Do you have moments where you wake up in the middle of the night and have to write down something someone said when that someone is a character in your head?
I’ll freely admit that it happens to me.
My characters are carrying on conversations all the time. Quite often, they have some pretty snappy and funny dialogue that I know I could never say myself. And you know what? It’s all happening in my head.
Sometimes I think I need a twelve-step program. I can picture myself in front of a group as I say, “I am a writer. I hear voices. I am not insane.”
This happens most when I am deep into the process of writing a manuscript. If I’m writing several pages a day, my thoughts are still wrestling with the story at night. That’s when my characters take over my thoughts. They are the voices in my head. As soon as I can, I have to get to my laptop and get their conversations down, trying all along to remember what they said.
I hope this is just part of the normal creative process as a writer. Although non writers may see it as me losing grip on reality. Maybe we just have to be a little crazy to be in this business. 
How about you? Do you have voices in your head?
That happened to me on holiday. After six nights away from the manuscript, I was suddenly watching a scene playing out in my mind, in all its glory. I left hubby on the sofa and grabbed paper and pencil and wrote for a solid hour (I had the aching hand to prove it.)
It turned out to be a pivotal scene in the book!
So I hope it’s normal writer behaviour. Otherwise I need help . . .
Joanna- too funny! Yes, I think that what happened to you is very “normal” writer behavior
Not only do I have voices in my head, Lois, but we carry on A-mazing conversations!!!
The secret is to learn to listen to those voices and trust ‘em…the same with your gut instincts. Nothin’ beats just goin’ for the gusto and trustin’ ‘em.
The only times I’ve failed is when I refused to listen or didn’t have the guts to follow my guts!!!
D.D.- your voices do tell amazing stories- I’ve read them in your wonderful books!!!
Thanks Bunches, Lois!
Now then…drum roll here…
Let’s all give a WG2E shout-out and let the Happy Dancin’ commence…
Lois’ debut release LIQUID LIES has now made Amazon’s Top 100 Bestseller’s List (for paid titles)!!! – Last I looked, it was #84!!!
Welcome to the Top 100 Club, Lois!!!
Aren’t you glad you didn’t continue waiting on that Tradi-Pub Contest? LOL!!!
D.D. Thanks for the shout out. I was planning next week’s post as my LIQUID LIES coming out party:)
I think you’ve already done-did “come-out”…LOL!!! In a huge way!!!
If you’re crazy, we all are. My characters are always near, everyday happenings bring them forward and like each of you said I listen. I think it would be very bad if they were silent for very long.
Elizabeth, silencce in our heads- is not a good thing for a writer is it??
Oh yes, absolutely. That’s why I have a pad and pen on my bedside cabinet. If I wake up and get an idea for a scene or even a book, then I will write it down because I know if I don’t then I won’t be able to get to sleep. I think it happens in the quiet time. Your brain has calmed down and not thinking of everyday stuff, so anything else can pop in then.
BTW, Lois. I have downloaded your Liquid Lies free on to my Kindle and look forward to reading it.
Julie- great idea of having a pad and pen nearby- you can capture the voices in your head. And thank you for downloading my book- I really appreciate it:)
Pleasure, Lois. Just supporting another one of the team here.
I don’t hear voice but words come to me!
Often in the middle of the night. I write them down.
In the dark.
Amazing how often those are just the words I needed & was looking for.
(If I don’t write them down, I can’t go back to sleep. They keep me up, demanding my attention. Persistent little buggers!)
Ruth- yes these voices can keep us awake at night:) Thank you for sharing.
Ruth, do you hear the voices when you read books? I don’t, but I know that’s unusual…I’m thinking that the words coming to you may be because of that different processing, if so.
Sometimes while dreaming I’ve actually backspaced over the dream story line to change the plot, and not a day goes by that I can’t hear dialogue in my head. I’m glad I’m not the only crazy one.
Doug- you are soooo not alone!
Doug you are sooo not alone:)
Doug, that’s called “lucid dreaming”…I’ve done the same. It’s hard to explain to people who don’t do it: you can’t just remake the dream reality at will, but I have gone back and made different choices.
Good to know others are just as “crazy.”
R.A. yes we are all in good company:)
And here I thought I was alone! I never embraced the paper & pencil, but many scenes are born in the middle of the night. Maybe I’ll give it a try. Congrats on the book.
Nancy- thank for the congrat’s:) Like you, my stories are often born at night:) Thank you for sharing.
It’s how I get introduced to most of my characters —- I “hear” them conversing (sometimes even arguing) with each other in my head. It’s often a complete conversation too — once I had half an opening chapter for one of my novels drop into my brain word for word. And I hadn’t even met those characters yet!
My motto: “If you hear voices, you’re a lunatic. If you write down what they say, you’re an author.”
Dani- I love that you hear the voices- don’t they seem so real?? I love this: My motto: “If you hear voices, you’re a lunatic. If you write down what they say, you’re an author.”
I love that motto! I’m gonna steal it…..
Not to worry, Lois. Normal is soooo overrated.
I’ve had fictional characters write entire books for me. Of course, I’ve also had one use my credit card to do a little madcap shopping on Amazon.
Jeff, too funny about your characters using your credit card!!
I definitely think you need to be a little crazy in this business — if you aren’t at the beginning, you certainly will be after a few months in!
I hear characters and story ideas whispering to me most often when I’m trying to sleep.
Talli, yes to be in this business you need to be plain crazy, and crazy like a fox too:)
Congrats, Lois!!!
I hear voices. I talk to the voices. They talk back. Even argue about where I want a scene to go. They’re usually right. They tend to wake me at 3am. Wish they were a little more considerate, but you gotta write when the muse hits.
Thanks Rhonda! Too funny “They tend to wake me at 3am. Wish they were a little more considerate, but you gotta write when the muse hits.”
Lois, that’s a great post! It’s amazing how when we write we can have what is effectively an independent reality…but created by us.
As to the voices: my recollection is that in the old Minnesota Multiphasic personality test, that was one of the questions: did you ever hear voices in your head? The trick is that some people with mental disorders always answered that question as “no”, even though they did. “Normal” people would admit to it, whereas people who would see it as a stigma didn’t. So, saying you didn’t hear voices was more likely to align you with people who did…
Bufo, your comments are so on track “people with mental disorders always answered that question as “no”, even though they did. “Normal” people would admit to it” Hmm, so as long as we admit to the voices we are sane- I love it:)
Hi, Lois.
Just for the record, I don’t think you’re (all that) crazy. Heh.
LOL- Matt/David – thanks!!!
Sort of. I have scenes run in my head at night when I can’t sleep. It’s like I’m watching a movie of the book I’m writing (or am thinking about writing). The scenes don’t always end up in the book, or maybe I end up writing them differently, but it really helps me figure out my characters.
Kirsten, that is so cool:”It’s like I’m watching a movie of the book I’m writing (or am thinking about writing.” Writing is such a creative process, isn’t it? Thank you for sharing:)
SO MANY VOICES!
And most of them don’t like me very much
No, but seriously, half the time THEY write the story, not me. I don’t even know what I’m doing. Sometimes I’m sitting there working it out as a film before I write it. I work out the scene changes and the setting and the dialogue, then see what a director would cut before filming it and don’t write that bit, then I write it.
Miriam- yes- they do write the story (the voices) not us:)