Blog-aholic

If you’re a confirmed bloggist like me, you’ll know what it’s like to leap up suddenly from bed just as you’re about to doze off, run eight times around your room screaming excitedly (P. G Wodehouse claims he did this when he thought of the title "Summer Lightning" for a book), and then settle down to scribble furious notes because you’ve just been struck with an idea for a blog.

Unfortunately, this kind of thing ends almost invariably in disappointment, for an idea that seems inspired in the middle of the night generally loses most of its sheen when viewed through the cold prism of daylight. In the course of his famous interviews to Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock told the tale, probably made up, of a scriptwriter who woke one night convinced that he had the kernel of the greatest story ever told. Trembling with excitement, he wrote it down on a piece of paper, kept it under his pillow -- and then woke the next morning to find the following plot summary: "Boy meets girl."

So the next time I get blog ideas when I’m in bed, I’ll just revert to the old counting-sheep-over-a-fence technique. (Except that’ll probably make me want to blog about sheep.)