I'm not sure how anybody can write fiction* first thing in the morning. I was up obscenely early yesterday and got done with my usual stuff way early. So, I decided it'd be a good time to get those ideas I'd had the night before onto paper before I lost them entirely.
Oh, I got them down, but in the most drekkiest way possible. Thank the writing gods for edits, eh?.
And as I was sitting there, trying to get back to writing - drek or not - I started to think about when we write. Personally, I'm an evening writer. My best work is completed between 6pm and 9pm. On a good night, I can get between 3K and 5K out in those three hours. Depends on how the story is flowing.
Oh, I can write at other times. Especially when I'm on a deadline. But evenings are for me.
When the Kid was still in public school, I wrote during the day. I had the whole house to myself, so it was perfect. Then I started to homeschool her and there was no way I could write while she was being taught. I had to shift to nights - after Hubs came home from work. We'd have a nice dinner together and then around six o'clock, I'd go to my hole. Nine o'clock came and I'd shut down. Time to put the Kid to bed and spend some time with Hubs.
And the schedule kind of stuck. So here I am without a kid to teach and Hubs is home all the time now. I could shift my writing to daytime hours, but I can't. :shrug: And I'm okay with it.
Except when I want to write during the early morning hours and the writing's coming out all drek-tastic.
I know there are a lot of writers who get it done in the morning. If you follow any amount of writers online, you'll see them proclaiming how many words they've gotten done and it isn't even lunch. If you've ever done NaNo, you might've seen the wordcounts jumping throughout the day. Me? Umm, nope. I used to cringe when people would ask 'How many words did you get done today?' and I hadn't even started writing for that day.
And there are a ton of other writers who don't get rolling until after every else has gone to bed. Burning the midnight oil and all that. Nope, can't do that either. Nine o'clock comes and I'm a toad. (Again, if deadlines are looming, this can change, too. I'll stay up late if I have to, but I won't be happy about it.)
I'm a six-to-nine kind of gal, I guess. Good thing I type fast.
What time of day are you at your best? If you're a writer, when do you schedule your writing time? Do you have a particular time of day when you're a toad?
*Oddly enough, I can write blog posts and do other writerly things** first thing in the morning and throughout the day. (Except afternoons. I totally suck in the afternoon.) Fiction? Not if I want it to be any good.
** Not always well. I wrote this post early yesterday morning and thought I'd scheduled it for Monday, but it went live right after I'd hit the freakin' button. Derp. Monday was not the 2nd. I fixed it, but you might've gotten an error message. For that, I apologize.
I'm in the unusual situation of having been in high school for 8 years. :) At least, my son went through first and then my daughter started directly after he graduated (4.5 years apart in age) and I FEEL like I'm enrolled there, ha. The late bell at the school is 7:15. I get up before 5 to get my words done while it's very quiet and until my daughter is up (6ish). When she gets off to college next fall, who knows? I'm ingrained in this routine, though, and I can't imagine stopping it at this point (I kept up a modified version of it over the summers). I'm fairly dead in the afternoon, good for housework and blog posts (like you...I can write posts even when it's not the optimal writing time for me).
ReplyDeleteAt the moment, my best writing time is 1-3pm. Mornings have NO brain power, and at 3:00 I start worrying that I might have orders, so off to the web I go. And straight down the rabbit hole.
ReplyDeleteNights used to be my best writing time, but for months I've been too tired. If I didn't hide in a novel, I'd work on the dressmaking book. But lately (well, the last couple of days), I've found the mojo to write in the evening. Yay! Now if I can only keep it up!