Writing in the Dark

I do a lot of writing in the dark. The house is quiet. No one asks questions. The phone never rings. It's perfect.

Except for the handwriting. A little hard to decipher in the morning.

But I can't stop my nocturnal scribbles, for a few good reasons. Want to know why?

Brain connect. I'm not sure if there's any science behind it, but I feel like both sides of my brain are on better speaking terms when I'm half asleep. I'm able to tap into creative areas that seem to be locked during my waking hours. I try to have a particular scene in mind as I lay my head on the pillow, and I'm often surprised at the results.

Editors don't work at night. When I record the ideas that come to mind--snippets of dialogue, character descriptions, and plot surprises--I don't turn on the light. My pad and pen are on the nightstand, and I try to be careful to leave space between my lines. If I don't document what came to me, it's gone in the morning.

The best part of this, is that my internal editor has gone home. I can't visually look over what I've written and analyze it. There's no way to cross out, or check the spelling. It is what it is. And I can't wait for morning to rediscover what I jotted down.

Technicolor dreams. Try as I might, most scenes are hard to immerse myself in when I'm sitting in front of a keyboard. But falling asleep or waking up? They're in living color, and their twists and turns take me by surprise.

During one of these "dreams", I discovered one of my characters was deaf. Wow. He'd never let on. What might your characters tell you?

The best part of writing in the dark comes the next day. I wake up, and I have no idea what my great thought was the night before. I can't wait to grab my spiral and find out what it was. In turn, reading these scribbled notes gives me something to start on for the day. No more blank page issues.

What about you? Have you ever tried to write in the dark?