Wednesday, July 17, 2013

When do you do your best writing?


I must admit I gulp when I read about someone who writes 2,000 words before breakfast. If I wrote any words before breakfast, they would be total gibberish.
 
I am not a morning person. When I was working, a colleague once said, “Don’t ask Paula anything before ten thirty if you want a sensible answer.” Now I wonder how I actually managed to teach my first class of the day. Or second, or even third.
 
I’m a night owl. I’ve always been a night owl. When I was a child, I read books under the covers by flashlight long after my parents thought I was asleep. As a teenager, I wrote screeds in my diary every night. Well, at that age, you have to write down everything the latest heart-throb said or did, don’t you? Actually, I didn’t have a diary. I had a cardboard folder, and by the end of the year it was about an inch or so thick. I wish I’d kept it. It would probably be hilarious to read now.
 
I wrote stories as a teenager too. I waited until my parents had gone to bed, and then I switched on my light, and wrote. My friends eagerly awaited the next instalment of my romantic stories, and I couldn’t disappoint them, could I? For ‘romantic stories’, read cheesy, chaste novellas. Come on, this was the late fifties, before the swinging sixties had been invented!
 
Most of the sixties was taken up with university, dating, getting married, and having babies, so fiction writing took a back seat. When I did start writing again, it had to be in the evenings, when the babes were asleep. What the neighbour thought about me pounding away every evening on one of those ancient upright typewriters, I dread to think. They must have been relieved when I eventually progressed to a less noisy portable typewriter.
 
Then I returned to teaching, so again writing was abandoned. Occasionally I wrote short stories and also did a series of magazine articles for several years but, because of family and schoolwork, my writing had to be done in the evenings, of course.
 
So what happened when I retired? I didn’t immediately start writing again, but when I did, guess what? I wrote in the evenings. I still do. Even if I have a free day, my brain still seems to be programmed to switch into creative mode in mid-evening. Then I can go on until about 1a.m – so it’s perhaps as well I don’t have to get up very early the next morning.
 
I could probably write a lot more if I trained myself to write during the daytime, but why break the habit of a lifetime?

20 comments:

  1. When I worked nights, I wrote late nights on my days off. On the days I worked, I wrote during the day after I got up. I find I write better if I'm the only one in the house or the only one awake.

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  2. My brain kicks in about 9:30 am. That seems to be my most creative time of day. Enjoyable post Paula. Best luck.

    Rose

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  3. Paula--I know others who are night owls and do some of their best writing then. Me? Nope, early to bed, early to rise, but not by choice. I'd love to stay up late at night, and I'd love to sleep in. But my body and internal clock do this to me...and my husband, too.
    That cardboard folder? I bet you'd find fodder for all kinds of stories! Wow, don't you wish you had it?
    I'm slow going in the mornings, too, even though I get up early. Never have I been a "go-getter" in the mornings. I'm happy and blessed my husband makes the coffee, brings me a cup, and I sit at my computer for about an hour before I wander into the kitchen for breakfast.
    But when I taught school, like you, I had to be alert...but oh, I was so much younger!
    Good post.

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  4. I am not a morning person or a night owl! I think I've said it before...I like my sleep.

    I guess I don't really have a time of day when I write. I do most of my writing in the summer when I'm not teaching, but even then, sometimes it's in the morning, sometimes it's during the day. Usually it's not in the evenings, as I like spending those with the hubby who's been working all day.

    Hmn? Maybe if I came up with a better writing routine I'd get more done. I think I still tend to think of it more as a hobby than a 'second career'.

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  5. I write best on Sundays under a deadline. So I think that means I write best at midday after everyone is fed and I feel I've met my obligations to work and family.

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  6. Writing deputy - that's interesting how you adjusted your writing time to your work schedule! Many thanks for visiting HWH :-)

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  7. Rose, there are 12 hours between our 'best' times, as mine seems to start about 9 pm !

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  8. Celia, my body clock seems to be geared towards sleeping from 1am to 8am, and then there's another couple of hours before my brain actually wakes up ;-)
    And yes, I wish I'd hadn't thrown out those teenage diaries!

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  9. Debra, you're obviously more versatile than me, being able to write at different times of the day!

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  10. Ana, you have so many commitments with your work and family, I'm amazed you find any time to write!

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  11. It's funny how our bodies are programmed. I've gotten in the habit of writing in the afternoon (I'm neither a morning nor a night person) but I have to write on the sofa. This, despite my getting a brand new desk. :) I'll admit to being a bit flexible about when I write, although I can't really do the nighttime thing anymore.

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  12. No night owls here other than my kids enjoying their summer schedule.

    I am definitely a morning person and that is when I do my writing, too. By afternoon I start to fade and my mind is not as sharp. I could never stay up late writing like you do. I even find it a challenge to go to evening activities like choir and band where I have to be alert and into it til 930pm. I start to fade after 9pm as I said to you earlier and my Night Owl Choir Director likes to tease me about it as she's just getting warmed up. You two would hit it off, Paula!

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  13. I forget what year it was when my dad first started giving my sister and I one year diaries every Christmas, but I loved them. I'm afraid as a kid I was really into drama and mine read more like fiction than my real life.
    I try really hard not to start checking on emails until I've written something in the morning. I don't always succeed with that. After I feed the dog and the cat and have my coffee made, I'm usually into my WIP. I most often write in longhand on a dictation pad and transfer it to my computer later.
    I was a night owl as a teenager and while I was in college, too, Paula, but I've become a day tripper over the years.
    I enjoyed your blog and the responses of all the visitors.

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  14. Jennifer - these days I have to be at my computer (in the corner of my study) to write. The last time I wrote anything elsewhere was at the hotel in Egypt where I wrote (in longhand) part of the first chapter of Her Only Option.

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  15. Cate, 9pm is when I wake up. Your choir director and I are kindred spirits - except I can't sing to save my life!

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  16. Sarah, I first started a diary when I was about 11, and kept it until I was about 18. I had a 'page a day' diary, but ended up sticking in so many extra sheets, I decided to use a folder instead!
    Not sure I could use a dictation pad - my brain goes straight to my fingers on the keyboard these days!

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  17. I do my best in the morning. I save the later times of the day for editing and routine tasks. But I am definitely more creative in the morning.

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  18. I agree with Celia...Wish I could designate my writing time, but with family and responsibilities I'm only able to write in the early mornings. Growing up I LOVED writing at night into the wee hours. Now early mornings suit my needs best. I also consider it (with five books written/published) my Career,so I try to make it during the more common "working hours"

    I enjoyed your post, Paula.

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  19. I'm the opposite, Clarissa. I can do the routine stuff in the mornings, but the creative muse arrives in the evenings!

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  20. Thanks, Ruth. I think I just got stuck into the mode of writing late at night, and can't break out of that now! It seems I work the night shift :-)

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