Writing is as individual as writers who are, in turn, as individual as blades of grass that bend and sway in the wind, each hoping that a small ray of sunshine will fall on them, yet every one seeking the same thing. There are as many reasons for writing perhaps, as there are fish in the sea, maybe more since I havent counted the fish recently but for the real persistent writer, I think it is less of an urge, a calling to write than that of being unable to NOT write.

There are always little things playing round the empty spaces in my mind, (and there is a LOT of empty space), like an overheard word or two, something that was seen on the Television perhaps which struck me as funny even though it wasn't a humorous programme or maybe just an outline for a story or plot which is briefly glimpsed like the shadows half-seen in the corner of your eye. Thousands of them escape of course when I have no pen and paper nearby or Im not at the computer. 

I'm almost convinced that somewhere between the real and the cyber worlds, there is a continous stream of ideas, plots, characters, story-lines and by-lines, concepts and all manner of useful things just floating along, waiting for the creative mind to "log in" and pick up on some of it, no matter how inconvenient the time it might happen. 

Many times I find myself in the middle of the night, in that strange nowhere land betwixt sleep and waking, with my mind working on some line, thought, sentence, character or the like. I faithfully promise myself to remember this gem of wisdom as I slowly sink back into the depths of the quicksand-like sleep, when the door bursts open and my 'writing muse' crashes in screaming at me to wake up and put pen to paper before I forget. (He's right of course but I would never let HIM know that!). Thus it is the way of things that my writing day can begin with an (often futile) attempt at deciphering the scrawl of what I like to call "my handwriting" from the previous night.

I wont begin to go into how my muse reacts when I occasionally raise the thought of giving up writing for good and getting some sleep..........!