{"id":6517,"date":"2015-07-07T14:09:53","date_gmt":"2015-07-07T18:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=6517"},"modified":"2015-07-07T14:09:53","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T18:09:53","slug":"6517","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=6517","title":{"rendered":"Awake at Night with an Active Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Writer and world traveler Karen Emslie writes about waking up in the middle of the night and how it may be <a href=\"http:\/\/aeon.co\/magazine\/psychology\/why-broken-sleep-is-a-golden-time-for-creativity\/?utm_content=bufferd7866&#038;utm_medium=social&#038;utm_source=twitter.com&#038;utm_campaign=buffer\">a good time for creative play<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jenumfamily\/5530372083\" title=\"March 15, 2011 by Jeremy Jenum, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/c2.staticflickr.com\/6\/5015\/5530372083_d0b78b5fc7_n.jpg?resize=320%2C200&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"320\" height=\"200\" style=\"float:left; margin:12px;\" alt=\"March 15, 2011\"><\/a>It is true that when I wake at 4am I have a whirring mind. . . . If I write in these small hours, black thoughts become clear and colourful. They form themselves into words and sentences, hook one to the next \u2013 like elephants walking trunk to tail. My brain works differently at this time of night; I can only write, I cannot edit. I can only add, I cannot take away. I need my day-brain for finesse. I will work for several hours and then go back to bed. . . .<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, when [Nicholson] Baker was writing what would become <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B000FC0Z9E\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=B000FC0Z9E&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=brandbooks-20&#038;linkId=GI77YIRHBSUBZWKW\">A Box of Matches<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=brandbooks-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=B000FC0Z9E\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" \/><\/em> (2003), a novel about a writer who gets up around 4am, lights a fire and writes while his family sleeps, Baker himself practised this ritual, then went back to bed for a second sleep.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I found that starting and nurturing this tiny early flame helped me to concentrate,\u2019 Baker told <em>The Paris Review<\/em>. \u2018There\u2019s something simple and pleasantly meditative about building a fire at four in the morning. I started writing disconnected passages, and the writing came easily.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Writer and world traveler Karen Emslie writes about waking up in the middle of the night and how it may be a good time for creative play. It is true that when I wake at 4am I have a whirring mind. . . . If I write in these small hours, black thoughts become clear &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=6517\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Awake at Night with an Active Mind<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[1145,2600],"class_list":["post-6517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-writing","tag-habit","tag-sleep"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}