Writing Routines: When to Write?

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Out of all the different things I’ve done to make my writing better, practice has benefitted me most outside of pure reading.

I’ve taken classes, I’ve read craft books, I’ve read many, many posts on improving my writing in interesting and creative ways.  But practicing has been the best approach for better writing.

The key is writing as often as we can.  There are some days when writing is harder than others.  Sometimes it’s totally me…I just don’t feel as if I can bear to look at my manuscript.  I’ll still write on those days, but it will be a fraction of the amount I usually write.  Sometimes it’s a sick child, travel, or other things that get in the way.

I’ve found that I do best and get more written if I write first thing in the mornings before any demands are made on my day by other people.  I pour my coffee, take a quick glance (quick is vital) at my phone to make sure that no family emergencies have happened overnight (although I know I’d more likely get a phone call on my house phone if that were the case), and then I hop right into the story.

If I write at the same time, in the same place, and after the same routine (getting up, putting contacts in, going downstairs, getting my coffee), it’s almost as if I’ve got muscle memory with my writing.  The writing happens automatically.  I don’t mean that the text seems robotic and automatic, only that it’s produced efficiently and on demand.  I don’t have to force myself to it…it’s just what I do at that point of the day.

I love mornings, I admit it.  I love that smug feeling after I’ve knocked out the biggest thing that I’ve got to do that day to meet my goals.  If you’re interested in becoming a morning writer, I read an interesting article recently called “Win the Morning, Win the Day,”by Bec Evans,  which expresses better than I’m doing here why this is a helpful approach for so many of us.   She states:

“By making your morning routine a habit you can conserve your willpower for other more important activities. President Obama famously limits his suit and tie choices so he doesn’t deplete willpower deciding what to wear.

It’s not easy to make good habits or break old ones, but it can be done. Having a set of activities you do on rising makes it more likely for a habit to become established. The best advice for setting a habit is to start small and attach it to something you do already, like making your first cup of coffee, and slowly increase the time spent. You’ll be surprised how quickly it becomes routine.”

Although I do love the mornings, I always feel sort of bad for the night writers.  For one thing, I feel like they get a bit of short shrift among other writers.  Writing in the morning is popular…night writing not so much.  But some writers have morning obligations, odd schedules, or are just unable to write in the mornings before work.  For those writers,  I’ll mention another article I read recently with tips for night writing.  It’s by Daphne Gray-Grant  for PR Daily: “5 Helpful Tips for Writing at Night.”   I think one of her best tips is where she’s essentially recommending that we be realistic with our nighttime writing.

“Make your writing time late enough that it won’t compete with social or family obligations. If your writing time is 7 p.m. you’re essentially committing to never going out to dinner with friends, never seeing a nighttime movie, never going to a concert.

Make sure your time is going to work for you at least five days per week.”

Are you more of a morning  writer or an evening writer?  Or are you a writer who fits writing in when you can  (I’ve had years when that’s been true)?