Some writers write at sunrise. I’m fast asleep. When I get to my desk, I tackle email first.
You’ve read a million times that writers need to write as soon as they get up or as soon as they get to their desks. It’s the conventional wisdom passed down by writing teachers and experts everywhere.
Here’s my dirty little secret: I don’t write first thing.
Why not? I have a different process for shallow work and deep work. Here’s my reasoning:
1. I need to warm up.
I’m not ready for intense concentration first thing. Shallow stuff like emails is about right. I respond to time-sensitive messages from clients, an editor, or friends. I click on social media. I might even get sucked into something dumb, like a story on how Gwyneth Paltrow says you need to steam your vagina, posted on Facebook by Denise Vivaldo.
Whatever. What’s wrong with a little distraction? Not only will I live, but I will thrive, and I will write.
My reasoning is if I get through the major distractions first, messages aren’t waiting while I work on the deep stuff. Otherwise I have FOMO and it’s harder to concentrate.
2. I’m a tidier.
Email gives me anxiety. Right away, I’ve got to reduce new messages to an acceptable number. I’m sure you can relate. It’s thrilling to press the “delete” key, right?
Soon enough, though, I get impatient and bored with non-essential messages or social media, feeling antsy for deeper work. And just like that, I’m ready.
I write in the late morning and the afternoons. Late in the day is particularly good, because by then all the ruckus has died down and the East Coasters have left their desks (I live in California). I get enough done to stop with confidence. I rarely write after dinner, and only on weekends if I have a deadline, but not first thing! Weekends are for sleeping in and relaxing, after all.
So I’m here to tell you that whenever you write is fine, as long as you’re getting to it and moving forward with your work. Now tell me, when do you write, and how does it work for you?
(Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
Generally, I find that I’m more of a morning person but for some reason my best creativity and flow comes in the evening, after dinner time. I used to get up early every morning and write before work because it was the best way to fit the practice into my day, but the material was never as good as what I came up with at night. Now I just do it when it feels good to do it.
Thanks for always bringing up these enlightening topics, Dianne!
Brava! You’ve found a time to write that works best for you. That’s what it’s all, about Darina, even if you have to compromise weeknight partying as a consequence.
Ooh, it’s the opposite for me, Dianne. If I don’t start to working on longer texts immediately, the entire day I keep the feeling I will never get into it. Doing all those small tasks is great for my to-do-list, but don’t bring me the pace and inspiration that I really need for writing. So I try to dedicate each day either to writing or on small tasks. Note the ‘try’! 😉
I suppose you’re not a procrastinator, whereas I am. Also, I don’t know how you can write all day, Edie. I find that too exhausting.
On the contrary, I’m too good at procastrination. But when I’m in a writing flow, I can have small distractions and get back to work more easily than when I start with the smaller tasks. Then it’s harder for me to set myself to the real work.
I’m with you, Dianne. I don’t start working on writing for clients until later in the morning. After I know I’m really awake–and some water and coffee help–I meditate, read for about 30 minutes (otherwise I may never find the time), write in my journal, and, my latest morning fun, exercise my idea muscle by following the prompts in Claudia Altucher’s Become an Idea Machine. Then yoga. This routine is only a few months old but I’m really loving it. When I’m done and it’s time to really write, I’m ready to go. And I do start with the work that scares (or bores) me the most. I know there’s a cliche for that but my brain is in relax mode now so it’s not coming to me.
By the way, I’m a longtime reader and a first time commenter — I sound like someone calling into a radio show. Love your work and appreciate your sharing!
These sound like warm-up kinds of things, Deirdre. Maybe they are different than procrastinating. It sounds healthier and more relaxing to me, to do yoga and read a little, versus email.
Wonderful to have you commenting at last. Thank you!
Yes, definitely warm-up activities, but even more importantly, they’re all things that I’ve wanted to fit in my day but never had the energy or time to do, or so I thought. Now that I start the day with them, they get done and I benefit from the energy and creativity-spark they give me. And I’m still doing the same amount (or more) of billable hours. I decided to make new habits this year instead of resolutions and it’s working so far.
I need to write late at night with the mandatory addition of editing and proofreading in the morning
I believe you are a night owl, Faith, so that might suit you best. I’m including editing and proofreading as part of writing. Without them writing would be awful — at least in my case.
