Shon Essay 2 - The Magic Hour

The magic hour really exists.

Sorta.

Last year while I was writing my Thigh Vs Thigh stories, I would run into these horrible deadlines. I posted a new story every weekend and sometimes knowing I HAD to write just froze me up. The days would tick by and I wouldn't have anything ready.

I do most of my plotting at work. My job is pretty brainless and since it is a night shift, I don't have anything else to think about. From 11 pm to 7am, I would try to come up with a story idea. Most of the night, I would just panic. Most of my ideas were things I had done before, or were just outright lame. The hours would tick by and I would start stressing. No matter what tricks I tried or books I would read during my breaks, I would never come up with anything new or even fun. Then as the night was coming to a close, and usually after I had given up on thinking of anything, I would get a great idea. Pop! Amy and Bethany could sneak into Madonna's auditions! Pop! An Indian Reservation wants to build a casino! After I got my idea I would just thank the muses that I finally thought of something before I headed home. I'd even do a little dance.

This happened every week. The interesting thing about having a stress crisis on a weekly basis is that eventually, even the dumbest writer catches onto things. I caught on to the fact that I would stress until five o'clock rolled around and then I would get my new idea for the week. I wondered if it was because I had my lunch at 4, or if it was because around five I was just happy to go home. As any good writer would do, I started fucking with it. I'd skip lunch. I stayed over a few days to see if the ideas would still come in. To my surprise, I was still getting ideas from five to six.

I don't know when I started calling it magic hour but I liked the name. On the other hand, only a writer would call something that he didn't get laid in, magic hour.

As a reader of weird things, I had plenty of explanations for magic hour. See, some people think ideas travel the universe and actually have a tiny bit of mass and when the world turns just right, some people are more receptive to catching one. Or, Muses have a five am wake-up call. Or maybe, just maybe, the stars align and Great Creative Gods like Shon at five in the morning.

Last month I saw a news report that said scientists had found that men reached their sexual peak at five am. Suddenly, magic hour didn't seem like magic hour anymore. It was Horny Hour. There went all the glamour. My wife got a good laugh out of it.

I was kind of depressed until magic hour rolled around again. I wasn't even thinking of it because I was obsessing over how to make a character in one of my stories more believable. It wasn't a matter of making her sexy, I just needed to flesh her out. A friend had called the character flat and I was banging my head trying to fix it.

I finally settled on showing what kind of book she had stashed in her purse. Easy, non-sexual and yet tells you that little extra detail to don't normally see in porn. I was very proud of myself. I did a little dance.

It was 5:45.

I thought about it. Was it sexual inspiration? How could adding a book to a purse be blamed on being horny? Maybe scientists (the same guys who thought eggs would kill you on sight for about a week) were misinterpreting magic hour. And who are these scientists anyway?

Maybe around five we get a jolt of sexual energy. Maybe at five the stars align and just men get smart. Like Vanessa would say, does it really matter? For me, there is a magic hour. Some days it doesn't work and like a boiling pot, it never works when I'm looking straight at the clock. All I know is that when I am in a jam, and when I have lost hope, there's always a chance at five o'clock for me.

More importantly, in a hobby that is loaded with pitfalls like writer's block, meaningless stroke fiction and nasty critics, wouldn't it be nice to have a little magic somewhere?