Writer's Commentary: No Sleep Til Brooklyn

On Post: No Sleep Til Brooklyn

Date: January 1

Find it here

Of all my posts during the January Project, I am pretty sure this is the one that ran farthest away from the song that inspired it. Not coincidentally, I expect, it would also make my “Greatest Hits of The January Project” if I was put together such a thing.

Initially, the first image that the song called to mind was a group of friends driving over the Brooklyn Bridge. I could picture them screaming and shouting and….that was it. I had no idea why they were there, where they were going or who they were. Thus, I didn’t care about them and didn’t care to write about them.

From there I moved on to a guy in an apartment in Brooklyn, unable to sleep because of a party on the floor below. Again, though, the party part didn’t click with me or give me an idea where to go. I did like the idea of a man awake in his own apartment and asked myself why else he might be awake. When I was still living in Hartford, our apartment was always about 75 degrees, winter, spring, and fall, (Summer got much hotter), thus the idea of living in an apartment too hot to sleep in.

With that premise in place, the rest of the story kind of flowed from there. The image of a sweltering apartment filled with reflective surfaces covered by beach towels, the complaining to co-workers, and the contrast of the snow outside fell into place almost immediately after I decided the heat was keeping Eric awake.

I feel bad about the snow bit though. I think we had only had one storm here in the CT by this point, so it was still more inspirational than terrifying and/or soul deadening. That changed rather rapidly and now I can’t look at this entry without thinking I somehow brought it on us. Like the snow gods (WHO ARE REAL) totally took it as a plaintive prayer and answered it. Over and over again. Apparently, neither the ice cream gods nor the gods of “intimate romance” employ the same system. Which is disappointing.

Oh, fun fact. (Relatively speaking) Nearly every male character during the January Project started out named “Eric” for some reason. I kept having to look back and remind myself that I already named someone Eric and change it.

Just because the Project has ended doesn't mean I still don't value your feedback. Feel free to let me know on Twitter (@UnGajje) or drop me a note at tim[dot]g[dot]stevens[at]gmail[dot]com or on Facebook. If you see anything you like, I am all over the net too, so please check out my other works at Marvel, Complaint of the Week at the Living Room Times, and New Paris Press, set to debut shortly although information may be available before then here or my various 140 character missives on that Twitter account.