The Writer’s Nightmare

Why do writers wake up whilst the rest of the world sleeps? Why is the night more artistic than the day? Why do writers prefer to talk in the day and write at night?

Here I go again… Awake! At exactly 2AM, while the rest of the world is down for the count, while the world falls in to the unknown; lifeless. One question always crosses my mind: where are we exactly when we fall asleep? We don’t think, we don’t talk. We are nowhere but in the middle of life and death and are nothing but breathing corpses. Unconscious.

As habit has it, thoughts or questions wake me up; or, should I say I get woken up by thoughts and questions? Great thoughts most of the time! So I open my laptop and play the keyboard like a piano. Words pour out of my fingers like a sweet, gentle melody.

I usually wake up mumbling words and phrases for my writing. However, without any special thought, word, phrase or question in my mind for the first time, I got up, just now. I forced myself to fall asleep because I thought maybe I was awoken by a nightmare but I couldn’t manage to do that. I am still awake. Suddenly, a question comes to mind- or, my mind went questioning- “why did I wake up”? Probably a question one has never asked before.

… Why isn’t my mind tired when my body wants to rest? Why do thoughts keep knocking on the ‘write’ part of my mind when I have nothing to put down? Can’t I just sleep like the rest of the world? Why are my fingers still typing? It’s like I am on auto-type, I can’t control myself or my fingers, and they continue to play out a melody on my keyboard. A melody I don’t really understand.

I don’t really know the point of my writing and I don’t even have a title for the thing. Should I call it ‘An Article With No Title’ or ‘A Title-Less Article’? This must be a nightmare! I don’t think I am really awake. For a moment, I wanted to slap my face to check but I have still don’t have control over my hands. I think I am dream writing.

“Excellent”! I jumped in excitement, now I’ve got the title for my article! ‘Dream Writing’... All of a sudden my hands feel crushed and I have a sharp pain on my backbone and I hear a screaming sound I seem to recognize…

“WAKE UP! WAKE UP! It’s a nightmare”! My friend shouts as I fall from the bed.

Zoma Magazine: August 2013