t be helped. Sometimes you need to be in that half asleep, gotta get this done, mode before anything can come out of that bizarre little brain of yours. For example: I wrote my best story ever three nights in a row. I finished it at 4:20 in the morning. That might have also been because that was before I had a lap top and night was the only time my sister wasn’t barging in demanding, “It’s my turn!”

Another theory I have is that it’s the moons pull on a writer’s brain that allows them to be more creative at night. That’s completely ridiculous, though and only a writer would come up with it. Is it like this for other artists? Do you work better late at night?

Creative Writing is Creative

You know what drives me crazy? When I complain about writing essays and the people around me respond with “You’re a writer, this should be easy for you.” STFU please, there’s a big difference between essay writing and creative writing. It bugs me so much when people assume because I’m good at writing creatively that I excel at essay writing as well.

I’ve been working on a research paper for the past few months. I hate it with a passion by now. Towards the beginning my English comp. class the 34-year-old guy beside me decided he and I were going to be buddies. Naturally the first things we discussed were writing and English and the like. I really do enjoy English most of the time. I love the library and I love to write. He hates all three of these things. So as soon as we start working on essay writing and the research paper what do you think comes out of his mouth? “This should be easy for you.” Somehow I managed not to smack him.

It’s not that essays can’t be creative. It’s true that a lot of them are very creatively written. But when you’re pushed into the little box called MLA format things get trickier and trickier. I find it stifling to try and convey information that’s somehow relevant to my topic, sum it all up in a sentence or two in the first paragraph and then be constantly worried about format the entire time I’m writing. It’s not my work, it’s barely even my words. I pretty much just steal all my information off different sources and cite it so it’s all legal. Fun? Not really. Creative? Hardly.

When I write creatively everything flows so much better. The page is mine to do whatever I want and I relish the freedom my fingers have to create. I control the world of the story, the poem, whatever, it’s mine and I am in power. No rules, unless I set them myself. No one is going to care if I use contractions or if I break the fourth wall or if my paragraphs don’t start with transitions. As long as the story is good and I tell it well, there will be no complaints.

Do you see the difference now? Restrictions and free range? Information vomit and imagination vomit? Yeah, that about sums it up. I also hate it immensely when I scored less than spectacular on standardized test writing and the comment “I thought you’d do better,” makes an appearance. Again I say, STFU. I’m a artist, not a machine.

The One With the Purple Hat

Greetings! I am the super special college student known as Bekah Farkas who will be filling your Tuesdays with nonsense. I’m nineteen years old and I’ve been writing for five years now with varied success. Currently I’m working on a novel that is very near completion. What’s it about? It’s incredibly hard for me not to answer “exploding gerbils.” You get the best greatest looks when you say that to people. My passions besides writing include purple, cats and anime. You’ll notice that I have a slightly obsessive personality. Once I attach myself to something I stay attached. The best example of this is in my love of the color purple which has consumed my life completely. From clothes to décor I have completely immersed myself in it. I occasionally think about going into rehab for it but that would require admitting I have a problem and who wants to do that?

Writing is my thing, usually in the form of rants. I started blogging two months ago and have been updating daily ever since. For you I will be sharing my opinions of fantasy novels and manga. If I’m feeling particularly lazy or by some strange unnatural occurrence have written something new I will share with you my short stories. I might even link you to one of my longer pieces so I can rant about that. I’d also like to examine the different styles and methods of writing at some point. I dislike writing poetry so I will avoid that topic as much as possible. I will leave you with the words of S. Morgenstern: “Life is pain… anybody that says different is selling something.” Three points and a preen if you can tell me what novel it’s from and who said it.