Thread: Writing at night.

Recently, my peak hours of writing are between 10PM and 4AM. For the eight years I've been writing, these late hours have produced better quality work than if I worked on a project in the morning, or the afternoon. Only problem is, I'm a person that needs that 7-8 hour continuous sleep, which has me waking up in the afternoon. (Thankfully, my job schedules me at night) But I feel like I'm losing the first half of the day because I spend my best thinking in the wee hours of the night. And of course, and I posted this in the "you know you're a writer" thread, I spend another hour thinking about my work before I actually fall asleep. (Which influece some amazing and crazy dreams) Right now I do not want to break from my consistency of writing because its been a good while since I last had writer's block, but I starting to want more out of the day than the three hours I have before I have to go to work.

Any advice?

The way I see it, you have a couple of options. The first one is do nothing. Hey, you've got a winning method, why mess with it. Two: Go to bed when you get home, wake up earlier and give that a shot. The only drawback, is that you'll still be doing something other than enjoying the time you have before work. The third option is to dial down your time spent writing. I'm not sure how many words you get done in you hours at night, but if you're doing 3000 words on average, drop that down to 2000. For me, I seem to get a lot more done when I have a number I need to reach, rather than a time frame.
But it comes down to trying to not fight with your muse. I know every time I mess with mine, she ends up flicking Camel Menthols at the back of my head, eyes blazing and screaming at me that I'm a worthless hack. God, I love her. . .

If it were me, I'd try shifting everything by one hour. (go to sleep an hour earlier, wake up an hour earlier).. See how that works. If possible, try shifting another hour again.. that'd be two hours..

Then you'll have five hours of the day (as opposed to three), and you still have four solid hours of writing in the evening! That's not bad!

Maybe even try another hour.. so you have six full hours of the day, and three solid hours of writing time. Three hours is quite good if you focus and don't get distracted. But, it's your call.

Humans are creatures of habit, just like our sleep cycles.. Your body will respond to however you train it. Just a suggestion.. Cheers!

lol, so I attempted these advices and found myself going to bed an extra hour later. I don't really know what happened there. On most nights, its simply me just not noticing the time because I get so enthralled in my work its hard to get distracted. "Oops, hella late. Gotta go to bed." But apparently, trying to change a consistent habit made me go the other direction and last night I even reached 5AM and this was done without any writing! I like the label of being a nightowl, but this is close to vampirism! Soon daylight is going to burn. I get the feeling I should take a break from writing for a few days--I'd still do a post here and there, along with taking notes--so I can get back into a comfortable sleep timeframe!

If you think your current writing time is producing your best work then I would stick with that and try to make everything else fit in with it.

I'm a night writer too! Nothing wrong with it. Some of my most amazing work has come pouring out of me around 3am with the lights and music low and the rest of the world asleep. Just make sure to get outside while it's still daylight so you don't turn into a pale, vitamin D deficient vampire.

I am as inexperienced as writers come, but also find that my better ideas come to me at night and I need a notebook on hand at all times.

When I wasn't a starving student trying to make ends meet and I had loads of time for writing, I would write a lot at night. However, instead of staying up til 4, I would write between about 9-1, and then go to sleep, wake up and write sometime between 3-4, and then sleep until 9 or 10, and that seemed really productive for both my writing and my need for sleep.

I'm a night owl- always have been, most likely always will. The insomnia probably precedes that, but no matter.

Looking back at pretty much every piece of work I've completed, be it a painting, sculpture, short story, poem, piece of craft, or whatever else it may be- I've mostly undertaken the task at night, in the twilight hours; say, midnight to six in the morning.

It's as if some creative Hide takes over at night, and he makes a mad dash for the nearest implement to sate his creative appetite.

It's amazing how many topics there are about writing that don't have anything to do with writing.

Originally Posted by JosephB

It's amazing how many topics there are about writing that don't have anything to do with writing.

Call the literary police.

From the looks of that avatar, all you’re missing is the badge.

Originally Posted by JosephB

From the looks of that avatar, all you’re missing is the badge.

Alas, I still wouldn't have the fabled authority of an internet moderator.

Well -- if I was the literary police, the first word I’d outlaw is “alas.”

Gonzalothethird - Whatever plan works best for you is the plan you need to follow. If you try to change you schedule because of another person's advice, you will get yourself messed up. Apparently that has already happened. Go back to doing what works, then start thinking of what changes you can make that will give you more day to enjoy without disrupting your writing schedule.

For myself, I'm brain dead from from around eight pm till around four am. (And I don't need anyone asking about the rest of the day.)