First, a reminder that for the month of March my publisher is making my first Buchanan thriller, Try Dying, available for e-readers for just $1.99. With additional content, too, including various location photos I took when doing the research.
Here’s the Kindle link.
It’s also for Sony Readers, B & N and Kobo.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog, which answers this question: How do you increase your energy to write?
We are biological machines, and need energy input lest the law of entropy reduce us to non-functioning blobs of carbon and water.
This is especially true for writers, who not only have to produce but have to have minds that provide fresh ideas and wonderful characters and sharp dialogue.
So here are some of the things I do to get going. I’d like to hear your ideas in the comments section.
Like millions of writers before me, I start the day with freshly brewed coffee. I make it at home or sometimes go off to Starbucks with my laptop and imbibe there. There is as much to the comfort factor as there is to the buzz, I think. I just like having something warm to drink as I write.
I’ve been gratified by all the recent science showing the health benefits of a few cups of coffee. A few. I don’t overdo it. I remember that Balzac thought of thick, black coffee as something of a magic drug. The guy was a speed freak without knowing it. He drank up to 50 cups of the stuff a day. And died from it, at age 51.
What would he have done with Red Bull? I shudder to think.
Exercise. I shoot baskets and run around at a local park, talk long walks, treadmill, ride my bike. Keeping the body honed – which is, thankfully, a relative term (you hear me, David Beckham?) – is essential for the right working of the mind.
An added benefit of the workouts is that the “boys in the basement” ramp up their efforts, especially if I’ve spent previous hours investing heavily in a project. The BITB is Stephen King’s great metaphor for the writer’s subconscious. It pays to keep them happy so they don’t go on strike.
I’m a morning person, so like to get as much writing done early as I can. I try to do a “furious 500” words as soon as possible. Some of that will be sort of “improvising” within my scene. The faster the better here. Oh, and if you need some prodding in that regard, you can visit the ever effective Dr. Wicked.
At about 1 p.m. I tend to power down for a couple of hours—meaning I’m not at my creative best. Around 1:30 or 2 I usually take a power nap. I can put my feet up on my desk and nod off for 15 – 20 minutes, wake up refreshed.
I’ve recently tried something that has supercharged these mini-slumbers. Just before I close my eyes, I take a swig of a 5 Hour Energy drink. Not the whole thing. About a third. Then I sleep, and when I wake up I’ve got this jolt of creative energy that seems to continue without a “crash.”
I’ve learned there is something medically valid to this. It takes 15-20 minutes for caffeine to kick in, so the timing is right for this type of power nap. You get both the benefit of sleep and energy infusion.
I don’t do this every day. I don’t want to get dependent. But if I need to be working heavy on a project in the afternoon, I’ll give it a go.
Sometimes I write standing up, as I’m doing now on my AlphaSmart Neo, on a counter in my house. There’s some added energy when you write standing up. I don’t know why that is, but I don’t need to know, do I?
One last thing. I try to leave off my previous day’s writing at a mid-point of some kind, so I’m ready to fly right back into it. Hemingway used to write half a sentence before knocking off. I first read what I wrote yesterday, clean it up, then I’m ready to dive into the day’s work.
So what about you? What do you do to keep up your energy to write? (Please confine yourself to legal substances)
My muse is a wolf that stands at the back door.
Jim, I have a similar schedule: power walk in the park in the morning, a nap around 2:00 and back to the park for a second power walk with my wife before supper. I brew Dunkin Donuts coffee every morning but 2-3 cups is my limit. My most productive writing time is mid to late afternoon.
My muse is a bad ass pink flamingo that stands at my back door. He’s been know to eat wolves for lunch.
Like you Jim, I’m a morning person. I get up around 5:30, 6 o’clock and help get the wife off to work and my daughter off to school. Then it’s an hour in the gym: 2-3 miles on the treadmill coupled with weight training, walk the dog for a cool down, shower, breakfast and at the laptop by 10:00. I work until 2 then pick up my daughter at school, drop her off at the barn where she trains with her horse while I go to the local library and squeeze in another few hours of work.
Miller, I’ve heard that’s a very good energy booster. Mortgage payments the same.
Joe, I’ve heard other people rave about Dunkin Donuts coffee. Do you have a local place to buy the beans? What blend do you prefer? My wife and I like Seattle’s Best French Roast and Henry’s Blend.
I’ll take other recommendations.
