On Red Bull and Late Nights

Or: Turning calamity into calm sanity.

As a writer, I have noticed that writing seems to be the last thing that I do every day. On many days it seems almost an afterthought. Looking back at the day though, I can notice many times when I am not sitting at the keyboard, but my characters and plots are steadily flowing through my mind. Driving to the store, walking next door to check on the dogs and family, and various other activities allow me time to have little heart to heart talks with my main characters. Although I am not penning out their exploits, I am busy every waking moment molding and shaping their worlds. It's those times that I cannot write that I use to plan.

HOWEVER, it seems the writing time comes terribly late or stressed for time quite often. Well, on behalf of writers everywhere I would like to thank the wonderful people at Red Bull N.A., Inc, Santa Monica, CA for the glorious invention of Red Bull. Today, my foot started it's quarterly swelling and throbbing for no reason bout. While the pain is intense and often sleep depriving, I usually sit in bed in a drowsy, agony filled confusion. But thanks to Red Bull, I can turn my sleeplessness into additional writing time. And because of the magical powers that this magical drink has over the space-time continuum, I can write in hyper speed. Which brings me to another  glorious invention: editing. But that's a topic for far in the future. I am sure that you all will get to read more about that later.

Another, useful tool for being productive on these sleepless nights, is the proper choice of working music. While I love film scores for writing to (especially any by Danny Elfman, John Williams, Hans Zimmer, or Alexandre Desplat), I really find that I get pumping and churning out tons of material listening to house, trance, or dance music. Daft Punk is great for getting my heart and my fingers racing. Do any of you have a favorite working soundtrack? Sound off in the comments section!

If you are a writer, feel free to comment and fill me in on your beverage of choice while writing. If you aren't a writer, chime in too. Let me know what gets you focused on getting things done.