Attack of the Sleep Snatchers! – July 13, 2007

The Sleep Snatchers strike again! There was a time when I dreaded not being able to sleep. The fear that I would not be my best the next day (or in a couple of hours, whatever!) probably exacerbated the problem.

Tossing, turning, envying my wife as she sleeps soundly and thinking to myself "Two more hours before the alarm goes off! Ugh!".

I have learned that if I can't sleep it is a great time to think. I am not suggesting that you take this time to make critical decisions about the course of your life or what you should have for breakfast but it is a great time to muse about a good many things. Indeed, my mind won't shut off so, like it or not, I think about a good MANY things.

I am learning, slowly, painfully, grudgingly to stop procrastinating.

If something comes into my mind that I need to do I have been trying to at least write myself a note…immediately. It amazes me how much stress this can actually relieve! I know I won't forget what needs to be done, now that I have it written down! (Now, if I could only find the note…)

Last night/this morning was no exception. I have been under a great deal of stress lately which has been driving me to my knees before the Father which, in and of itself, is a good thing. I certainly need more of that but I am REALLY tired of the stress. I also fear losing the stress as I believe it is what actually flows in my veins instead of blood. Yikes!

I spent time in prayer, and thought through some of the points of stress in my life and finally decided I could get to sleep…Nope! No such luck.

I have to believe there has to be some calorie burning benefit from tossing and turning, I can flip really fast!

Almost two AM. That means when you all were safely into deep REM sleep my eyes were looking at the leaves fluttering in the light breeze outside my bedroom window and my mind was a whirlwind of thoughts.

And then, in one instant of time, another story idea popped into my head and got me excited. It is not pretty when I get an exciting thought at two AM, believe me. I was so excited about this story idea I turned over and tried to back to sleep. That didn't work either. Those vicious Sleep Snatchers!

Popping out of bed (when you get to be as old as I am it really is POPPING!), I grabbed my trusty writing notebook and proceeded to the kitchen.

I sat down and started outlining the idea and when I finished I had three pages of outline! I was stunned! I had never had that much material for a story that seems to have substance. So cool!

I have not gone back and looked at this "masterpiece" today and it is possible that the late night Sleep Snatchers tricked me into thinking I had a cool idea, it has happened before, but I was pretty coherent, I didn't put it off until today, (tomorrow, the next day, the day after that…)I went right to work. Forty minutes later, that would be 2:40 AM for those of you keeping score, and I thought All right! I can now go to bed, and I did, but this story tumbled around my head for another hour so the Sleep Snatchers won again.

Oh well, if I do have a potentially good story waiting in my notebook at home it will be well worth it!

I get discouraged with all these false starts to the stories I have had lately but then I read that other authors, authors that have actually had material published and made it onto the best seller lists, have poured hundreds of thousands of words and many false starts before they finally broke in. It's a practice thing, I guess.

That is heartening to me and excites me more. I am steadily climbing this writing ladder and maybe one day I can change the title of this blog to the NOT SO Lazy Writer! I will let you know when that day arrives.

 

For now, I bid you good day and may you always look to Jesus for your strength and courage.

 

Fight the good fight today!

 

Greg