Have you ever tried writing or coming up with cool ideas when you are really tired?

Question

I can't do it, and the few times that I wrote stuff while tired it all came out like c**p. This situation sucks especially bad when you are being forced to stay awake for something, or you're at work with nothing else to do. I really hate wasting time staring at the wall, but that usually seems like the best option in these cases. Or being on here asking questions that other people scoff at.

Answer 1

I come up with the best written things when I'm angry. I can't write when I'm tired either.

Answer 2

Yeah, whenever I think of something funny it's always at the end of the day when I'm lying in my bed. Isn't that when most people come up with solutions to a lot of there problems just lying in bed thinking about their day

Answer 3

I know what you mean .... When I'm working as an Air Traffic Controller on 2 hours sleep and I writing the script for Rocky XXIII ....

...it all comes out like c**p!

Answer 4

I begin playing out my storyline as a movie in my head, and the best time I found is when I'm tired and a bit sleepy, it seems to let my imagination work a bit faster.  Of course, it can be difficult to get it all down without forgetting something when it's moving at movie speed, lol. I've decided I really need a digital recorder to talk through it as I see it in my head.  

Have you tried music?  I have a certain playlist of songs on my iTunes that just feeds my imagination when I'm writing and have a block.  I don't know how, but it works.  I can write for hours listening to those songs.  

Answer 5

For me yeah i do think better at night. I guess cause since i'm tired only important thoughts come up.

Answer 6

Actually, I write best when I'm really tired. I write all my school essays when drowsy, and I almost always receive A's on them.

Now as for other daily tasks, I usually mess them up terribly when I'm really sleepy. Example: Forgetting to add the second cup of water to instant pancake mix and not noticing that the pizza-dough consistency of the 'finished' mix was abnormal. ;D

(On a completely random side-note, I enjoyed reading your aspirations in your info. Vikings are coming back...if not in the   football team, in the Flavor Flav hat. Hahah)

Answer 7

Tired? No.  Tired and tipsy? Yes.  'Loose' is the key here.

Answer 8

I've tried it not much luck though. only came up with the first and send line if even that.

        J J

Answer 9

The only idea I have when I am tired is how to sleep (*-*)

Answer 10

Sure, I do that. Sleep deprivation is called one of the best catalysts for creativity.

However, that is not true for everyone.

If you're the kind of person that is plagued with inhibitions, then the lack of sleep will help that issue.

Answer 11

well i come up with really cool ideas then i dose off and forget them all lol

and then it bugs me for the rest of my life lol  

Answer 12

I've had some great creative ideas when I was either half-asleep or else trying to wake up.  But generally, it's just an idea that I can summarize in one or two sentences and then get back to when I'm fully awake.  My writing sucks when I'm too tired.  But I still have some good ideas when I'm really tired that I can work on later, as long as I write them down so I don't forget.

Answer 13

Some of the best stuff I write is when I'm tired.

Answer 14

My greatest ideas come from me being tired.

Answer 15

no i'm too tired too even do it..

Answer 16

sometimes when im tiered i come up with the best things

Answer 17

i tried making a drink with milk then i added M&Ms to it and a smashed chocolate cookie into it. it tasted good! i also play games on my cell phone, prank call, throw pencils into the ceiling.

Answer 18

I come up with most of my best love poems when i'm tired (mostly due to the fact that i'm kept awake by the girls i love).

I came up with a reason of how i know i love the girl i do now when i was tired.

I was sitting there thinking of all the reasons that i loved her when i realised that i could remember the colour of her eyes.I thought "i've stared at them for longer than anyone else's and couldn't look away for even a second."

I just wrote next to all these long poems that i remember her eyes.

If that's corny, then corn me up.

Brown eyes, see me throught the night,

Answer 19

I write whenever I'm inspired, so yeah when I'm exhausted if an idea pops into my head I try to write it down before I pass out. I've woken up in the middle of the night to write things dwon too. And I constantly write at work out of boredom. True sign of a writer, right?

Answer 20

LOL I have, and I usually just end up staring at the laptop screen for 4 hours until I finally just say "F-it" and go to sleep.

Answer 21

I've been writing my story at midnight this summer. I get too distracted during the day, I've got other things to do, people bother me, and I can't get the quiet I need. And at night, even though I'm tired, I *want* to write, so I do, and it doesn't come out too bad.

If I try writing now, though, I'd just get distracted by Y! Answers, the TV which is right in front of me, my dogs, Harry Potter 4 which is right next to me... too many things. But at night, I'm up in my room and there's nothing but The Iliad to distract me. And that's not really something that would distract me.

Writing at night works best for me. Sorry for my scattered thoughts and sentences, there... I know I kind of rambled.

Answer 22

Ignore the scoffers. They are just jealous or bitter.

As for your writing being c**p when your tired. The first book I had published was the result of a week's worth of c**p writing when I was depressed. I wrote, I set it aside, I revised. I got it published and it has been very well reviewed.

Not everything you write will be brilliant. Something you write that is c**p, may later turn out to offer a great idea that may inspir your best writing ever. I have a directory on my hard drive that is nothing but the opening chapters or outlines of ideas that may or may not be c**p. but they are there and every now and then I revisit them.

So, even if you are tired, keep those notes and who knows where they might lead.

Karen Syed

http://karensyed.blogspot.com