Sleepaholics
Posted by Guest Writer in 
Hey, writing this at 2 a.m. and still feeling a bit buzzed. I work a service job, so I often get off late into the evenings and morning. Then I have to ride my bike home, and boy is Austin still humid as hell even in the midnight hour. But then when I do get home, I have school work, or intern work, or work of several other varieties that involve watching television or reading or doing the endless internet mind blast of nothing for hours on end. It’s enough to make a writer go autobiographical. So, yes I’m writing this at 2 a.m., but I have to admit, I feel the buzz of still being up, of communicating with you guys and the moon and those wolves out there still howling while suburbia sleeps the good night. Some such stuff like that, really.
I do have to also admit: I love writing at the end of the day, when everything is done, calm, finished, over, blah-ed into blah-mission. That’s the way my mind works: once everything is relaxed and my mind has settled from the day’s business, it can feel – and does often feel – at ease and free to rattle off whatever amount of poetry and narration, nostalgia and affirmation, dialogue and locomotion. I’ve always been that way, and I suppose have reinforced the habit. But that’s a good thing, I think. You get comfortable with familiar structures and schedules as a writer. Now I may not be the strictest adherent to my familiar schedule (cite the aforementioned job, and school, and internship), but I do feel that special kinship with myself when I’m alone and writing into the a.m.
How about you guys? Do you like the sleepless-in-wherever, fly by the seat of your unbuttoned pants stabs at writing late and later? Or are you more the roll out of bed and slam your head on the keyboard type, an early to rise, early to writer? Somewhere in between? Well, hush now: let’s go to sleep.
p.s. I will not, in fact, be going to sleep!
Christopher Savage is a writer living in Austin. He writes poetry, short stories, non-fiction, film scripts, comic books, and one long novel, among other things. He is the founder of the Boho Coco literary zine and blog and is currently attending UT Austin as a Sociology major, English minor. He is survived by his cat Cashew.
When I was younger, I was a when-the-mood-strikes-me kind of writer. I can recall many a high school night on which I’d stay up until all hours hacking away at some angsty, tell-all personal essay. (I’m sure my mother kept all those pieces and now she’s waiting for the day she can whip ’em out and humiliate me publicly. Thanks, Mom.) These days, I need a schedule or I’m done for. The mornings are working well but it often means that I start WBN work too late–gasp!–and/or don’t get to write for as long as I’d like to. Those are… Read more »
Wow, 2 a.m. I used to be able to do that years ago (pre-child). Now however, after getting up pretty much every day between 6 and 7:30, the usual morning rush to get her to school, then the maddness of an 8 – 5 work day, followed by a two hour marathon of pickup, cooking, cleanup, and general household related things that fluctuate daily, plus getting said child into bed at a reasonable hour so we can all get up and do it again, by the time 9 p.m. rolls it’s way around the clock face, I’m ready to collapse.… Read more »