How to Write a Hub In the Dark

When I was growing up I never read books by flashlight under the bed covers. Now that I have a bed mate I’m beginning to consider it; although it’s not my passion for reading that’s driving me to unconventional nocturnal activities, it’s my need to write something and to perhaps make money do so.

I started working at home, writing blogs and Hubs only a few months ago and I've discovered that it’s pretty addicting. There’s this guardian angel, or tricky demon, or lurking ancestral spirit, or inner child that keeps poking my brain, churning up some long buried subject matter that just must be expressed before I conk out - which, as we all know, could be any minute. It’s distracting, it’s physically painful and I don’t sleep as much as I used to - but I still do it.

Since I’ve resigned myself to write for my own pleasure (as well as make some money), I’m determined to overcome at least one annoying stumbling block. Some of my most lucid thoughts come to me in the middle of the night.

In the beginning I figured I’d make a few mental notes, hoping to remember a brilliant idea or well-structured sentence so I could write it down the next day. The problem is, the brilliant ideas that come to me in the night are like dreams – they vanish by morning. It may be that I’m just too old and forgetful to succeed at it - and perhaps I was able to do it years ago, but then again, I don’t remember.

Before you go any further, I should point out that this Hub is really more of a Rant rather than one of my more useful Hubs chock full of wisdom and constructive information, so proceed only if you relate to my trivial exasperations.

Anyway, I devised a clever Plan Two to solve my night writer dilemma. Place a pen and pad on the bedside end table. The problem here is that when you wake up with that clever thought, you have to feel for the pen and pad in the dark. If you get lucky and manage to put pen to paper without overturning the glass of water on the night table and subsequently waking your sleeping partner, you soon discover that it’s still too dark to see what you’re writing and the paper is all wet. I have indeed tried it, but found that I could in no way read the chicken scratch come daylight.

You would think by now, I would get a small flashlight and go undercover, but I’m a stubborn sort and still think it’s too childish. Anyway, the covers aren’t that abundant. So I purchased a bigger notepad determined to write only in bold headlines rather than chicken scratch.

This was better, but not what I needed. I was waking my spouse with all that page turning.

The next day, I dug into my handbag and pulled out my key chain. I remembered that there was this little flashlight attached…the one your meant to use to find your keys, (clever little item - not).

After spending a good hour trying to remove the sucker from the key chain, I set it by the bedside on top of my regular sized notepad and waited for the appointed hour.

That night I tested out the mini-flashlight. I have to say this method worked ok save for the fact that I had one hand holding the pen and the other holding down the button on the flashlight while pointing it in the right direction. It worked until the one-use-only battery ran out.

Now that I had a reasonable solution, all I had to do was to buy a year’s supply of keychain flashlights, or wait for some commercial vendor to send me one as a promotional Christmas gift. (That’s where I got the last one).

Happily an even better solution presented itself the following evening. Glancing over at my pen and pad, it occurred to me that there was a little light I had not noticed previously; one that was very close at hand. This teeny source of illumination came from my Blackberry, set on the charger and stuffed into the proverbial bedside tissue box. I never took much notice, because it was purposely placed well away from sight so as not to disturb the sleeping being nearby. Here was a tiny night-light, on a reasonably long wire that could provide me with enough illumination to meet my desperate need. I gave it a shot.

Low and behold (pardon the corny exclamation) it worked like magic. The tiny beam illuminated my notepad just enough so as I could see what I was writing, yet it was concentrically focused on the perfect spot. I didn’t have to push any buttons or hold anything with my spare hand. I checked on my husband… still peacefully snoring away. I had found the solution.

Unfortunately Amazon is not selling Blackberrys, otherwise I would no doubt have added that (so far) completely worthless Capsule. So I’ll just bask in the warmth of knowing I’ve had my Rant and have perhaps shared a piece of useful information. Happy nocturnal inspirations.

Here's another great solution I discovered about a year after I wrote this Hub. If you have a mobile phone that uses apps, there's a very effective, free app called "Maxflash" that works like a charm. There are actually several flashlight apps, so do some searching on your phone's app marketplace, download your favorite and start writing Hubs (in the light and the dark)!

Sign up here and have fun.

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