David, that’s a great schedule. I mean, it’s packed right up until your writing time. I forgot to mention strength training in there. I think that’s very important. I have a Total Gym (go Chuck Norris!) and some free weights. I try to work some of that in every other day.
Jim, all our local Dunkin Donuts shops sell their coffee in bags of whole bean or ground. You can also order it online at http://tinyurl.com/25zdpz.
Now that I have a dog, I feel guilty if I don’t get up to walk him by 6 a.m.. I drink coffee during our walk, the streets are relatively quiet that early in the morning, and that routine is conducive to getting the day started with creative reflection.
Great post. I follow a lot of your routine, except for the basketball. 🙂 Great blog, too. I’m here following from Southern City Mysteries.
I like that, Kathryn. Dogs are great for writers. See Dean Koontz.
sarahjayne, I appreciate your kind words. Come back often!
Interesting post, Jim, but I have to say the concept of ginning up the energy to write is actually sort of foreign to me. Coffee is certainly an important part of every morning, but I can’t say it’s to get any juices flowing.
When it’s time to write, I sit down and write. For me, the issue is managing distractions, chief among which is the ping of an incoming email. I have no self control, so I often have to close the email programs entirely during a dedicated writing session.
In reading your post and the other responses, I’m reminded that the thing I miss most to going back to a day job is the availability of the afternoon power nap.
See you at Left Coast Crime next week!
John Gilstrap
http://www.johngilstrap.com
John, why don’t you just come to my panel and power nap there?
You do bring up the important point about managing distractions. Ever more of them these days.
Jim,
Colleen C. was at my house this past weekend and we talked about this whole schedule thing. There are days I truly envy her schedule of coffee and plenty of quiet time during the day to tackle email and writing. She’s always on top of things – responding to important issues on ACFW’s loop, meeting her deadlines, and answering email.
Me? I have a special needs daughter, and I homeschool both of my teenagers. They are amazing, mind you, but over the years, school has taken more and more of my time. And my kids are both competitive swimmers. We spend up to six hours every day at (or on the way to) pools.
All of that to say, I used to be someone who needed quiet and organization to write. But with
contracts and multiple projects going at once, I realized that just wasn’t possible anymore. I have learned to write in between my teaching sessions while the kids do their work, and I have learned to write at the pools. Yes, I’m sure it’s great for my laptop – but I can now write in the midst of splashing and coaches yelling, “Swimmers take your mark!”
Since I am a night owl – I definitely get a lot done at night. But discipline is important. So I force myself to also write in the mornings before we start school. (Thanks to reading another of your posts.)
All in all, as a writer, I’ve had to learn to be flexible and make the schedule work. Because those books won’t write themselves.
Thanks for sharing, it’s always good to get input from others and see how they tackle the schedule issue.
Kim
Jim, I’m not a morning person or a hoop-shooter. But everything else you said rings true with me. There are people for whom coffee isn’t an option – for health or religious reasons. But it’s my drug of choice.
Nicotine is a distant memory for me, and I know it has some advantages when it comes to focus and drive. But the disadvantages far outweigh for me.
I like your 5-Hour Energy Drink idea, and I have a theory about it: the B vitamins in that stuff deserve a lot of the credit. I don’t know if anyone has done a scientific study on this, but I swear that a dose of vitamin B boosts dreaming. And that can be a great benefit for writers.
See you at LCC later this week.
James,
I’m an unpublished (and aspiring) writer. Your schedule is something I dream of having. I am a teacher so I work from 8 to 5ish. The good thing is I’m not teaching all day so I squeeze as much writing as I can between classes. When I’m not working though, it’s a mad dash between my dad and I to get to our only home computer. Aside from coffee, my other drug of choice is tea. It can be flavored or plain, caffinated black tea. My plan is to get published before I finish college. After that, I plan on walking to dog, working out, and all those fun, early morning things before I start my daily writing.
Sarah-Mae
P.S. – My muse is the hope of having a better office chair.
The caffeine/nap combo is a definite boon for me. I typically have a dark hot cup of coffee right then lay down for a 15 minute powernap. And wham! Up-N-At’m for several hours of dancing with my two lovely muses. Since they are apparently immortal I really need that caffeine and regular daily exercise to keep up with them.
Basil, I want to meet your muses.
I’d like to hear your comments on how the Alphasmart Neo works into your writing schedule, rather than just using a laptop.
~Joe