Writing: an apocryphal story

 This contribution to Anu Garg's weekly newsletter:

As the author of four books, I have a lot of experience “working” at writing. Many of my organizing ideas come to me at night, not when I fall asleep but when I wake at midnight and ponder. The worry is whether I’ll remember because I don’t take notes at night.
-Reiner Decher, Prof. Emeritus, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (reiner54 gmail.com)

reminded me of a story told by an old-time scriptwriter (possibly Bob Monkhouse, but certainly someone of that vintage). It seems that one of his fellow scribes was in that same situation of having ideas during the night but not recalling what they were in the morning. He was advised by his shrink to have a notepad and pencil always handy and before turning in for the night or relaxing at any time during the day to repeat to himself the mantra "write it down!" at least three times. Sure enough, after a few nights of uninterrupted dreamless sleep, a brilliant idea came to him in a half-awake state in the early hours and the instruction to write it down stirred his half-conscious brain to make him do just that. You've guessed it: blissfully turning to his notepad in the morning when he was fully awake he read back the text: write it down.