So the whole homeschool-all-day, write-at-night thing isn’t really working out for me. Partly because, writing-wise, I’m working on something that isn’t under contract and therefore I lack an external deadline, and partly because teaching my son is sucking my brains and energy out. (In a good way, if that’s possible. I’m actually *cringe* enjoying the homeschool gig most days. Never thought I’d say that…)
But my natural creative time, formerly from about 9pm-1am, seems to have taken a vacation. I gave myself a couple of weeks to adjust to homeschooling because I’m infamously resistant to change but…it’s been a month. The only thing that’s made me open the file is a 100-for-100 challenge (100 words a day for 100 days…if you miss a day, you start over at day 1) with my plotting group, goddesses that they are. Most nights I’m churning out…a whopping 150-300 words. Everyone writes at her own pace, but a comfortable yet challenging daily goal for me is more like 2000-2500 words.
So um, yeah. Daytime homeschooling + evening writing=colossal fail.
The logical solution, of course, is to try getting up butt-early to write, before anyone else is awake. I know lots of writers who do this successfully. I’ve always wished I could. There are a couple of excuses issues I have with it. First, my creative juices seem to flow at a negative speed before about 10 or 11am. Second…my internal rhythm is out-of-whack. I don’t naturally match society schedules — you know, the whole sleep while it’s dark thing? I’ve been struggling (unsuccessfully for the most part) to shift my sleep hours to midnight to seven am. And now I’m going to shift it another two hours earlier?
Yes. I am. God help me, I’m going to try.
I got up at 5:30 this morning for a test drive. Made a beeline for the fireplace with my laptop. The house was quiet. My brain wasn’t quite plugged in yet. But…I wrote a couple hundred words and took a bunch of other notes. And I think if I stop resisting the idea, I could write a couple thousand more. Every day. And then…maybe I could have free time in the evenings to do mindless things like watch TV and read. You know, before I go to bed at the old lady hour of…10 o’clock.
My best time for housecleaning is between 9p-1am in front of the computer watching shows on line. You’d be surprised how much laundry can be folded, floors picked up and lessons plans made. Keep up the good work!!
I’m totally with you, Amy. Gotta get up early to get that writing in. I’m not home schooling a child (shudder), but I work all day, have the family all evening and then try to hit the bed by 8:00ish. That doesn’t often happen, but I try. The little darlin’ and I will lay in bed and I make her read to me for about a half an hour before we both fall asleep. Then I try (TRY) it get up at 4:30 and get some actual work done.
Going through treatment makes this a bit difficult, because it tires me out all day. Still, the 4:30 time line seems to work pretty good. Its quiet, no disturbances and with only the cat to bug me. Gotta love that.
I can’t even contemplate getting up at 0430. I mean I should so I can get up and workout cause after a certain time my body settles in for a day on nothingness.
Since I’m working on writing it might be good for me too but really I am as unmotivated about getting up super early as a turtle is about running. It just isn’t happening.
I often wake up early (5 to 5:30) to get some writing time in before packing lunches. I love that the house is so quiet at that time. Of course, if I don’t sleep early enough to compensate, I’m mentally useless. As for evenings, it depends on the day. Most of the time, I’m too fried from making sure homework is done, making dinner, and getting kids to bed.
Do you have a coffee maker with a timer? I don’t, but smelling coffee would make getting out of bed easier for me
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I’m a night owl who had to adjust to early morning hours years ago and now I wake up on my own by
6am at the latest. My alarm clock goes off at 5:15 am and I don’t have any problem getting things done. During the summer the alarm does go off at 4:30 am and again if I am diligent about going to bed by 9pm – I’m okay for the next day. It’s the going to bed part that’s hard for me
Ahhh Amy , at last ye shall be converted to the 4am’ers. I say this as I prepare to get up at 4am on a SAT. so I can go at daylight to rake straw for my flowerbeds. I knew you’d at last find the RIGHT time to write. LOL. YOU MY FRIEND!!
Suzanne