writing times

[Straka]

I found that my biological clock has changed somewhat since college. I chalk it up to having to deal with the “real” world and a “job.”

One I do struggle with is forcing myself to go to sleep at night instead of staying up and writing. I’ve found I can get into the zone of writing the easiest between 10 and 2 in the morning. By 3 I start to get edgy. This presents a problem when I have to get up at 6:30 am.

What is everyone’s ideal writing time?

[Vandal]

I do my best work between 10:30 pm and 11:30 pm. I have to stop when the little voice in my head says, "Dude, you have to get up in less than six hours."

[Prawn]

I write best before I get out of bed in the morning. I sit up, switch on the laptop and write for a thousand words (my daily goal). I get my writing done first thing!

[Danthia]

I'm an a.m. gal. My best hours are between 7am and noon. I can write in the afternoons if I must, but it takes me longer to get anything decent. I can edit okay in the afternoons though. Night time for me is a creative dead zone.

[Thomma Lyn]

My ideal time to write is evening through late at night -- anytime between 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., depending on the day. Yup, I'm a night owl!

[ishtar'sgate]

I'm a morning person. When I was working I used to get up at 4:00 am and write until I had to leave for the office. Summer was great because sunrise where I lived was around 3:00 am in the middle of the season. I could go out on the deck and enjoy the cool morning with a cup of hot coffee and my writing. Ah, those were the days. I'm still a morning person and my best writing is done when everyone leaves for work or school, so around 8:30 to l:00.
Linnea

[Harper K]

Late afternoon -- about 3 pm - 6 pm. Too bad I'm usually doing the day job thing during that period. I maximize those hours on weekends.

During the week, I find that the 9 pm - 11 pm period works just about as well, though I have to throw off other responsibilities to write during that time.

Once in a while, I love to do the writing-while-the-rest-of-the-world-is-asleep thing. Recovering from a 1 am - 5 am writing marathon is a bit like getting over a hangover, though.

[ClaudiaGray]

Night is my best time, but I'm training myself to work faster during the day -- that's the only way for me to utilize the weekends.

[Thrillride]

Another AM person over here. The muse likes breakfast with me!


~Thrill

[otterman]

I write best in the morning and edit best at night. I know, I'm weird.

[scarletpeaches]

No way in hell am I getting anything done in the morning. It's all I can do to drag myself out of bed and into the bath before going to work. I do shifts, so my body clock's, oh, what's the technical word for it? Ah yes. Buggered.

I can get out of bed at 6am. I just don't like to. And my head's so fuzzy I can't think straight, so it's just as well my job isn't mentally challenging. If I had to do anything creative, I'd be worse than useless.

For me, the ideal writing time is later on in the evening. Say, between the hours of 10pm-2am. I get more done in those four hours than I usually do in the preceding twenty.

I once typed around 6k words in a day in three two-hour spurts - 9-11am, 1-3pm and 5-7pm. God knows how I managed that. NaNo. I was on a roll. In the zone. All juiced up (metaphorically speaking).

Ah, my precious Neo, though...when that arrived at 3pm one day, I got on it right away and had 10k+ typed by the back of midnight. Yup. 10k in one day. And I firmly believe it was because I was writing according to my natural body clock.

Sure, I can function if I get up early. But I feel hellish when I do so and it's very, very rare for me to write anything worth reading much before dinner time.

[johnzakour]

My best writing times are 8am -- 11:59 am. Then from about 11pm - 1pm.

Midday through early evening just has too much going on so I am easily distracted.

[Shady Lane]

I cannot write before 6 in the evening. No way. Then it's just a matter of how long I can stay up...

[Button]

I'm still trying to figure this one out! ;)

I'm generally a write in the morning, edit in the evening sort of person. ;)

[Just Jack]

Un-fortunatley, my best times are from 11 p.m. to about 3 a.m.
Naturally im usually tired during the day.

[cethklein]

For whatever reason i have trouble writing at night. I do my best writing in the early morning.

