The Hazards of Writing in Bed

Someone asked what our special place to write was during #writechat on Twitter a couple of Sundays ago. Yes, I'm a super-slow blog poster. Anyway, it's an easy answer for me: bed. I thought that writing in bed was maybe kinda weird, but I told everyone anyway. I've come to accept my writing habits and actually like the fact that I wrote Bedtime Monster in bed. But writing in bed does have its dangers.

First of all, there's the pen marks. You can tell a bed writer by the pen marks on their hands and arms. That's from from falling asleep with the pen in their hand, of course. A face streaked with ink is a dead giveaway.

The pen is a dangerous weapon. Not only can writers cast a deadly word-lashing if so inclined, pens are sharp. It is quite shocking to wake up with a pen stabbing you in the back or the eye. Which leads me to...

Alienating your significant other. My husband actually told me this, so obviously, bed writing affects more than just the bed writer. I know that more than once I've woken up to, "what the heck is this?", followed by the sound of a pen... or two... or three, hitting the floor. When I wake up to paper crinkling, I have to jump up to save my slanting, illegible, written-as-I-was-falling-asleep words from being irreplaceably lost if my hubby is a little to irritated in his sleep. Not that he has ever ripped up my papers, but you never know, someday it just might be one time too many. At least he doesn't mind the ink stains all over the sheets. They're on my side anyway--mostly.

Then there's the losing stuff. When you're a bedtime writer you tend to, um, fall asleep--if you haven't figured that out already. So, sometimes I write something then forget where I wrote it. (I have this other annoying habit of writing in every different room in the house--all in different notebooks, but that's another story.) Then I spend days tearing apart all my notebooks looking for it. Someday I will learn to look between the wall and the bed first.

Falling asleep before I get everything written down is pretty annoying, but it comes with the territory. As I get more into a story or more tired, whichever comes first, I tend to sink lower into the bed. As I sink lower I get more warm and cuddly. It doesn't take long before I am hiding my face under the covers and closing my eyes while I think. And that can only lead to sleep.

Even though there are hazards, writing in bed is my number one spot. And now I have clearly given you too much information.