Muse Drives The Writer

Recently, I started a new story. Even though I couldn’t wait to write pages each day, I grew nervous when I felt compelled to write only at night. For many writers, that’s not a problem, but that’s just plain odd for me. I’m a devout morning person. At age 12, I used to get up at five and milk my cow for goodness sake. Even in the snow and rain.

See my problem?

There have been a few days where I knew I wouldn’t get in my committed daily writing on this new project (taking care of seven grandchildren ages 10-seven months), so I wrote early morning. I found, though, the characters weren’t chatty at that hour and I forced a paragraph or two.

Since beginning the new story, I hurry to finish up nightly chores. While I’m working on the chores, I sense the characters urging me to “hurry, hurry, come join us, and write what happens next.”

Wow! This has never happened to me before. Is this normal? Is there something wrong with me? I feel like a child, who's sneaking out at night with a flashlight to find night creatures.

After two weeks and 75 pages of writing later, I wrote my crituqe group. I expressed my concern for these off-the-wall nightly writing sessions. One writer thought this was good. She says my muse is working at night, and the character is talking to me during this time.

But why?

The best explanations I could think of are two fold. My first and older story doesn’t allow competition, so the new story has to work the night shift. And the second reason could be the story begins in the middle of the night.

Has this ever happened to you?