Saturday 3 April 2010

Saturday's Writing Quotation Examination

Ink surrounds me all the time
On my bed sheets, recorded in rhyme
Quills ever scribbling in my head
Sometimes damnit I forget what they said.
Ink has settled into my fingerprints
But to keep the words I fear to rinse...
~Terri Guillemets

I found this poem and thought it a great writing quote for the week. As writers, our creativity is strong and powerful. We try to capture all the wonderful words and lines and stories that enter and sadly, exit our minds. I find that my best lines come to me in the dark as I am about to sleep. I can never remember the exact brilliance when the sun shines the next morning.

Does that happen to you?

8 comments:

Laura S. said...

Yes, that happens too often! It just happened to me last night. I keep a pocket-sized notebook and pencil on my night table and am usually scribbling in it after I go to bed (I've gotten very good at writing in the dark!). Last night, though, I was too tired to write down an idea and I told myself I'd surely remember it in the morning. I didn't. And you know the ideas we always forget are the ones that would've rocketed our careers to the top...haha!

Why is it that our brains seem to open up right when we're ready to shut them down for the night??? Ah, well, I guess it's one of life's mischievous jokes...

Lorel Clayton said...

My best ideas come at 3 am. I write them down, but often when I read them the next day, they're not quite as brilliant as I thought they were when I was half asleep : )

Jaydee Morgan said...

Ideas tend to come to me as I'm about to fall asleep too. I make it a point to get up and quickly write them down (I never remember them if I don't). Unfortunately, if I'm really tired, it takes me all the next morning trying to decipher what's on the paper.

Anonymous said...

Ann - Thanks for that poem. That frequently happens to me, actually. I always seem to get good ideas when I'm in a meeting, half asleep or driving or something. By the time I'm back at the keyboard, so long good idea...I need one of those pocket recorders, so that I can record my idea. And then I need to remember to use it ; ).

Rinkly Rimes said...

Sometimes the reverse happens to me. I have a puzzle, I sleep well and I wake with the puzzle solved! I rarely dream though. Maybe that's the reason.

Talli Roland said...

Oh yes! I usually get novel ideas just as I'm about to fall asleep. Then I get so excited that I stay awake for hours developing plotlines, etc!

Charmaine Clancy said...

I always mull over my WIPs while falling off to sleep, but then I get muddled and they all sort of merge and become weird.

Unknown said...

This happens all the time! I'm exhausted and that is when a brilliant idea hits me! I have to write it down but if I'm too tired I wait until monring and I have to rethink what had been forgotten. Ahh brilliance has no time!