Do They Not Know It’s Bedtime???

Those tiny little voices are really quiet, until bedtime that is.

I believe those little voices have their sleep schedule reversed and really I don’t have time to flip it. So that would be why it remains the same.

They don’t yap all day. They don’t help with creating ideas, or running my plot, or helping with character names, or even just keeping me stay motivated as I stare at the stupid blank page.

That is until 11pm. I’m snuggled in, ready to just slip into blissful sleep. Then the tiny alarm clock goes off….and they start running around in my head.

“Hey Juanita, how about Christian, or Sam, or Leo, or wait was your main character a guy or a girl. Why did that character do that….whats the REASON…”

“Excuse me, Excuse me…What about a book about writing at night…no wait that’s not going to work”

“Hey I got it, you need to write 2 articles a day, plus a short story and you need to get that novel you put on the shelf back into a rewrite. You have so much to do… and don’t forget you need to read more…. like a lot more…Did you lock the door? How come he snores so much? How about a story on snoring….why is it so hot in here….you should get up and write this stuff down, it’s good. Come on, get up and write it down…”

And there are times I do get up and write stuff down, and there are times when those little voices just cause a lot of unneeded stress. Especially when I don’t feel I’m doing enough to work on my writing. They push me and push my buttons, especially if I have skipped a day or two on writing.

I had voices long ago that told me I was never going to be a writer, that what I wrote meant nothing and would amount to nothing. It took a lot of practice to drop those voices but the method was easy.

I wrote.

I liked what I wrote. If I didn’t like it, I tossed it.

If I liked it, it was ok if others didn’t.

The “not good enough” voices try and pop in every once in a while, but they are disruptive and harmful. So I don’t give them rental space.

Little voices can be helpful or harmful, toss the harmful and give heed to the helpful. Learn and grow, take chances, explore, toss it if it doesn’t work and most of all be yourself.

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Do They Not Know It’s Bedtime??? was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.