Shaking up old writing routines

I am not a morning person and never have been. And never in a million years did I think I would enjoy writing at sunrise (let alone before sunrise, which will be happening this fall when the time changes). Granted, I’ve been getting up early to write off and on over the years — in part because the cat wakes me up for food (he is relentless about this) and I figure I may as well be up writing than lying there trying to sleep while he throws his twelve furry pounds against the bedroom door — and in part because it’s often the only time I have to write. But this schedule has never stuck for long; when given the choice, I’ll sleep in every time (and then, of course, I’ll be grouchy about not having written).

But for the last few weeks, I’ve actually been enjoying my early morning writing — far more than I ever imagined I could. It may be because I’ve had a breakthrough on a project I’m working on. It may be because I’ve set new rules for myself about when I can be online (which is not often anymore, and not at all during my Writing Time), and this frees up so much mental energy. Or it may be because I’m adopting a practice that Hemingway followed when he wrote: stopping when there’s still more to say, not after you’ve gotten everything in you on the page.

And I think this new practice has done wonders. My habit has always been write down everything that’s in my brain — the worry being that I’d forget it all if I didn’t get it down as soon as possible. But there’s something to this notion of leaving a little left for the next writing session. As Hemingway advised: “You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again.” And this is probably why I find myself eagerly getting to work in the morning instead of dragging myself to it.

All this — and sunrises.

For those of you who’ve never tried this, I encourage you to go for it: Leave something for the next day. You just may find that it’s just what you need to make an old writing routine new again.