Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Eternal teatime


"Julia Cameron wrote a great series of books on the subject writing, one of which is called "The Artist's Way." Julia teaches a method called "Morning Pages" that is very helpful in overcoming writer's block. Simply put, every morning - before you do anything else - you write. Anything. Write with paper and pen. Use a computer. Just write. Get something down on paper.
The premise is, that even though it'll be difficult in the beginning, after a while, you just get used to it and suddenly things find your way into your head and onto your paper."

If I understand correctly, the morning pages are not part of your writing time, nor your novel. They are the stretching, getting into the action of writing itself.

One thing I wonder are the inner rhythms of people.
When are you most creative?
How heatmapping your productivity can make you more productive?

Are there such things, or do you control your creativity by setting aside the time to write, and then just writing? There are several opinions on these matters, but you could make a small experiment.

Take a weekend in October, a weekend you have nothing to do, and map your productivity, creativity, energy, your personal schedule and inner rhythms.
Sleep as long as you like, but get up within 5 minutes from the time you wake up in the morning. Keep a journal about how you are feeling. Make small 5 minutes' writing exercises every hour you are awake, and write down what it felt like, if it was easy or hard.
Eat when you feel like it, go to bed when you feel like it. Sleep siesta if you feel like it.
Write down the times.
After the weekend you should have a quite accurate "heatmap" of your productivity, and can organize your days accordingly.

It could be worth it... because about half of the authors write best in the early morning hours before anyone else has got up, and half writes best after 10 P.M. when the rest of the world has gone to bed...
That is also something to experiment with during October. Take one week when you get up one hour before your normal time, and write in the early morning, then you take one week, when you write after 10 P.M. Note which one was better for you, and keep doing that.

Writing Interrupted - Getting Back on Track
Flow - get into the zone

Then something different...
Psychic Workout: Automatic Writing

"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art."
-- Leonardo Da Vinci

3 comments:

Aleta said...

My best creative time is after 10pm. It's when I let my guard down - hits me the strongest right before I'm about to go to sleep. Grr.

Helena said...

Right now I'm editing my novel so that doesn't require much creativity. But for my next novel (and I was gonna swear off writing!) I figure I'll write as often as I can because the story and characters are so vivid in my head. Course, just because a story comes out quickly doesn't guarantee it's any good...

Hart Johnson said...

My writing is at the end of my day... MY time. But I think that is a function of habit as much as anything. For years, it was all I had--work all day, kid routine in the evening, then FINALLY my time.

I do have to actively turn off my day though. Sit in the tub with something to drink (tea or wine--something relaxing) do a Sudoku first to turn off the brain engaged in my work or household...THEN write.