Here is what my writing day actually looks like: I wake up earlier than I want to, because I am NOT a morning person. I get dressed for work & I drive to the coffee shop up the road from my office. I’ve been doing this long enough they recognize me, know my name and what I’m doing over there with that retro keyboard, but not long enough to start my order before I reach the register, but we’re getting close. I write for forty-five minutes, sometimes an hour. Then I go to work.
That's it. That's the whole system.
I work a full-time corporate job. I have meetings and deadlines and the kind of mental fatigue that comes from spending eight hours pretending to be professionally competent. By evening I am mostly useless. So mornings are my only option, that or not write.
Some people will tell you this isn't enough. That you have to have long uninterrupted stretches, a room of your own, a sabbatical. Maybe they're right. Or maybe that’s just them. My novel is getting written anyway, one slow, painfully early morning at a time, and that’s proof enough that my method works, at least for me.
I had to let go of the idea that real writing requires perfect conditions. It doesn't. It can’t. It mean getting up on the days when you'd rather not, which turns out to be more frequently than I care to admit. But, the limited time has made me more focused - there's no room to procrastinate when you only have forty-five minutes. And before you ask, I get almost no writing done on the weekends; with nothing bookending my time it’s too easy to “do it later” then discover it’s Sunday night and I’ve done zero words.
I dream about winning the lottery or something and being able to spend all my time writing and creating, but based on what I’ve seen of my habits, I’d get LESS done with infinite time. I’m thinking a part time job might be my sweet spot – plus that means I don’t have to win the WHOLE lottery to try it, so bonus!
Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.
I think about my story a lot during the parts of the day when I can't write, especially on my commute or in the shower – these are tied for my most productive brainstorming time & I chalk that up to my stupid brain knowing those are the exact times I can’t write anything down! It’s becoming a regular feature to find me sitting in front of my computer in a robe and dripping hair so I can get down the seventeen and a half things I thought of during my ten minute shower that hadn’t occurred to me in the hours and hours of my day when I was dry.
I find myself jotting down notes when I’m still at work and the clock is still too far from quitting time to actually leave – by then, I’m not doing anything involving real brain work, so I think about the next scene or two, think about where I’m headed.
By the time I sit down in the morning, I (usually) know what comes next. The writing happens on the page, but the thinking happens everywhere else.
I don't know if this is hard-won wisdom or just what you tell yourself to keep trying. Probably both.
And I know this won’t work forever – I used to write at night, now I can’t. So who knows what curveball my brain will throw at me next. Guess we’ll wait and see.
Where do you find your hours? I'm always curious how other people solve this particular puzzle.
P.S. — By the time you read this I'll be on my way to Boston for research purposes (I’ll give you a hint - PIRATE SHIPS!!) More on that soon."
🎵 Currently writing to: "Skull and Bones" — Bass Gang
Ominous. Piratical. Exactly the energy of a chapter where something is about to go wrong. I put this one on when I need to remember that my protagonist's world has teeth.
