We are delighted to have Leonore (or Limr as she’s known in the blogging world) as our guest poster this week. Leonore is a fantastic writer; just read any post at As a Linguist and you’ll see what I mean. You can also check her out on Twitter at @asalinguist.
Leonore started college wanting to study English Literature but fell in love with Linguistics instead. It fit the passion for language she’d already developed at a young age. Since then, she’s gotten a BA in Linguistics, a M.Ed. in Deaf Education, and several teaching certificates in ESL. She’s taught in Turkey, Portugal and the United States. She’s currently teaching writing and English Literature at a community college in the Northeast. Language is the love of her life, but there’s still room for photography, cooking, her boyfriend, and her two literary cats, Zelda and Mrs. Parker.
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When I am asked why I became a teacher, I often reply that it was my love of chalk that led me to education. I’m really only half-joking when I say this. I do love chalk. I love the silky smooth feel of that stick of chalk, the sound it makes as it moves across the blackboard, and the sight of clean white lines on black. I was thrilled every time I was chosen to do a math problem on the board or take part in a spelling race. I didn’t care about the dust or if it got on my clothes. In fact, I almost preferred some chalk to rub off on me or stay coated on my hands for the rest of the day. Being marked in chalk dust was evidence of work and of learning, and I loved – and still love – being part of the process.
As much as I love chalk and enjoy being in the classroom , teaching is not my first love. From a very young age, I’ve wanted to be a writer. I didn’t always know why. Sure, it made me feel good and it has always been fun but I didn’t know where it came from.
I’m happy to say that after…let’s just say ‘a lot of’ years, I’ve finally figured it out and can tell you the reason why I have no choice but to write: I am an incurable night owl.
My enduring image of The Writer is a person hunched over a desk, working steadily with a furrowed brow, a glass of whiskey nearby, and a smoldering cigarette forgotten in the ashtray. And it’s always nighttime. The scene could take place in a small city apartment, on a screened porch near a lake, in a café, at a writing desk…it didn’t matter. I never imagined writers scribbling away in the morning.
I knew that this image wasn’t how all writers had to work. Hemingway liked writing in the morning, and often standing up. Dorothy Parker never worked steadily, but instead was easily distracted and often took months to finish a story. Agatha Christie didn’t drink.
But the fact is, many writers are famously drunk, nocturnal creatures, even if they’re not necessarily writing at night. As for me, I may not be a drunk, but I could stay up all night with hardly a thought. More importantly, that’s also when I do my best writing.
I’m practically useless when the sun is out. I stare at the screen, begging for a phrase to come to me, an idea to materialize, an angle to use to follow a train of thought. I beg, I plead, I bargain with any and all forces that may or may not exist in the universe, but…I get nada. The blank whiteness of my new open document mocks me, tells me that I’m no good and shouldn’t even pretend anymore.
And then…the witching hour. Evening falls and I tell myself that tonight I am going to be in bed early. I get sleepy around 8:30, but I know I can’t realistically fall asleep for the night until it’s at least double digits. I make it to about 10:00, then 10:30…then 11:00. At this point, I sit down for ‘one last pass’ through email or blogs to read. I have a quick idea that I’d like to just jot down.
Suddenly, it’s 2:43 in the morning and my ‘quick reminder note’ has turned into 2,000 words. At some point, I’ve poured a finger or two of bourbon, and there’s no cigarette, but I’ve probably chewed through an entire pack of gum.
Ideas that had previously been amorphous blobs in my ‘daylight brain’ have become solid, clearly shaped, and manageable once the nightingale sings. The words that finally come start to fill the page and as I write, the proto-thoughts I’ve been having all day long gain clarity and coherence. My mind calms down as I channel the racing stream of thoughts into one sentence, and then another, and another. The vague sense of anxiety I might feel in the morning or afternoon goes away when I understand the point I’ve been wanting to make, or the transition I’ve wanted to craft in whatever piece I’d started the night before.
I just have to face it. I’m forced into being a writer because of the rush of ideas that hits me as soon as the sun goes down. I have no choice. What other job would allow me to work the third shift without wearing safety goggles or a hairnet? Who would schedule a meeting for 10 minutes past midnight? And now that the internet has made banking and shoe shopping available at all times of the day, why do I need to even pretend that I’m a Day Person?
Never mind that I’ve been ‘writing’ since the age of four by scribbling lines that approximated words, even incorporating spaces and punctuation. Forget the idea that writing to me is as essential as breathing. Ignore the fact that seeing my words on paper helps me think, reason, understand.
No, no, no. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. The Great Oz has revealed the truth. To write, one must be a creature of the night. Now if you’ll excuse me, the sun is rising and it’s time to go to bed.
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When do you do your best writing?
Leanne Shirtliffe (Ironic Mom)
Elena Aitken
Trish Loye Elliott
That’s absolutely true!! Writer’s can’t be normal people, c’mon
It really depends on how I’m feeling, but namely after I wake up or right when I have to do something, I write best. (Which isn’t exactly convenient!)
Inspiration is a slippery little bugger that way, isn’t it?
Always coming when you least suspect it and when you don’t have a pen handy!