I’m better the later it is in the day. I take my hat off to those who say they can write at 6am but I’m better at midnight! Definitely a night owl – I just wish I didn’t have to get up early so I could stay writing to 2am 🙂
Hey it works for you and that’s what matters. I find that when I work late at night I have trouble getting my mind quiet enough to go to sleep. Sometimes, though, there’s the satisfaction of what I’ve accomplished.
I love the mornings, when the day is fresh and usually greet the dawn with an expansive feeling of “Ahh, nothing has gone wrong yet!” I’m an early bird who does her best work while still wearing PJs. When writing my book, I would work from 8:am-1:00pm and then get dressed. It helped me focus on the writing and not other things. But my best “writing moments” often occur when I am still in bed in that hazy time between sleep and wakefulness. That’s when inspiration hits or that adjective that I was searching for the day before jumps into my mind.
You sound like the poster child for the “writing in the morning” group, Anna. It works beautifully for you! I envy people who can just jump in first thing, I must admit.
While I don’t have a set routine, I tend to write later in the day. Like you, Dianne, I like to take care of business before I get down to business, so to speak. So, I check out what’s up on email and social media. and then settle in to write. I have a habit of writing in the evenings, although I’m trying not to because I’d rather use that time for relaxing and reading.
I would have written this comment sooner, but I had to go read what all the vagina steaming fuss is about (possibly my worst use of two minutes in recent times, haha). No FOMO there.
Hah! I was hoping someone would mention that link. If you’re going to waste a few minutes, that one qualifies many times over.
The “writing in the evening” thing is fraught with challenges. I try to end by 9:30 p.m. so I can let myself calm down enough for sleep. I also meditate at night, which helps too.
Impossible for me not to mention that link! Oh that Gwyneth, you never know what she’ll be up to next.
“…only on weekends if I have a deadline, but not first thing! Weekends are for sleeping in and relaxing, after all.”
Yes!! Though these days I tend to get more done on the weekends, since my days are completely consumed.
Also, love the vagina link. 😉
I was looking for something ridiculous to liven up my post, and there it was! At first I wanted to comment about how you don’t have to do ANYTHING to that part of the body blah blah but I deleted all that. TMI. Also, I think I have you to thank for learning what FOMO was.
Perhaps you have little choice but to work on weekends right now, being a student in an intensive class. You’ll graduate soon and then…well who knows what will happen next? I hope you’re coming back here and resuming self-employment, for my own selfish reasons.
I’m guessing the advice of starting first thing in the morning comes out of the concept that the more involved one gets in the world outside of the the writing, the more distracted one becomes during the writing (or something like that). This is me. I am highly distractible. I do best if I write first thing–without having gone online to do all sorts of other things. But, I also suffer from FOMO (great acronym!). To help with this, I get the morning hardcopy newspaper, which helps me get the top news without getting too bogged down in the details. The more I get involved with online social media, the more distracted I become. If I am waiting for specific emails, then I attend to those before getting started. But, if not–even email distracts me.
My other challenge is that I am the designated parent to get up with my kid and get her off to school. Often, this interaction is stressful and also impacts my writing.
All this said, once I am actually writing, I am then immersed in the process. But it’s getting started that is challenging for me. 🙂
We have the same problem — getting started. We feel that we have to get other stuff out of the way first. And sometimes you’re right, it’s hard to stay away from social media interruptions even once we get started. We distracted types have our challenges, eh Jeanne! But look how much we get done anyway.
True, Dianne!
I tried for a long time to write first thing in the morning and had some success, but really would much rather write in the late afternoon. Warm-up time gets me ready for the real writing.
Oh good. We’re not alone, we procrastinators or warm-up people or whatever it is we’re doing to get ready for writing. The bottom line is that we still get it done.
I also like to ease into it. So much advice to writers cultivates a mystique about it.
Do you feel bad, then, that you can’t write first thing? For a while I felt like something was wrong with me!
I love reading about other writers writing habits. I feel like there are so many “must do’s” and “rules” for writers. And I feel connected knowing other writers have similar routines. Ours can be such a lonely profession! I don’t think the old rules apply so much with the advancement and amount of the massive online content and curation.
