Morning Writing Routine: Why 6 AM May Be Your Creative Sweet Spot
A morning writing routine is something I’ve heard of, but due to general slothfulness, not a practice I’ve tried. But I’ve been travelling a lot recently, from one side of the planet to the other. As a result, I recently woke up at 6 am in the morning by accident.
I normally get up at the crack of around 9 am, so it was quite a traumatic event. Rather than returning to bed and staring thoughtfully at the ceiling, I went to a different room and wrote some fiction. To my surprise, I was more prolific than normal, and what I wrote was pretty damn good. (That’s obviously subjective, but it totally was.)
I even had time to procrastinate by researching when famous authors tended to write and get scribbling. If people like Stephen King get up early, maybe he’s onto something.
I tried changing to a morning writing routine for a bit, and the results were impressive
After crawling from my pit, I usually spend around an hour waking my brain up. This involves 50 press-ups, two pints of coffee, reading emails, playing online backgammon, and finally, Wordle. I clearly have a huge brain, because, like a powerful computer, it takes a lot to get it fully operational. That’s just science and nothing to do with procrastination.
To put food on the table, I spend about half the week writing non-fiction. I was a journalist for over 30 years, and it is still what pays for all my bills, travel, and ludicrous coffee intake.
I write fiction the rest of the time.
I found waking up at 6 am and seeing a morning writing routine in action was a bit of a revelation for both types of writing, but especially for writing fiction. (Although ‘routine’ might be a stretch.) My brain was fresh but still a bit dreamlike. I sleep incredibly deeply and always get at least seven hours, which is why it takes so much effort to get my noggin powered up.
I need to be fairly sharp to focus on editing or researching, or whatever I am doing, but even with the grogginess, things seem clearer, and articles flowed more easily. With fiction, the words just seemed to pour onto the page. They do that after a couple of pints if it’s the evening, but this time the writing was good.
This led to some research. Is a morning writing routine a good thing? Should I become one of those self-righteous early-risers? I’d seen them often in my youth, looking all smug while I was stumbling home after a night of having fun. I disliked them back then, but, and this is a horrible thought, maybe the self-satisfied bastards were onto something.
Famous writers and their morning routines
I have been writing professionally since I was 18, which was way back in 1990. Jesus that’s depressing.
Anyway, because of my background, I know one of the best ways to be productive is to have a deadline and an angry editor who will threaten to fire me if I fail to hit it. I also had a compulsory morning writing routine as we had to write in offices back then.
Now that I am freelance and there is the internet, the quantity you write can literally mean more money. (Obviously, quality is also crucial, but that should go without saying.) But you set your own hours and might prove a lenient boss.
Famous authors face the same issue, and can get up when they want. And they produce entire books. So, maybe a look at their routines can help. I conducted some research (a fancy way of saying I Googled) and found the following.
- Murakami and Voltaire start (or started) at 4 am.
- Kurt Vonnegut began at 5:30 am.
- Hemingway, Asimov, and WH Auden started at 6 am.
- Ursula Le Guin – just after 7 am.
- Charles Dickens and Stephen King began just after 8 am.
And so on…
So, I discovered they all start work before I even get up. I am now disappointed with myself.
Routine remains one of the most crucial elements
If you are starting out as a writer and want to develop good habits, I cannot stress enough that whatever you do, establish a good routine. Some may disagree with that advice, but given all the writers above swear by a good routine, I think it is fairly sound. It certainly works for me.
A routine forces you to do something and distances you from the ludicrous notion of waiting until you’re inspired to write. No professional writer can afford to do that, and as flow state tends to happen after you have worked for a bit, you should just get started.
What I am personally struggling with is when to get started, and whether that should be stupidly early. We’ll see. It’s fun to experiment.
The morning may be your most productive time. You’ll never know until you try.
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