Night Writing

I woke up today at 2:30 pm.

I went to sleep at 8:00 am.

I believe I mentioned in a past post (can't be bothered to go find it) that I have insomnia. Horrible insomnia...that doesn't go away. Ever. I've always been this way, even when I was a baby. My mom has told me countless stories about her sleepless daughter keeping her up late into the night. The only way she could relieve the problem is to prop me in front of the TV and play Dances with Wolves. That usually kept my attention while she got some well-needed sleep.

That's something that's followed me into adulthood. The longest time I've ever gone without sleep is six days. That was just terrible, so I won't go into the full story.

When I was younger, I had to lay in bed with my TV volume on low, hoping Mom didn't wake up and RAWR at me for being awake so late. Even though I wasn't sleeping at night, I rarely fell asleep in class, so it's not like the insomnia ever hindered anything for me. It was just mildly annoying since I didn't have anything to do but watch boring late-night TV.

Now I've got something to fill those empty hours. Writing. And since everyone else is asleep, I haven't got anything to distract me. Night writing lets me spend lots of time with nothing but my writing without making me feel like I'm neglecting my family/boyfriend. I'm up during the day as well, so I spend my days with them and my nights on my computer.

But recently, I've been up late doing unproductive things, like watching the LRMReading channel on YouTube. It's funny to listen to those three read bad fanfiction, but it's not at all helpful. In fact, after listening to hours of BAD writing, it's kind of hard to get into the swing of good writing.

I need to kick myself in the ass and get back to work. As I've told you all, those videos/E-mails/text messages aren't going anywhere. They can wait until after I've filled my daily writing goal. My boyfriend tries to convince me it's okay to slack off and watch funny videos so I can relax a little, but he doesn't really understand how important daily writing is...especially for someone like me who can lose interest in things that sit for too long. I see where he's coming from--everyone needs to relax once in a while--but I still have goals to work toward.

I can relax afterwards.

Do you ever 'night write'?

Does it help or did you find you were just too sleepy to write anything good?

How do you feel about slacking off for a while? Does it help or hurt?

HAPPY WRITING, LOVELIES!