Nathan - I loved this piece, and re-live some measure of that malaise daily; I'm twice divorced, grandfather of two, self-employed and live alone. My pooch died 4 years ago, and it's just me and the solitary-ness of mid-night, distant sounds of minimal traffic and a breeze through the window. I try to hydrate without eating - and even then, it seems I barely pee compared to your story. I wonder if this is 'writer-shit' we all encounter in some form. I don't do 3:30, I do 4:30. My Whoop on my wrist vibrates, but lately I bought a loud clanger alarm that MUST be shut off and I keep in the bathroom, and my writing table/writing desktop occupies half my walk-through closet (living alone means less stuff - and room for my virtual time/motion study to get myself from pillow to toilet, scale, check my blood pressure while booting up, max 15 minutes of worm-hole and overnight email checking) and then hit the keyboard. Also, in the last year, after living my entire life unaware, I was diagnosed with ADHD; I take my meds at 4:30 (they and a water glass sit next the clanger, which is next to the toilet, which is next to the scale, then back to the writing table to put the BP cuff on while I boot up my 'must check' items on the computer. The meds take effect in 90 minutes and last 14 hours - so that 4:30-6:00 writing time is vewwy vewwy different than 6:00-9:00.
Somewhere in that span I do a morning walk, earlier and darker the better - love the quiet and the warming up of my brain. I take a sticky note pad and pen with me because many great ideas flit around in my head that I'll lose if don't scribble a quick note. Like you I have the 'prep the night before' list as well. It included empty dishwasher, clothes dryer and put everything away. Also, I have my 'draft page for tomorrow' column' set up and ready to fill with wonderous prose. Sometimes the prompt awaiting me is a few words, or even a paragraph I've grabbed from my 'basket' which a word document with many fragments ...
When I get back from that walk, I hit the start button on the coffee maker, sit down and write; my prompt bit forms the nucleus of my column about 10-15% of the time, because most often something on one of those hastily scribbled notes from my walk is the 'gem du jour' (maybe it's my Emerarld?) .
The magic, setting aside all elements of these routines, is that - thanks to the miracle of a diagnosis and a wonder-drug called Vyvanse (Lisdexamfetamine) I am able to sit, focused and without any urge to get up except for coffee refills, for hours ... but set a rule for myself of 'quit writing, shave/shower, dress, and be en-route to the office by 9:30 ... which I rarely overrun.
I've written this at some length - because, 'this is that what you wanted, is it not?'
Thanks for reading and commenting, Mark! It was great getting a peek into your routine. A few things came to mind while reading:
* cutting it off at 15 min of worm-hole and overnight email checking -- that's wonderful! Having a harsh cut off is such a good, healthy thing. I usually do a good job on writing days with not getting sucked into it, but just this past week I actually deleted email off of my phone because I was finding myself checking it over and over and over throughout the day. Maybe at some point I'll plop it back on there, but we'll see.
* "booting up" -- loved that phrasing.
* Love that you take morning walks! Great way to get the creative juices flowing. When it isn't raining here in Seattle (now that we're getting deeper into spring, consistency on that front is on its way, I'm happy to say), I walk my kiddo to daycare, walk back, and then take our dog for his morning walk. I work from home, so especially on days where I don't have the time or space to go to the gym, walking is very centering for me and helps me feel at least a bit at peace with being cooped up all day otherwise.
* 'writer-shit' -- 100%! It's funny what we'll do to carve out space for it in our lives. You ever envy people who don't have a passion like it? I do, and I don't. I mean, I like to think that everyone has something they're as passionate about, but writing IS a bit of a rare thing, I think, in that it's A) something you can do at any time, B) something you can do in any place, and C) requires minimal tools to do it. Hell, with smartphones, we literally have a word processor on us at all times. And I obviously can't speak for others, but what I get from those three bits is this gnawing feeling all the time -- to the point that, yes, I get up at 3:30am 2-3 days a week just so I can do the damn thing.
Again, thanks for commenting, Mark. Cheers to you as well, hope you're having a great week so far.
Garrett - thanks for the note; we all need to validate our eccentricities! About a year ago I had trouble with my log-in on my cell phone. After a couple of weeks sweating that I had to spend the 'several hours' of working with my email provider an d phone co to get it sorted out - I found I wasn't checking emails at every red light or during meetings. I remember when we used to wait for the mailman to bring our mail ... and have continued WITHOUT email on my phone. When necessary, I send texts when I'm out. Otherwise, the email can wait until I get back - unless it's urgent, and then people can call me. Keep up your writing - it's a great compulsion!
