Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I'm sitting here at 2 A.M., busily typing along when I realize that it's kind of weird that I do my best writing in the middle of the night. I don't know whether it's because my mental barriers are lower and the creativity can flow, or whether I'm just a night owl.

But it made me wonder when the majority of you guys do your writing? Are you a 'get up with the sun writer? Are you a 'squeeze it in during lunch break' writer? Are you a night writer like me? Do you fluctuate? When does your muse come?

CV

I tend to fluctuate. I write a bit in the morning, a bit at night. My schedule is different each day, so I adjust accordingly. I find that I write more substantially at night, though (but I've never done it at 2 a.m.).

In an ideal world, my best writing time would be 1-4 am or so, which is my "peek" of the day due to having off kilter body rhythms. It seems to be common with creative types though.

Alas, my job tends to frown on me being up that late so I have to force myself to live more regularish hours, and my writing ends up being evenings and weekend afternoons instead.

I write during the middle of the day, simply because that's when I have time consistently. And I find that consistency is best for me. But I can understand the idea of writing in the middle of the night, because I often get my best ideas then. They tend to come when I'm laying in bed, wide awake, wishing I was sound asleep. And more than once I've found myself typing away furiously in the middle of the night just to get all those genius ideas down. I just wish I could train my creative genius to turn on when I'm NOT trying to sleep.

I find I write the best either at night or in the morning. It does fluctuate though.

Like Collectonian said, I've known a lot of creative-types to be night-owls, and that includes me, too. I can relate to discovering oneself merrily typing away, wide awake, at 2am! During the summer I do biology work that requires I get up at sunrise, so 2am writing sprees don't really fit into the schedule so well, but in the winter I slip back into my natural rhythm of staying up well past midnight - sometimes to 4am if the writing is going well. If I've hit a scene I'm particularly excited about, though, I'll write whenever I have the chance.

I'm a night writer definitely. I'm practically nocturnal.

Aimée wrote:I'm a night writer definitely. I'm practically nocturnal.

Hallelujah! I'm not alone! lol.

CV

Wow, I must be a weird one then. I do my best writing late morning to early afternoon, usually 9am-2pm. Since I don't have a day job it works well that I can spend a big chunk of the time my husband's gone writing. If I try to write too early or too late I end up staring at my laptop or spending way too much time on Facebook. (I don't do much interacting but I love the Pieces of Flair application. I'm addicted to flair.) I have been known to write in the evening, but only when I'm on a roll. And I've never written at night, I'm in bed and asleep before 10 every night.

Good lord. Before TEN? My night hasn't even started! haha.

CV

CharleeVale wrote:Good lord. Before TEN? My night hasn't even started! haha.

Yeah, I'm gonna be really fun in Vegas. Y'all will be going out for the first drinks of the night and I'll be turning in. This girl needs her sleep! (And trust me, you don't want to see me sleep-deprived. It's frightening.)

dios4vida wrote:

CharleeVale wrote:Good lord. Before TEN? My night hasn't even started! haha.

Yeah, I'm gonna be really fun in Vegas. Y'all will be going out for the first drinks of the night and I'll be turning in. This girl needs her sleep! (And trust me, you don't want to see me sleep-deprived. It's frightening.)

Don't feel bad. This reminds me of the time I went to a music conference in Memphis. The top two floors of the hotel were the "music" floors. The room were emptied of their furniture and it was 24/7 drinking and music. One night, at about 10-ish, I was going back to my room and I got on to the jam-packed elevator and not only was I the youngest person there, but I was the only person going to bed. I felt cool.

I write early Morning or early night, This is not because it is when I prefer to write though.Given my drathers I would write sometime close to when you do!
I think nite writing is so special because all the other distractions are gone. There is no other time on earth when I feel so all alone. Besides with my genre(Supernatural Romance) there is nothing like the ambiance of the cold Dark night to get you thinking about the spooky things that go bump in the night!

dios4vida wrote:Wow, I must be a weird one then. I do my best writing late morning to early afternoon, usually 9am-2pm. Since I don't have a day job it works well that I can spend a big chunk of the time my husband's gone writing. If I try to write too early or too late I end up staring at my laptop or spending way too much time on Facebook. (I don't do much interacting but I love the Pieces of Flair application. I'm addicted to flair.) I have been known to write in the evening, but only when I'm on a roll. And I've never written at night, I'm in bed and asleep before 10 every night.

I am also an early sleeper and the lack of timely sleep does tend to be disastrous. The end of an old relationship could largely be blamed for several nights where I was kept awake past my bedtime. I get up at seven and if I'm not engaged in writing by eight then serious writing usually doesn't happen.

I can write on Saturdays and Sundays from about 9am - 1 or 2pm, then I have to walk away and get on with my day.

I struggle with writing at night and my writing during the day/while at work thing has fizzled.

Needless to say, I haven't been writing a whole bunch lately.