When Do You Write?

I'm best early in the mornings, but with work, I have to fit it in when I can. *Sigh*

Different times of the day---depends on if i'm on pain meds or not...when I am, I don't write... Well sometimes... but usually I write late at night.

I don't have an outside job but I do have an inside one -- my son. We unschool. He's here all day with me. I get up at 7 or 8 or 9 and I usually write or do bookkeeping / job searching until 10 or 11 am. Cedar and I hang out, play, have lunch, hang out some more until 2 or 3. I also fit in time for myself when Cedar feels like being alone during the day or is working on one of his own projects. He goes outside to play with the school kids once they all get home so I fit in some more work before dinner time and more hang out time. Later, after Cedar goes to sleep (anywhere from 10-midnight) I work more.

On the weekends I get a lot done because my partner is here and he takes over most of Cedar's care. It's hard though. I don't get that much sleep. But I really only need about five hours a day to function. When I have a big project due I have more issues. I sometimes find a friend or family member to help with Cedar. I also try to fit in work just about whenever I can where it won't compromise Cedar time. Like if he takes a nap or really wants to veg out and watch cartoons all morning.

It's really hard to write with kids (and we want more kids) or other responsibilities, like a job but I guess if you want to write you have make the time.

~ Jennifer

On a weeknight, usually between 630 and 830 or 9. On a weekend, 12-4.

jenfreedom said:

but I guess if you want to write you have make the time.

~ Jennifer

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Nail on head.

I work retail, which means an ever-changing schedule. Late shifts mean I write in the morning. Day shifts mean writing at night. Days off, I squeeze in what I can whenever I can.

Writers write, whether it's 100 words or 5000.

I tend to be more creative in the evenings, but that hasn't precluded daytime endeavors whenever I can fit them in.

I'm a nightowl by nature, so I tend to do my writing in the late, late hours - after 10pm until whenever my head drops onto the keyboard. My oldest is in school, but my youngest is only 19 months old, so I cram in time while he naps in the morning. Once summer vacation starts, I'll go back to the late nights. That's when I'm at my most creative.

I write while my son is at school or, more rarely, after he goes to bed. I am definitely not at my most creative at night, but you write when you can, right?

Actually, I'm panicking slightly at the moment because today's the last day of school for the year. What am I going to do for the next three months?

I write sporadically throughout the day. A little in the morning work slump, a little on lunch hour, a little in the mid-afternoon when I'm starting to fall asleep, and then I'll write at home if I can keep from getting distracted. The unfortunate thing is that I'm a LOT more creative and able to focus during the day, but I sort of have to come to work during that time. It's not a great combo. To sum it up, I have an A.D.D. writing style!

I squeeze it in whenever I can. I'll probably do about 500 words over lunch today, maybe another 300 at home before dinner, and then I'll write for about 2 hours in the evening after walking my dog and before going to bed.

But throughout my whole day, I keep at least a part of my mind focused on my WIP (the 2nd draft of a YA novel). I listen to my "novel soundtrack" mix CD on the way to work, I keep scratch paper next to me at work just in case an idea hits, and I listen to more of the novel soundtrack on the way home. By the time I get home and have a couple hours to write, I usually have a good idea of what's going to fill the pages.

I'm up at 4:15 every morning to go hit the gym before work (I'm a bit mental on this one), so mornings are out. Since I own my own house and live by myself, I usually have chores and stuff to do in the evenings, plus I have to get to bed fairly early in order to get up when I need to the next day. Fall / Winter I am in school as well, so that takes up a lot of my evenings; Spring / Summer it is too damn nice out to stay indoors, so that shoots a lot of time as well.

Usually I set time aside on Sundays or Mondays that I have off (I work a compressed schedule). Of course if something comes to mind and I feel I have to get it down right away, I'm all over it, regardless of time of day. Somehow I have managed to get the initial drafts of my second book complete, and I think I'll actually be able to get all the rewrites / editing done by September, which will be a year after I published the first book. My schedule actually allows me enough time to probably crank out a book a year, especially since the series I am working on I already know a large amount of what is going to happen, hence less writer's block.

Sassee said:

The unfortunate thing is that I'm a LOT more creative and able to focus during the day, but I sort of have to come to work during that time. It's not a great combo. To sum it up, I have an A.D.D. writing style!

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Right there with you. I write on my lunch, and for about 4-5 hours after work, unless I have other plans or my husband starts complaining that he hears the keyboard more than he does my voice. And if I wake up with a really great idea I will occasionally get up extra-early, skip the exercise routine, and spend an hour or so writing before I get ready for work. It took a while to get this routine down, but it's more or less working for me now.
My best ideas inevitably come to me while I'm getting paid to do something else, and very busy at it. Maybe it's the adrenaline? I want one of those neato telepathic typewriters Bobbi had in King's Tommyknockers. ::sigh::

I write most between 11pm and 3am, roughly. There's no way in hell I'm getting up early to write, not even if James Purefoy asked me to. I'm a night owl bordering on the insomniac. Or maybe just nocturnal.

Anyway, sometimes I do voluntary work through the day but that's only as many hours a week as I choose to do, so I have some leeway there. But evenings are my own.

At work on my lunch hour. I can take a longer one if I get really caught up in it. I sit in the car with the laptop and the radio.

I write best in the morning, but I don't often get a chance to write in the morning, due to work and other obligations.

I write on my lunch break, weekends, and evenings after work. It helps that my SO writes as well, so sometimes we just meet up at a cafe after work with our lappys.

Mostly mornings. That's when the computer is free!

I write in the morning. I get up at 4am so I can write for 2 hours before I have to leave for work.

Then I write at work when I can.

At lunch and in the evening. I go to Starbucks and write my arse off!

Wow. What if you ever need your arse, though? Say you get home and you realise your arse is still in Starbucks?

Starbucks might sell it for profit and then where would you be...Huh.Huh?

I'm lucky, my day job is a work-from-home gig, so I can squeeze in a few hours in the morning before I have to clock in.

Weekdays, I try to put in 2-3 hours a night, 3-4 nights a week. On weekends, I work both afternoons and evenings as my schedule allows; that might be just three hours on Sunday night, or it might be a 12-hour marathon on a slow Saturday. I don't have a strict routine, but I try to write as much as possible as often as possible, and thus far it's working.

Early, early mornings. I get up 90 minutes before I have to, just to write.

It isn't enough. But then I'm useless without sleep, so it'll have to do.

Then I write on weekends as well. But not as much as I should.