Last night I started writing my 1667 words sometime around 11:00. I've been pretty exhausted this week, with my average bedtime being around 1:30 due to this new NaNoWriMo craziness. I still have to work, my 2 year old is still waking in the middle of the night, and I'm just plain tired.
Anyway, last night I found myself thinking "I can keep writing with my eyes closed. I've got to get to 8335!" And I would close my eyes and let my fingers continue typing, my brain telling them what to type ... Well, each time this happened, I would wake a few minutes later, realize that I had been sleeping and not writing, and try to convince myself that I could keep going, while battling the devil in my ear that was saying "Go to Sleep! You can make up the words tomorrow!"
Then I would look at what I had written. There was nothing disturbing, and it was never more than a line. What it was was complete nonsense. I would remember thinking something along the lines of "he reached out the window to grasp the floating orb" when I was closing my eyes. What actually came out? What had I typed in my sleep? Most times nothing to do with what I was thinking. I would get complete words in, but not in any order. I would wake to see my last line be, instead of what's above, something like "hats cardboard jump pink."
This happened 3 to 4 times last night.
Seriously. Has this happened to anybody else? I'm now pretty fascinated with what comes out of my fingers while sleeping ... :D
Oh. I made my word count. ;)
----------
42,341 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 08 37
MAZEL TOV!! Frankly, I think I'd be tempted to work hats and cardboard into the story if AT ALL possible! I must admit, I've never written while sleeping, but I have knitted -- and awakened to find myself a littel further along! I suspect that doing things while we sleep must be in that "90% of the brain" that we technically don't use.
I think you should feel proud - and I am highing your five for making your goal!!
dale-harriet
46,587 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 20 56
I've been known to hold a perfectly intelligent conversation in my sleep. Don't ask me what it was though. I don't remember. I do know that a lot of my stories come from that period of time where you are still asleep, but somewhat conscious in your dreaming. I've never actually written anything in my sleep though.
38,294 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 10 51
Dude, I've never tried it before, but now I have to! Sometimes the ol' brainpan is pretty bizarre anyway, so while falling asleep might be really trippy. I'm right there with you on the sleep deprivation, so it might not be that hard.
I say you earn a new badge for Sleep Writing & Random Word Arrangement!
35,350 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 17 53
Kudos to you for reaching your word count!
And yes, actually, I just experienced sleep writing a few minutes ago. Because I follow Nanowrimo's "no delete" suggestion (nothing more than 3 sentences have been deleted from my story yet), both of my characters have fallen down a well, found themselves in the middle of an ongoing civil war between an Ukrainian underground civilization, and have to get back to England by the end of the next chapter.
The subconscious brain can be very disturbing, my friend. Very disturbing indeed.
----------Save the Earth, it's the only planet with CHOCOLATE!
25,129 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 20 47
Thanks, everyone, for the words of encouragement. I wasn't able to write any yesterday ... apparently the sleepwriting didn't help me actually get any rest, and I was out pretty early last night. So now I'm behind a day.
If you're looking to try it ... I'd say try it after getting your quota in for the day. It's really tough getting to the end once it starts!
Now, on to my writing, I've got a double quota tonight!
50,407 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 21 21
Oh my goodness! That's amazing. Especially because I can barely be productive at all when I'm tired and writing. I stayed up past 3 AM yesterday just for kicks. I was writing the whole time, but I only got around a thousand words.
----------I actually do something strange most days. Without trying to, I wake up really early, think for a while, and then fall back to sleep. With my brain in creative mode (aka half asleep), I tend to get some really weird ideas. It was by this method that I decided to make someone jump off of a balcony in my story.
Does this happen to anybody else?
You know, I have really skinny, bony fingers. 50,000 words later, they're gonna be RIPPED! I'm going to start flexing my muscles for sure.
46,587 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 21 23
Ooh, double quotas are tough. I pulled a few of those last year, and they were rough. I had half a day to make up and it wore me down, but I did it, and made up for yesterday's lost words. Now I'm only a day behind my original goal, but I'm ahead of the recommended goal, so it all works out. It feels nice to officially break that point again.
25,129 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 23 05
Yeah, I don't think I'm going to make it tonight. The SleepWriting has begun to rear its head tonight, so I think I'll call it. I got one day's worth of words plus 70ish, so I'm good for now. Only a little under 1 day's worth behind now. Maybe tomorrow! :)
14,362 / 50,000
nov. 8, 2009 - 14 00
I did this on a free response essay in school once. It was part of a test for psychology, and we were supposed to be explaining what the person did wrong in their experiment and fix it. I kept on writing about Superman and Lois Lane. I know next to nothing about superman.
It was funny because I kept on falling asleep and waking up, looking at the clock to realize that about two minutes had passed, and then erasing whatever it was that I had written.
----------"The first draft of anything is shit" ~Earnest Hemingway
NaNoWriMo 2009 --- Bound By Blood -II- Scarlet Nights (0/50,000)
25,129 / 50,000
nov. 8, 2009 - 14 01
Ha! Yep, that's about how it went with me... although without the superheroes :)