Your Best Time to Write. . .Night Owl or Morning Person?

JoMarieM · Jun 15, 2012

When it comes to writing, do you do your best burning the midnight oil or working just after the crack of dawn? I am very much a night owl and do my best work between 10 p.m and 2 a.m. Often, I don't get to bed before three or four in the morning (thankfully, I do not have a day job that requires me to be up early).

I like to work at night not only because it's when my creative juices are flowing, but also because the house is very quiet and I'm free of distractions (even little noises like the TV or music playing drive me nuts when I'm trying to write). Sometimes I give myself a bit of a break on weekends by taking the night off from working on my books, and relax by playing an online game or video surfing on Youtube (which for me can be VERY addictive, so I try not to do it when I need to work on a book, unless I'm watching videos related to the project I'm working on, i.e., something with historical footage for a history-themed novel.) Then I'm all rested up again to start writing the next week.

So what about you? What is your best time to write?

Jehhillenberg · Jun 15, 2012

I just try to write everyday whenever I can, whatever time I can.

Though I'm a total night owl all the way.

ArcticFox · Jun 15, 2012

Hoot hoot. *owl*

Caitlin Black · Jun 15, 2012

I'm training myself to be a morning person. Generally though, I get most of my writing done in the afternoon.

Drey of Boon · Jun 15, 2012

Whenever my little boy is asleep on weekends, and early evening otherwise. If I get the juices flowing too late at night I can never get to sleep afterwards.

Kerosene · Jun 15, 2012

When I can't be bothered.

Nights most likely. Headphones on, boiling in sweat and staring at the dark screen, in the dark with my keyboard playing the clickly-clack of the beat that I'm listening to at that moment.

Soletaken · Jun 15, 2012

A few afternoons, but mostly late night to early morning.

CrystalCierlak · Jun 16, 2012

Mostly at night. Being a grad student it really depends on what I've got going on academically. Sometimes I'll not quite finish something at night and wake up the next morning to finish it, but that's rare.

katci13 · Jun 16, 2012

Between 7:30 p.m. and 3:30 a.m.

It's the only time I'm calm. Things are quiet, I have nothing to do. And I'm actually at home. I stay up too late and unfortunately I have to go to work in the morning and don't get off until 6:00. Hence the cycle remains unbroken.

But I can write any time of the day if I have the time and I'm not stressed out about anything.

KillingAurora · Jun 16, 2012

I'm a night owl, but I don't know it if that is by necessity given that I only have time to write at night! I usually write between 10pm - 2am (and then get up at go to work at 7am... Haha) Though that being said, I do carry around a notebook with me at all times, and I do frequently scribble illegible notes for myself at all hours of the day.

KellyAssauer · Jun 16, 2012

If it's a good day, 8am to 2pm, then I need a creative break and sometimes I can get fired back up around seven in the evening until when ever...

LAgrunion · Jun 16, 2012

I prefer to keep a vampire schedule - sleep when the sun is out, wake when the sun is down. Late night (10 pm to 4 am) tends to be the most productive for me. I like it when the world is dark and deathly quiet. No music. Any sound will bother me. I live on a busy street, so night is the only time I can get the peace I need.

lorna_w · Jun 16, 2012

morning. with this novel, sometimes did it from 4-6 a.m.

(neighbor gets up at 3:30 to go pick up his girlfriend at work and drop her off at home, for some reason. Lady, buy a car! But I'd get up at 5 a.m. if he wasn't waking me at 3:30, so I can cope.)

I can revise in afternoons and early evenings, but drafting has to be first thing.

Smiley0501 · Jun 16, 2012

Night!

rhymegirl · Jun 16, 2012

I'm a night owl, baby. (with thanks to Carly Simon)

flowerburgers · Jun 16, 2012

Always the morning! I wake up at like 5am, go running, play guitar for about an hour, and usually sit down to write at 9:30 or 10:00. If I don't have anywhere to be I'll sometimes write until 5 or 6 in the evening.

I'm so mind-boggled by night people, I was one when I was a little kid but now I completely lose my productive capabilities after 8pm.

Caitlin Black · Jun 16, 2012

I'm usually asleep by 9pm...

Definitely an afternoon person.

Ambrosia · Jun 17, 2012

Morning for creative process, then any time for other aspects.

mccardey · Jun 17, 2012

Ambrosia said:
Morning for creative process, then any time for other aspects.

Oh. What she said.

LadyV · Jun 17, 2012

I write anywhere from late afternoon, when I get home from work, to early evening. Typically I stop after 11pm unless I have an idea that just has to be written down. For some reason, writing in the morning just seems strange to me. Maybe it's because I was sedintary all night while I slept, I don't want wake up just to be inactive again.

WriterDude · Jun 17, 2012

I have a creative preference for morning writing, but that rarely happen, so there's nothing better thank cranking out a couple of thousand words with a coffee on a Sunday morning before the rest of the house wakes, but I'm mostly limited to an hour or so in the evening. The evenings themselves are a fragile equilibrium between the need to write and progress the wip, and the consumption of wine. Yom. I do have a 1k min output before the booze flows though.

EarlyBird · Jun 17, 2012

In the morning before the kids wake up. I do my best work between 5-7am.

I absolutely cannot write in the afternoon. Read and revise, yes, but pure inspiration and creativity take a nose dive past mid-morning.

BigWords · Jun 17, 2012

I write whenever I can get five minutes spare to get words down, but if left to my own devices it would probably be all the time.

Paul · Jun 17, 2012

I'm a post two breakfasts/ late afternoon kinda guy myself

Regan Leigh · Jun 17, 2012

Between midnight and 2am.

Your Best Time to Write. . .Night Owl or Morning Person?

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