During the week, I’m like you Dianne-I need to wake up my brain by clearing emails and checking in on SM. And yep, those crazy, nonsensical articles are such time-sucks, but it feels liberating to goof off knowing I’ll be buried within an hour or so. Then I do some editing (since there is plenty of that). By mid to late morning I’m ready to dig into more serious work. Funny though, on the weekends I wake up and immediately begin to write, and I rarely write in the evenings. By then I’m in the kitchen and looking forward to Better Call Saul, Nashville or a movie.
It does feel naughty to indulge in social media first thing, doesn’t it? I confess that I don’t spend much time there, because I get put off by the content. So often it seems like a good idea at the time, but then it’s not.
I had to look up Better Call Saul. I am pathetic about watching TV. I do love movies though. Last week I was so bored by proofreading a manuscript that I went to bed with a bag of potato chips and watched 2 movies.
It is so true-so much trash talk. Chips and a movie? Ha ha that’s my kind of night!
Better Call Saul is addicting. I love a good loser and Saul is the BEST loser I’ve seen in a while. And of course now that Empire, my other tv pleasure is over, well, there is always Downton Abbey to catch up on. Great discussion as always. Thanks.
I like your style Dianne. I’m a tidier or just compulsive about responding to emails — both could be a form of procrastination but it feels like a cleaner slate when the emails aren’t nagging. And now I know I’m a FOMO too, for better or for worse!
Happy to have these things in common with you, Rosemary. FOMO is a big one!
Wow, that was surreal! It sounded as if I had written this post cause you and I are entirely on the same page when it comes to starting the day. There is no way I can even begin to concentrate on anything else when I know there are a bunch of emails in my inbox. At a minimum, before anything else, I delete the unnecessary, answer the urgent and save the rest for later. But at least I know then what “later” has in store for me. And yes a little bit of ridiculous reading of crazy headlines always brightens my morning… I just popped over and read about Gwyneth’s vagina now. Lol
Maybe some of us have to know what the day has in store for us, and we find out through email. The rest figure it can wait. I’m too antsy for that!
Glad you clicked on the Paltrow story — it was the perfect kind of ridiculous thing that gets me sucked in.
I love all this honesty, so I’ll contribute.
I want to be one of those people who writes first thing, but life gets in the way. I used to be a newspaper reporter and then a magazine editor so I am not too precious about the whole time thing. As a reporter, you do your interviews, get your info and sit down and write to make your deadlines. Period. Maybe that’s why I am able to write on airplanes, while sitting in coffee shops, while waiting for a doctor’s appointment or in that weird time when I’m waiting on the cable guy and you don’t know when he’s showing up. I also write well late at night; my husband is a night owl and so we’re often up very late, past midnight. (Which also makes it hard to get up at 6 a.m. and write.) A chapter in one of my books might be scribbled on a variety of different notepads, plus entries on my laptop.
Also, my dog changed everything. I used to get up, get coffee and go cheerfully into my writing office and get started. But now, I have this super cute dog. Often, she’ll lay languid in bed when I wake up, but sometimes she’s pawing to get out. What am I supposed to do? Say “Hey Maddy, I know that your ability to go to the bathroom is entirely dependent on us humans, but I have to go be creative now?” No way. I take her out. I make coffee. I love my husband but, well, he can be derailing. “Let’s get breakfast!” he’ll say and then we take Maddy out for an hour-long walk, so all hope is lost until after lunch. But still, I try to get my thousand words down for the day.
I do best when I have long stretches of time (read: a couple of days) to really dig into something. I don’t have kids so this can miraculously happen — no conference calls, no interviews, nothing. Even so, its more of a rarity these days so when I find that time, I make the most of it. I can crank out 5,000+ useable words in a couple of days, but then I am writing morning, noon and night.
Yes, I think that’s what it comes down to for me as well, Kathleen — we were both trained to write no matter what, so we do it. If you had writer’s block you’d get fired!
One thousand words per day is very respectable. I wouldn’t be able to sustain writing morning, noon and night for more than a few days. Or maybe I’d be producing crap within a few days. That’s probably more likely.
Your dog sounds so cute! I love the idea of lunch out with Maddy and Mike.