[Moon Daughter]

My mind likes to work when my body wants to sleep. I hate it.

[johnzakour]

My mind likes to work when my body wants to sleep. I hate it.

According to my wife, my mouth sometimes works when my mind is sleeping...

[britlitfantw]

I tend to be most creatively energized at night, although every once in a while I enjoy writing in the morning.

[Judg]

There's a GOOD time to write?

[Moon Daughter]

According to my wife, my mouth sometimes works when my mind is sleeping...

:roll: Well, isn't that just like most men?

[johnzakour]

:roll: Well, isn't that just like most men?

Well, I can't speak for "most" because S. Ferret will jump all over me (and nobody wants a ferret on them) but it certainly is the case with me. (I'm slowly learning though to think BEFORE I speak. It's amazing what good motivation a elbow in the ribs can be!)

[Enzo]

I'm a morning person, but not an early morning person.

I get up at around 7 am, and do most of my writing with enthusiasm between 9 am and 12. Still write on my WIP in the afternoons as well, but I find my thoughts easily drifting away to unrelated story ideas, or (gasp!) to the Internet.

[blacbird]

I wish I knew when I do my best work, but then, I'd have to arrive at a definition of "best work".

caw

[kimmeunier]

My ideal time to write is evening through late at night -- anytime between 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., depending on the day. Yup, I'm a night owl!
Ditto! I have to force myself to go to bed. Best writing time is around 11 p.m., and 1 a.m.

[Sassee]

Midday and late night. Fun to work around with the daily 8-5 grind.

[Andrhia]

My best time is around 10:30am to 2pm, but I don't get the chance very often. I do most of my writing from around 9pm to midnight, after the kiddies have gone to bed.

Writing while the one-year-old is still up tends to be, shall we say, unproductive.

[EelKat]

I try to write throughout the day.

What I do is, I write small segments or scenes from my book. Say a conversation between two characters. Or maybe the description of a room. Something like that. I find this easier, because I can see a very clear beginning, middle, and end. Not the beginning, middle, and end of the entire book. Not the beginning, middle and end of the entire chapter. Just the beginning, middle, and end of that one scene, which in most cases is 2 to 4 paragraphs long or about 600 - 800 words.

I make it my goal to write three of these segmants each day:

One in the morning as soon as I wake up, before I even get out of bed.

One in the afternoon, when I get back in from taking my dog out for his daily walk.

One in the evening, last thing just before going to bed.

It takes about 15 - 30 minutes for me to write each segment. Or about 40 minutes to an hour and a half each day. In the end I end up with about 2,750 words written at the end of the day.

However, though I try to do this every day, I usually end up doing it only 2 or 3 days a week. :( It is my goal to make this a more regular daily writing habit.

So, when do I actually get most of my writing done? Right now during the winter, usually between 1AM - 4AM when I am supposed to be asleep! LOL!

In the summer, though, I become very "outdoor active" working in the garden, hiking in the woods, walking on the beach, taking care of the animals (I live on a farm); anyways, for some reason being outdoors in nature and with my flowers and my animals and hearing the ocean waves and smelling the salt air, sends me off on a writing frenzy, and I find a sunny spot in my garden and the next thing I know I'm writing and writing and writing... wow am I really writing.

So, my best writing time of all is from about June - September between 11AM to 4PM.

[juneafternoon]

Haha I bet no one can beat this:

In the afternoon, sitting on the couch with my laptop propped up against my knees, watching Friends. I get tons done there. And when I say watching friends, I mean listening to it on the background. Hehe.

[S.H.P.]

I write from 9 at night till around 10 in the morning and my iPod is on the entire time.

[GeorgieB]

Early morning for me. 6:00 am to about 8:30, coffee in hand and before breakfast. That's a habit formed when I returned to college (night school) to get my degree and awoke every morning (again very early) to finish homework assignments before tootling off to work.

Edit time???? Who has time to edit?

