Re: thinking about writing, I was always told during my postsecondary education that plenty of writing goes on in one's head before it happens on a screen or page. It seemed to work, leaving myself a hint in curly braces so my mind could pick up the next morning where it left off when I stopped earlier that same morning. :)

Re: late night writing, I just felt less inhibited, I guess, when it came to both coming up with something out of the blue and following plans I already had.

To be fair, I haven't kept in mind that, hey, I did start two days late, and choose to end five days early. And what's more, I've continued producing material on the same manuscript after calling it in with the website, so it's not like fifty grand words was the best I could do; more like a short-term milestone. :) I'm certainly not out of ideas about what could be expanded, and I'm sure my handful of readers will come up with things I haven't even considered.