I don’t believe in writing at night. Doesn’t work for me and even though a lot of people pretend it works for them, I suspect they are fooling themselves. Which is why I was happy to find this post on Dead Things on Sticks (Denis is a screenwriter based in Toronto):
« Writing at night is bullshit.
[…]
We live in difficult times. People seem to have trouble telling the truth — they even seem to have trouble recognizing the truth, it seems. The night, for me, has never been about truth. The night is about regret and secrecy and passion, and longing and recrimination and rumination. But not truth. Truth is best observed and channeled in the morning’s light. And truth is essential to what we do.
[…]
What I think about at night, what I don’t think about at night, what I don’t realize I’m thinking about until it works its way into my dreams, that’s filling the tank. Night is for maintenance and detailing. And mornings are for writing. »
Actually, in my case it’s more like « afternoons (1 to 7pm) are for writing ». Mornings tend to be about returning phone calls, correspondance, financial matters, filling, etc. I’ll work through the night if I have to but I know it’s not when my writing is at its best.
Mornings are for waking up.
that’s right for me too. if i’m to write, it has to be during the day. at night i get flashes and storylines and ideas that are sometimes good the next morning, sometimes, well, they’re crap and i’m glad i didn’t write them!
I’d have to say that nights work for me, but never as a planned thing. What happens mostly is that I get lazy all day, distracted by regular distractions, and then before going bed I get a rush of inspiration and go on till three am. It’s funny because you swear you are dead tired but something just takes over and then it’s three.
It works for me while I’m drinking a good Scotch whisky. You see, right now I’m beginning to write (just after this commentary) and it’s 10:30pm but I won’t do it 5 hours in a row. Morning is a very good time for me too.
Or… Writing in the daytime is bullshit. We live in exceedingly easy times. People (like Oprah Winfrey) overflow with « truth » and easily recognize it when they see it (or demand it of writers). Of course that’s completely irrelevant since « truth » is also bullshit. The night is about instinct, nakedness, passion, intuition, imperfection, longing and reflection but thankfully, not about « truth ». After all, « truth » is absolutely *not* essential to what we do.
What I think about at night, what I don’t think about at night, what I don’t realize I’m thinking about until it works its way into my dreams; that’s the essence of what worthwhile writing is all about. Night (preferably drunken night) is for creativity, release, memory, expression, freedom, invocation and most of all… celebration. Mornings are for the dimwitted, un-imaginative, indentured and pitifully sober. The day is for tedious and altogether meaningless aspects of life. On the other hand, great minds blossom in the dark and rightfully treat their waking daytime lives as the lesser quotidian masquerade that it is.
Heh heh… This is just like a Mac vs PC debate!
Oh it’s Mac all the way. :D
And it’s less filling!
Ecrire pour moi c’est partout et tout le temps, quand l’envie prend, quand l’id�e surgit. L’avantage de n’ecrire que des nouvelles et uniquement pour le plaisir de les ecrire. Donc j’ai opt� pour le Nokia 9500 et son minuscule clavier, celui qu’on peut ouvrir partout et nulle part, sur le coin d’une table ou sur le bord d’un pont.
I write in the morning, because that uses up a lot of the ideas I cooked up over the night. Then burn out around 2 pm. Can pick it up in the evening if there’s a deadline, and then back to next morning, when I’m relaxed (that’s essential for me to be able to create properly — I’m pretty high-strung)
Not going to impose my habits on anyone. That’s not a daily thing, just when there’s a job that needs doing. Sometimes I just walk around, or read stuff, such as blogs (or books, too. Remember books!), and write notes.
I find that late-night writing while inebriated is great for generating ideas and particularly passionate or revealing revelations. Lunchtimes are for honing those ideas or wondering what the heck I was thinking. Then again, I only write a blog.