My puppy is making writing more complicated too. “See tail poking up above the edge of the coffee table. Peer over. He is licking an electrical socket. Choice: explain to him why this is wrong? Or shout at him to stop and then worry that your house is a puppy death trap?”
Haha when my dog was a pup, he was generally really good about, say, not eating our shoes, not making messes in the house, etc. But get that little guy outside and he'd go apeshit. He'd try to eat flowers. He'd jump on passersby. He'd try to drink mud... the list goes on and on. But because of his apeshitedness... dude had Giardia three times. Three!
I don't know how you get up at 3:30 am Garrett. I'm a zombie at that hour. Although, once in a while, I may get up and work on something between about 2 and 4. Then back to sleep. It's rare, though. Of course, I'm not juggling everything you are. Sounds like you're handling it well though, even if you don't reach your word count.
In my MS Word (2010), by the way, I can simply highlight the new paragraphs and the word count appears at the bottom. Knowing MS, they may have taken that feature out in later versions.
All the best. Sounds like you have a lot of energy!
Haha I definitely don't feel like I have a lot of energy! I feel so zapped all the time 😂. Just today, I had my little vibrating alarm thing set for 3:30am, woke up, but only to shut the thing off. Then, back to sleep until 6:30. Generally, though 3:30 isn't ideal, I feel pretty good about the situation. I'd love to NOT get up at 3:30, sure, and I'd love to have my writing be my day job, but I've always preferred waking up early to write vs. writing late at night. For several years, pre-kiddo, I'd get up at 5:30 or 6:00 and write before my workday started. So more or less just a shift to that being earlier in the day. And, of course, now I'm asleep most nights by 9:30, which has never been true at any other time in my life.
It's so weird--maybe it actually isn't, just feels weird--but writing late at night seems to prime me for cold symptoms. Like my immune system hates it or something, even if I'm getting the same duration of sleep as I would had I written early in the AM. 2-3 days of it in a week's time usually nets me a sore throat & sniffles. Plus, when writing late, I'm a zombie the next morning, which hasn't boded well for the day job.
Nathan - I loved this piece, and re-live some measure of that malaise daily; I'm twice divorced, grandfather of two, self-employed and live alone. My pooch died 4 years ago, and it's just me and the solitary-ness of mid-night, distant sounds of minimal traffic and a breeze through the window. I try to hydrate without eating - and even then, it seems I barely pee compared to your story. I wonder if this is 'writer-shit' we all encounter in some form. I don't do 3:30, I do 4:30. My Whoop on my wrist vibrates, but lately I bought a loud clanger alarm that MUST be shut off and I keep in the bathroom, and my writing table/writing desktop occupies half my walk-through closet (living alone means less stuff - and room for my virtual time/motion study to get myself from pillow to toilet, scale, check my blood pressure while booting up, max 15 minutes of worm-hole and overnight email checking) and then hit the keyboard. Also, in the last year, after living my entire life unaware, I was diagnosed with ADHD; I take my meds at 4:30 (they and a water glass sit next the clanger, which is next to the toilet, which is next to the scale, then back to the writing table to put the BP cuff on while I boot up my 'must check' items on the computer. The meds take effect in 90 minutes and last 14 hours - so that 4:30-6:00 writing time is vewwy vewwy different than 6:00-9:00.
Somewhere in that span I do a morning walk, earlier and darker the better - love the quiet and the warming up of my brain. I take a sticky note pad and pen with me because many great ideas flit around in my head that I'll lose if don't scribble a quick note. Like you I have the 'prep the night before' list as well. It included empty dishwasher, clothes dryer and put everything away. Also, I have my 'draft page for tomorrow' column' set up and ready to fill with wonderous prose. Sometimes the prompt awaiting me is a few words, or even a paragraph I've grabbed from my 'basket' which a word document with many fragments ...
When I get back from that walk, I hit the start button on the coffee maker, sit down and write; my prompt bit forms the nucleus of my column about 10-15% of the time, because most often something on one of those hastily scribbled notes from my walk is the 'gem du jour' (maybe it's my Emerarld?) .
The magic, setting aside all elements of these routines, is that - thanks to the miracle of a diagnosis and a wonder-drug called Vyvanse (Lisdexamfetamine) I am able to sit, focused and without any urge to get up except for coffee refills, for hours ... but set a rule for myself of 'quit writing, shave/shower, dress, and be en-route to the office by 9:30 ... which I rarely overrun.
