Sleep and the nature of the writer... and more...

There's a few things I think I have to say right now...

The first involves the way that writing buggers a sleep cycle.
A friend of mine commented on this in her blog a little while ago (http://rachlanger.blogspot.com/2009/02/pandoras-box.html), and I myself have been experiencing the effects over the last week or so.
Take last night, for example... I think I was lucky to get a whole two hours sleep last night, and even those two hours were far from restful. I wandered through my day like a zombie because my mind was running around about a million different things. And I'd say that probably 750,000 of that million was stuff about my writing (in one way or another).
Of course, considering other circumstances in my life at the moment, I'm not going to place all the blame for my sleeplessness on my writing, but it is a large part of it.

Secondly, I feel as though I am learning more about my own nature as a writer...
The nature of the writer is pain, struggle, difficulty. Perhaps the true nature of the writer is escape and exorcism.
My best work is done when I'm struggling through something, battling some kind of inner demon, feeling some sort of intense emotion. When I encounter something in my life that I don't know how to deal with, I write. I don't usually write about what I'm dealing with, but it seems to help none-the-less.
And beyond all that, the nature of the writer is solitary, and yet dependent.
I work best when I'm alone. Home by myself on my days off, or up late at night after everyone else has gone to bed. I think I'd be the kind of person who would go away on my own for the weekend and spend all my time writing (if I had some place to go, that is), and be perfectly happy doing so. It would be an interesting experiment, and I would like to try it some day. Be out somewhere with my writing supplies, my imagination, and my cell phone as my only real connection to the rest of the world. (Part of me insists that me and my "girlfriend" - aka my laptop - would need wireless internet too, but that's really just too much of a distraction. Too many things to do other than write... It just doesn't balance the few writing tools that I use online)
And yet... I like to share my work. I enjoy knowing what other people think of the thing I've created. And I feel... almost almost a little hollow when I can't share, or don't share, or get no response to what I have shared.
I thrive on solitude, and yet I crave feedback and input... So apparently the nature of the writer is a little bi-polar *chuckles*

Experiments... Or maybe exercises would be a better word.
I would be interested in trying out a few different writing exercises... I saw a writers desk kit thingie at Chapters once a long time ago, that had a book of different writing exercises, one for each week of the year (or something like that). I mocked the idea at the time, but as I've gotten older, and learned more about myself and my craft, I wish I'd looked into it a little deeper.
I cannot be content to do as I've always done, but I don't know how to go about doing things differently. And I'm at the age where I'm willing, even enthusiastic, about admitting that I need some help.
Now I just have to take that admission and move forward with it.

And now, with those thoughts removed from the ones flying around my head, perhaps an evening of relaxation will help me sleep.

*bows deeply, and wanders away*