[Erin]

Best time for me is late afternoon through early evening, which poses a problem during the week since I hold a regular day job! So I get in time the minute I walk in the door and during my lunch break.

[SageFury]

Best focusing time is always at night, hard to be patient when you have lots of energy pushing you during the day. Well unless you somehow get fully inspired to write with the energy which to me is rare.

I can write anytime during my awake period as long as I'm not in a gaming mood. I wish I dreamed about my stories though because that would give me a better push =)

[KTC]

I get up at around 4am and write for about an hour and a half. I steal time throughout the day, too, but that's the best time for me. I've been on that schedule for about 5 or 6 years now. I am a person who does not need much sleep. It's actually easier for me to be on this schedule. If I did not hold myself to it, I might find myself in trouble. There was a time when I would go days without sleep. This kind of regulates me and I find it's the best time for me creatively as well.

[Storm Dream]

I seem to do best between 5-7 am.

I haven't tried that schedule for a LONG time, though. These days I force myself to write during the day. Totally kills my creativity. :P

[Kallex]

AM for me. The earlier the better. After a good lunch it is hard to start again.

[Appalachian Writer]

I write in spurts, seldom letting go of an idea until it's on paper. As for times, I seldom write after 11 PM. If I do, I find myself editing furiously the next day. My best time is early in the morning, before work. I seem to think more clearly, and for some reason, my fingers work as fast as my brain at that hour.

[payitforward]

I'm a "spurt" writer too! Best time for me to write is 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., then when I first wake up.

I think these times work (just before and just after sleep) becuase I'm tired enough to push past the writing anxiety I often feel!

[gypsyscarlett]

I write best between 1 am and five am. But due to schedules- I usually write between 4 am and 8 am.

I never used to be able to write in the afternoon- but since forcing myself to become more disciplined- I can now. It's just not as easy.

[Indy Tarquinson]

I'm a night writer. I feel so much more creative during the hours of around 9 to 2 am. It's not fair, I'm like this with art too. I think the creative juices flow after the day is done as my subconscious is processing the things that happened and needs an outlet.

[ynoirb]

I write best in the afternoon (midday onwards), but since I'm at work during that time I write when I get home.

Really, the best time to write is whenever I'm on my own (which is becoming rare)

[aspiringwriter]

I tend to write whenever the mood strikes me :)

[shannonmac]

I find that at 10pm when my head hits the pillow I think of 45 creative things that I want to jot down, and then I'm right back up and at the computer till around 1 in the morning...this also doesn't work on weeknights for me!

[Enraptured]

I can write pretty much anytime - just not in the early morning, because it takes me a couple of hours to fully wake up. Lately I've been doing most of my writing in the midmorning. I tend to avoid writing late at night, because if I get too excited about my story that late, I have a hard time falling asleep.

[darrtwish]

I'm used to being at school all day, and not having the opportunity to get any writing done, so my ideal time is 3:30-9:30 pm. Anything later than 9:30 and my body screams at me to get ready for bed, or to go to bed.

[writersprite]

For 8 years my job decreed that I write from about 7am until 9:30, when I had to leave for work. Then I would work on my books on my breaks and lunches (this was when I was writing all novels long-hand). Once back at home (it was a 15 minute walk), I would hit the computer again until about 12am, sometimes sitting in the living room with my sister watching [e.g. listening] to movies.

I haven't had that schedule for a while since moving out of state and getting married. Now my work schedule demands I get up at 5:15am, and my husband and I don't get back until 5pm. So, I only have time in the afternoon, and in the mornings on weekends. I'm trying to find a schedule to fit with my new life (it's amazing how actually having a life and not just writing about one can completely mess up a writer's schedule!), but the going is rough; especially since my darling and I just recently purchased our first home and have now experienced the violation of our first fence tagging (damn punks). So, we've been doing landscaping (we're going to plant vines to cover the tag on our beautiful cedar fence... :rant:).

But I figure the experience will make great content for my YA series....did I answer the question? :shrug: