Today's topic: What time of day is your best time of day for writing? Why?
I've always enjoyed writing first thing upon waking up. A couple problems with this: 1) I don't ever go to bed until about 6 in the morning, which means I don't ever wake up until about 11 or noon. A-a-a-nd, if I start writing at noon and go until 4, I've missed nearly every hour of daylight! 2) Upon waking, I usually have numerous emails I need to get to, and many of these require immediate responses. It's tough to block off the first four hours of the day for writing when these hours are necessary for, you know, corresponding with people who actually breathe and stuff...people who exist outside of paper.
Lately, I have been finding that my optimal writing time begins at around midnight. Midnight or 1, I guess. And it goes for a few hours, after which I can read for a bit and then go to sleep.
Of course - being the night person that I am - it's tough for me to work on my freelance stuff during the day, rather than at night. But sacrifices must be made! I'm learning to balance it all.
How about you? What is your optimal writing time? Is it consistent, or does it change (like mine)? Do you write in snippets throughout the day, or do you block off a couple hours at a time?
Words words words(!) - let's hear it...
[Oh! - nearly forgot to mention: I was interviewed by Lindsay Champion this last week; she's an incredible writer, and she runs an incredible website, and you can find my (incredible?) interview by clicking on this colored portion of the text. I'm not going to lie, it'll be a pretty good use of your time.]
↓ ↓ ↓ Eat To Stay Alive ↓ ↓ ↓
Posts
My best time is scheduled time, if I put it on a schedule, it'll happen (almost always) - but another good time for me is wasted time, like time spent waiting for a doctor appointment to actually happen. Today, I spent an hour or so waiting for a doctor and the time flew by because I was immersed in another world, where Justis, a teenage ladybug, faced insurmountable odds (I love that expression) to save his Japanese beetle friends from destruction.
ReplyDeleteI write best at night. Far fewer distractions make the reasons to procrastinate more self-serving. That's usually enough to get me going. I try to catch moments when I can if the urge to write is smacking me with a baseball bat. I won't let those opportunities slip just because it isn't the *right* time of day.
ReplyDeleteI don't really have a best writing time. I can write when I first wake up, any daylight hours, at night, late night, early morning, etc. I guess I can count myself as lucky that it's so easy to write whenever I feel like, "Karla, now is the time to WRITE." And then I can just go on and on for however long I can without having other things to do, getting hungry, getting block, etc. to stop me. I'm excited for more of these writing discussions! :)
ReplyDeleteJust give me a quiet place and I can write any time! I'm freshest early in the morning, upon first waking up. If I could, that's when I'd write. Unfortunately, I have to do my workout then. If working out doesn't happen in the morning, it won't happen at all. I can write late at night after everyone has gone to bed. No distractions, but I'm not nearly as fresh.
ReplyDeleteJodi - That's the way I feel! I can write at other times, but "when the mood strikes" never works as well for me as scheduled time.
ReplyDeleteKelly - I agree with the nighttime thing. It's funny, because it seems like most of the thoughts on this topic deal with "ways in which we get distracted." Which shouldn't be the case, since this is what we love to do! But somehow, distractions still get the best of us if we're not careful.
Karla - Count yourself lucky, for sure! I've run across very few people who say the same thing you just said. (Have you ever seen the movie "Adaptation"? Look at how Charlie Kaufman writes!)
Maria - What I like about writing when you first wake up is: Your brain is still empty! It's nice to write when your brain isn't so cluttered.
I write mostly at night when everyone's asleep. Can't seem to get my artistic side of the brain to work during the day.
ReplyDeleteMonday through Friday I write as soon as I've finished my breakfast. I get up about 7:30am and allow myself to fully wake up. That's about a thirty minute process. During that time I eat and by 8am I'm at my desk with pen and notebook.I like that because my thoughts are fresh and I haven't had anything contaminate my thinking process. If I wait too long I become lethargic and probably won't write at all. It's very easy for me to be lazy.
ReplyDeleteOn the weekends I shock my routine. I sleep in, hang out with my wife, and do whatever we've planned to do for the day. Saturday and Sunday I'll write randomly and for unplanned lengths of time: a few minutes or an hour or two. I find that randomness helps me from becoming bored with my routine during the week.
Arief - That's how I feel most of the time. I wish it wasn't the case...but that's how I feel.
ReplyDeleteMark - I love the use of the word "contaminate." That's exactly the reason why I wish I did better writing during the day, first thing upon waking. Ahhh, oh well.