My Insomnia Work In Progress (And Why I’m Struggling To Name It!)

So..I actually have a lot of works in progress. Will I divulge just how many? Hmm..maybe someday. Today, however, I’m focusing on the work in progress I am actually working on.

The idea of an insomnia-centred poetry collection came to me when, surprise surprise, I was struggling to sleep one night. If you’re familiar with my poetry, or indeed just my writing in general, then you know it’s quite emotion heavy. I tap into myself and bleed words onto the page until I feel better. Naturally, on the nights where my insomnia is particularly bad, my emotions are so stark and turbulent. I needed an outlet..so why not write poetry about it?

I actually had a working title in mind before I started writing the collection. For a while I listened to nature sounds to try and wind down, but it was something I only resorted to if it got to about five or six in the morning and I still wasn’t asleep. Listening to forest sounds one morning, my head latched onto this phrase: Forest Sounds At Six. Bam! I had myself a title!

…or did I??

I was so sure about Forest Sounds At Six, I’ve even designed the book cover! However, as I began writing the poems, a phrase and a concept kept popping up. It’s in the starting poem, it’s in the ending poem, and it appears in some other poems in the collection too. Dear Hypnos. I was imploring with the Greek god of sleep to help me, to please let me sleep..

Yeah. So I have two working titles. And two different covers..

And I honestly can’t choose between them! Forest Sounds At Six sounds like a peppy podcast, like something you’d listen to at six in the morning when you can’t sleep. But then there’s Dear Hypnos. That definitely sounds like it’s related to sleep, unlike the former.

So yeah. I’m about halfway through my insomnia collection, and I still don’t know which one I’ll choose in the end.

Either way, it’s coming along nicely. So keep your eye out for either Forest Sounds At Six or Dear Hypnos having a cover reveal soon!

That’s all from me for now. Sophie signing off!