I've written this at some length - because, 'this is that what you wanted, is it not?'
Cheers,
Mark
Thanks for reading and commenting, Mark! It was great getting a peek into your routine. A few things came to mind while reading:
* cutting it off at 15 min of worm-hole and overnight email checking -- that's wonderful! Having a harsh cut off is such a good, healthy thing. I usually do a good job on writing days with not getting sucked into it, but just this past week I actually deleted email off of my phone because I was finding myself checking it over and over and over throughout the day. Maybe at some point I'll plop it back on there, but we'll see.
* "booting up" -- loved that phrasing.
* Love that you take morning walks! Great way to get the creative juices flowing. When it isn't raining here in Seattle (now that we're getting deeper into spring, consistency on that front is on its way, I'm happy to say), I walk my kiddo to daycare, walk back, and then take our dog for his morning walk. I work from home, so especially on days where I don't have the time or space to go to the gym, walking is very centering for me and helps me feel at least a bit at peace with being cooped up all day otherwise.
* 'writer-shit' -- 100%! It's funny what we'll do to carve out space for it in our lives. You ever envy people who don't have a passion like it? I do, and I don't. I mean, I like to think that everyone has something they're as passionate about, but writing IS a bit of a rare thing, I think, in that it's A) something you can do at any time, B) something you can do in any place, and C) requires minimal tools to do it. Hell, with smartphones, we literally have a word processor on us at all times. And I obviously can't speak for others, but what I get from those three bits is this gnawing feeling all the time -- to the point that, yes, I get up at 3:30am 2-3 days a week just so I can do the damn thing.
Again, thanks for commenting, Mark. Cheers to you as well, hope you're having a great week so far.
Garrett - thanks for the note; we all need to validate our eccentricities! About a year ago I had trouble with my log-in on my cell phone. After a couple of weeks sweating that I had to spend the 'several hours' of working with my email provider an d phone co to get it sorted out - I found I wasn't checking emails at every red light or during meetings. I remember when we used to wait for the mailman to bring our mail ... and have continued WITHOUT email on my phone. When necessary, I send texts when I'm out. Otherwise, the email can wait until I get back - unless it's urgent, and then people can call me. Keep up your writing - it's a great compulsion!
My puppy is making writing more complicated too. “See tail poking up above the edge of the coffee table. Peer over. He is licking an electrical socket. Choice: explain to him why this is wrong? Or shout at him to stop and then worry that your house is a puppy death trap?”
Haha when my dog was a pup, he was generally really good about, say, not eating our shoes, not making messes in the house, etc. But get that little guy outside and he'd go apeshit. He'd try to eat flowers. He'd jump on passersby. He'd try to drink mud... the list goes on and on. But because of his apeshitedness... dude had Giardia three times. Three!
Have to puppy proof the neighborhood 🤦
I don't know how you get up at 3:30 am Garrett. I'm a zombie at that hour. Although, once in a while, I may get up and work on something between about 2 and 4. Then back to sleep. It's rare, though. Of course, I'm not juggling everything you are. Sounds like you're handling it well though, even if you don't reach your word count.
In my MS Word (2010), by the way, I can simply highlight the new paragraphs and the word count appears at the bottom. Knowing MS, they may have taken that feature out in later versions.
All the best. Sounds like you have a lot of energy!
Haha I definitely don't feel like I have a lot of energy! I feel so zapped all the time 😂. Just today, I had my little vibrating alarm thing set for 3:30am, woke up, but only to shut the thing off. Then, back to sleep until 6:30. Generally, though 3:30 isn't ideal, I feel pretty good about the situation. I'd love to NOT get up at 3:30, sure, and I'd love to have my writing be my day job, but I've always preferred waking up early to write vs. writing late at night. For several years, pre-kiddo, I'd get up at 5:30 or 6:00 and write before my workday started. So more or less just a shift to that being earlier in the day. And, of course, now I'm asleep most nights by 9:30, which has never been true at any other time in my life.
It's so weird--maybe it actually isn't, just feels weird--but writing late at night seems to prime me for cold symptoms. Like my immune system hates it or something, even if I'm getting the same duration of sleep as I would had I written early in the AM. 2-3 days of it in a week's time usually nets me a sore throat & sniffles. Plus, when writing late, I'm a zombie the next morning, which hasn't boded well for the day job.
Many thanks as always for reading, Victor!