Wednesday 3 March 2010

My head is killing me

No, it's not the voices this time. Just an evil headache.

I worked till late last night to finish a piece I'm doing for a magazine. This publication always gives me insane deadlines. But they pay well. This time, they couldn't find the contact details for the person they wanted me to interview, so I only managed to get hold of him on the day of the original deadline. Eventually we set up an interview (4pm on Monday afternoon). He was 30 minutes late and so I only finished at about 5.30 and had to hang about on the other side of town until traffic subsided slightly. Seeing the piece goes to print on Friday, I had to get it to the interviewee today to give him approval time. That meant that I only had yesterday to write the 2100 words I was commissioned to do.

Normally that wouldn't be a problem. I write fast. But, this article is incredibly technical and I lack the specialised vocabulary to explain certain processes, so it took me ages. I was still impressed with myself for getting it done, I must admit. But, true to form, because my brain was in work mode, I could not fall asleep.

And when I eventually did nod off in the wee small hours of the morning, I had weird dreams about my editor turning into my writing course teacher and then giving me awful feedback and making me rewrite the whole article today. In between there were also some strange dreams about the work I have to review written by other students on the course, and about the megastore that plans to build on our boundary wall.

I don't think I will ever grow out of the habit of dealing with whatever is bothering my psyche through odd dreams.

Today I feel and look like a zombie. Thankfully I don't have any business meetings today. I reckon people would assume I have a serious drug habit because of my red eyes.

Off to go do my reviewing now. Hopefully it doesn't give me more nightmares tonight ;-)

7 comments:

Po said...

Oooh nooo sorry to hear about your awful dreams and zombification. I feel awful too. I have started having dreams too, after about 8 years of no dreams and they are always about my firends fighting and horrible things like that. They don't seem like dreams, they feel real!

Damaria Senne said...

I'm impressed with your fast writing. Could have used the skill back in the days when I worked as a journalist. I tend to be the slow writer who agonises over every word, unless I'm very inspire and am actually just spilling my guts. I second guess almost everything, which drives me nuts:-)
Sorry about the bad dreams. Hopefully you'll get more rest over the weekend?

Anonymous said...

Sleeplessness and bad dreams seem to be going around this week. :)

Cam said...

Bad dreams suck!

Hope you feel better Tam.

Shayne said...

Wow, impressive writing skills you have (but we know that already don't we?)

Yay to getting it done on time.

Yuck to no sleep. I'd be a wreck!

Patchwork said...

I love bad dreams. Weirdly, somewhere in the back of my mind there is always something telling me I know it's just a dream. They can last all night too! Anyway, good job on the article, I am a fast writer too, I spend more time cutting and tightening up flabby sentences afterward.

Tamara said...

Po: It seems to be going around the blogosphere like some crazy virus, this restless sleep and bad dream bug. Hope it passes soon!

Damaria: I'm the opposite. I can type commissions out at the speed of light, but if it's my own personal creative writing, I rewrite and rewrite and agonise over every word.

Sleepyjane: They do. Weird. Hope they go away soon.

Cam: Thanks, man.

Shayne: Ah, flattery will get you everywhere ;-)

Patchwork: That's plain odd. Mine always seem totally real and I wake up in a flat panic.