Jack Dann (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
“Give the best part of every day to yourself. Get up early and write if you can. Once you’ve put words to paper, you’ve conquered the day. Then you can put bread on the table and beer in the icebox.” — Jack Dann
Do you have a best time to write? Are you able to get there consistently?
Mornings for reviews and tweakages. Afternoons for moving forward. Nights for printing/reading/marking up the most recent chapter.
Rinse Repeat.
In the southwest, the weather demands that your 1st activity of the day is exercise before it gets too hot to be outside (which is fine with me cuz starting the day off with exercise makes you feel so much better). So much as I’d love for writing to be the first thing I do, it has to take a back seat to that priority. By then it’s time for work, blah blah blah. But the bulk of my writing is typically done on weekends, almost always in the first half of the day.
I sometimes write in the evenings, but it’s not my best time of day. Though writing during that fatigued time of day IS a really good time to write because my resistance is lower—I’m too tired to put up a fight if I’m trying to avoid writing a scene.
“I’m too tired to put up a fight if I’m trying to avoid writing a scene.”
Love that line, BK.
I’m freshest and best in the a.m., slump in the early afternoon. But, at night, when I’m tired and the characters clamor at me to write the scene I’d half-plotted during a walk, they often force me to stay up late to appease them.
Best time to write? When that “spark” strikes, which can be any time of day or night, usually the most inconvenient!
But I’ve worked a 4am-1pm schedule so many years that I tend to do best in early afternoons. If it’s a really good day, that will extend into early evening.
Can I do it consistently? No. Especially in Spring when the gardens need the most daytime attention.
When I had a day job, first thing in the morning was my go-to writing time. For years, I fantasized about being able to write in the afternoons, because I’m not a morning person, I just played one on TV 🙂 This year I’ve finally gotten my chance, though it a took a six months, spurred by a new mid-morning work out routine, that I finally realized that dream. I’m now writing first thing and then, after lunch, writing in the afternoon.
That’s a very good, important, and basic question, John. For me, it’s early morning and late-night. Early morning, because I’m less likely to be interrupted (after I feed the indoor cat and outdoor feral) and late-night because at least something has happened during the day that I can convert into a vignette.
Um, Jim. Sorry!
You are forgiven, Joe. I don’t mind being mistaken for Brother Gilstrap, which usually happens when I have a martini in hand.
Early. About 6am to 11am for creative work. After that, other writerly activities until about 3pm. Weekends are different…more flexible…for family activities.
Giant blocks of time are impossible for most writers, even those who are earning money at it. You have to learn to write when and where you can even if that means by hand to be added to the computer document later. Early in your writing, one or two days a week are spent in education. A bit later market research. When that book is finally out, part of the week will be about promotion and the business of writing. If you are waiting to start that book when you have a nice chunk of time, don’t because it will probably never come.
“If you are waiting to start that book when you have a nice chunk of time, don’t because it will probably never come.”
I use that reasoning for housework.
Housework. What’s that?
Until recently it was late at night from 10pm to about 2am. Since my wife’s stroke, that has shifted to early in the morning from 4am to 8am. Either way it involves sitting in the dark silence with a single soft yellow lamp and my focus all in.
So sorry to hear that, Basil. Godspeed.
If I didn’t have a day job, morning would be my best time.
Since I do have a day job, sometimes my first morning off (like today) is spent recovering. Right now the chihuahua and I are in the garden. She is napping. I’m drinking a latte, watching the squirrels play, and trying to guesstimate if these gray clouds really mean rain or are they bluffing?
I am surrounded by writing tools, which I will get to as soon as I post this.
Long way of saying I write when I can, where I can, how I can. Never underestimate the power of fifteen minutes.
Ahh…the fifteen minutes! I’m retired now, but I truly think that if I know I only have fifteen minutes, I write better.
Carry on…
Morning, by far. The earlier the better. A good word count of fresh material is 3-4K and that saps me out by noon. Then it’s time for networking and this thing they call marketing. If anyone knows of an automated marketing app, please share. 🙂