Oh how I love this post! I am a night owl too and always have been. During my final year of college I always had to be kicked out of the library when it closed, and then would proceed to study late into the night into my room. Yeah, I was “that student”. Or, at least during my last year when I got all responsible and stuff
I digress…
Now, my brain fires up and is ready to go approximately one minute after I put the twins to bed (at an embarassingly early hour, one which they will undoubtably freak out about when they’re older) and continues on until well past midnight on the weekdays, later on the weekends when the hubby can take over morning duties (demands for food, tv, and other entertainment) of two six-year-olds.
So good to know there are other writers out there, toiling away in the darkness!
Christi Corbett
http://christicorbett.wordpress.com
I probably would have been ‘that student’ too, but I liked to study at home. It’s just so nice and quiet, and the image of the scattered lights of us night owls punctuating the dark is comforting to me. It’s nice that you have a husband to deal with the morning stuff!
Thanks for the comment!
I’ve always been a night owl too and it’s amazing how the creative flow just unfurls at night, effortlessly. Having a full time day job makes it very complicated, but I feel most alive, most vibrant when I’m writing, it’s dark outside and the chance of interruptions is gone with everyone safely sleeping. I love that you three have partnered up to increase your accountability! I look forward to keeping up with your journey!
I think their idea for accountability is great, too.
I figure I may as well have a day job because I really don’t write as much during the day. I get too distracted. There’s too much activity or too many other things on my mind. It’s almost like the darkness allows me to focus because it blocks everything else out.
I’d be up all night writing if I didn’t have short people waking me at 2, 3, 4am. I seem to be most inspired when I’m driving. I shuttle kids around all day and that’s when the stories start to run through my brain. Not the most convenient.
I end up with scraps of paper everywhere because it’s never a convenient time when inspiration hits. I think there is actually a scientific reason for this (and not just the universe messing with us
I say you start teaching your kids to take dictation so they can write your idea while you’re driving 
Congrats on your wonderful guest post. I’m a night owl, too–always have been. I love to write, but it takes me forever to get something done (like letter writing–I haven’t forgotten!
) I also often write when I first get up in the morning.
Sometimes the idea come first thing in the morning for me, too. They just don’t really fully form until nighttime. I think that half-awake state is good for ideas – filters are down and imagination is running. The problem for me is that the waking up process is so very prolonged!
I’m glad you came on over to comment! Nice to see a familiar ‘face’.
Oh, I love this post! My imagination seems to unfurl once the sun goes to bed and I am often, habitually up past midnight, messing around with a post or a story. It’s been hard to explain to my husband, who likes me next to him as he falls asleep. Lately, I’ve taken to tucking him in and then sneaking back downstairs to unload every thought that sprang to mind the second the clock struck 9pm.
Great post!!!
This is when I start to think that separate bedrooms might be a good idea for when my boyfriend and I move in together. He’s thankfully a bit of a night owl, too, but not as bad as I am. But he understands that I’d be just tossing and turning if I forced myself to go to bed when he wants to.
Now I’m also starting to understand why so many famous writers got married so many times!
Thanks for your comment!
Great post! Thanks for joining us today on Wordbitches.
Inspiration often seems to strike for me at night. Honestly, I used to be way more of a night owl until recently (maybe I’m getting older) ACK, did I just say that?!
When the twins were little, I got really good at finding scraps of time throughout the day. Now my ideal writing time is in the afternoon, on the beach at the lake…or as the sun is setting, glass of red in hand.
SIGH…yes I’m spoiled in the summertime. Keep in mind, it’s a VERY short eight weeks. In the real world I still carve out time when I can.
Thanks again for guesting today.
Elena
Summer is an easier time for me to write, too, but you’re right – it goes fast! Once the semester starts, I take the inspiration and writing time whenever I can get it. It still usually comes at night, but then it’s more because that’s when I’ve finally finished grading or planning for classes!
It was a pleasure and an honor to be here today. I’d love to return the invitation if you ladies are ever interested!
“Finished grading”: does that happen?
It’s hard to deal with other people’s writing and write yourself, isn’t it? But maybe it’s harder not to write. Thanks again for guest posting.
You rock!
You make a good point there about grading!
And it does get quite exhausting, but right again: it’s harder not to write!
Thanks again for offering me the spot. It was exciting for my first guest spot to be on such a great blog!
I really loved this post! Thanks so much for sharing it with us and becoming a guest poster. (You write beautifully.)
I used to be a night owl, and not an all-nighter girl, just a 2 am girl. But I also need 6 hours of sleep to function and my little people wake up early. Lately I’ve been trying to get up at 5am in order to write before they get up. I’m not great at forcing myself out of bed, but once I do, the writing seems to flow well. Perhaps one day, I’ll be able to rejoin the night owl ranks.
Thanks Trish! It was really great to be here for the day
I think once a night owl, always a night owl. My mother was always up early when we were kids, but now that there’s no reason for her to make breakfast for 5 school-aged children anymore, she’s gone right back to staying up late and having a nice late morning. She’s been known to start vacuuming or baking a cake at about 11pm. So there’s hope for you
(BTW, big time kudos to you for getting up at 5am!)
Great post!
(And a belated comment from me. XD) You really convey that magical night-writing feeling well!