Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels
I recently read an interview of bestselling author Dan Brown (he of The Da Vinci Code fame) where he talked about getting up every morning at 4 a.m. to start writing.
4 a.m.
Now, for me, I’m certainly not getting up at the crack of dawn to start writing. I’ve seen a lot of writers say that this early morning time, when there is no one else around to bother you, is the best time to get some uninterrupted writing time in. The air is quiet and the mood is just right for allowing yourself transcribe the wild machinations of your imagination. And it would feel good to get that productive bit of creativity done and out of the way before the rest of your day has even begun. But, while I’m more of a morning person than I am a night owl, I’m still not fully awake when I wake up at around 7:30 a.m.
In fact, I don’t feel fully human until I’ve had my breakfast and gulped down my daily cup of coffee. After that breakfast, it’s then time for me to get in several hours of freelance editing and writing done.
The only time I have to finally get down to writing is after 7 p.m. That’s when I’ve finished all my work, finished my daily chores, and finished dinner. After all of that “real” work is done, I can finally sit down to my blank digital pages as I try to write up my weekly blog posts and then get to the task of making progress on my weekly goal of writing 1,500 words per week on my novel.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not at my best at this time of the day. I’m feeling lethargic, and the siren call of my bed is almost too much to ignore at times. Sometimes I’ll still be distracted by stressful events from earlier in the day. At others, I might have family or social obligations that pop up in the evening, so I have even less time for writing.
The time when I’m most alert in my entire day is around 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Unfortunately, I’m not independently wealthy, and that is time that I need to devote actual paying work.
But I wonder how much my schedule would change if I was able to actually write full time. Would I spend that super alert time writing? Would I spend it researching? Would I spend it reading? I already have some window into how I would spend this time because of my weekend schedule. Sadly, what I’ve learned is that the time that I’m most alert on the weekends is time that I fill up with chores that I wasn’t able to get to during the week.
No, the only way to actually test what would be the best time for me to write would be to be able to write full time during the week and not just during the weekend. I have to wonder how much that would change the quality of my novel.
Oh to be rich. For now, I’ll just have to make do. Evenings are the time that work best for me for now for writing. How about you? When do you find time to write, and is it the best time for you to write? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Comments