NIGHT WRITING

We went to a movie last night because it was Beggars Night, which is what passes for Halloween in Iowa.  Actually, it's not that people don't talk about Halloween or that they place it on the wrong day; it's just all the trick-or-treating is done the night before.

Like a pair of grinches Mark and I went out for dinner before our doorbell started ringing and stayed away until we'd also seen an evening showing of The Maze Runner (which we enjoyed because it's a type of movie that we always do).  I love coming out of a movie at night.  The world is a little bit surreal in the dark, and in the jolting moments of reacclimating to reality, life feels both mysterious and more real than usual.

In general I don't like night, Beggars or otherwise; it's when my worries surface and are magnified.  It's also when my mind works most quickly and is most agile (which, as I think of it, is probably why my worries run rampant).  I'm happiest during the day but do my best creative work at night, and sometimes in the infant stages of morning.

I'm reading a book by Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit; it's sort of odd and she's sort of odd, but then most people are.  I was assigned similar books in college classes, and I would have enjoyed this one if it had been part of a class, but I like it even more on my own steam.

The premise of the book is that creativity comes from hard work and good habits, and also working to equip yourself so that you're ready for good ideas whenever they come to you.  Mine come at night - not exclusively, but often.  The best papers I wrote in college (and I wrote a lot of papers) were written at night, hours before they were due.

I'm sitting at the desk Mark made me tonight, reading and taking notes, and feeling distinctly motivated and inspired. And the time is unequivocally night, that breeder of fear and worry - but also the time of inspiration and those moments of rediscovery after sitting in a theater.  It sounds like a paradox, even to me.  But I turned on a few lamps and lit a candle and settled in, because inspiration has struck.  And I'm ready.