There’s little more that I hate than when I awake too late in the morning. Even if I get up a half hour after my usual wakeup time, I feel a strong urge to rearrange my entire day to make up for lost time.
Many times I can’t write as soon as I get up. Sometimes, I’ll play certain online games with daily goals to try and get myself oriented. Other times I’ll poke through my writing folders to see if anything catches my fancy. Then, after doing one or both, I find I can better focus on my daily goals for writing and learning. But, when I wake up late, I find I have to jump right into work. I rush into writing as substantial a piece as I can within the space of an hour; the result usually ends up reading as confused and scattered.
Even when I really get into writing, though, the slightest interruption will yank me out of creative mode. The word processor is like my sandbox. Too often a stiff breeze blows by and wrecks my sand structures before I even get to finish halfway. Thus, my concentration breaks and you get one of my thousands of aborted works. I try to return to many of them later on. But, the thought process behind them often becomes alien to me within minutes of losing whatever train of thought I was on at the time.
Of course, a late morning means I stay up later that night almost without fail. This causes me to then have to cut my nightly rest short, whatever my writer’s brain allows me to get at all in the first place. Oddly enough, the late morning days can be the most productive ones I have, But, the quality isn’t as good as when I ease myself into it instead. Late mornings mean quantity over quality. It more often means rehashing and intense editing works both currently unpublished and published. Some I published long enough ago that even I may have forgotten they existed.
Many people take weekends off, but I rarely do. Even Sundays I will often write as much as I can. These days my weekends are usually my days to mull over my forays into fiction. Interestingly enough, Sunday was the day I often did the bulk of my freelance client work. Then, most of the week I’d work on my own projects. I’m not sure how I got into that habit. But, since moving on from freelance work and focusing exclusively on my own works, there’s not much of a rhythm to my work schedule anymore. While I refrain from forcing the writing when it’s simply not happening, I do allow myself to write about more topics that I may never post live than I have in the past.
I do much more reading now than I did for the better part of my freelance years. Then, I was hyper-focused on getting my client work done to the best of my ability. That included getting indexed in search engines and researching the latest tips and tricks for promotion. But, because I wasn’t opening myself as often to fresh ideas and perspectives, the writing itself began to suffer. If in the future I decide to try and mass market any of my work, I’ll just hire various people to promote it for me. I’m fortunate to now have the resources to do so, something I never had until quite recently.
Unfortunately, I can’t keep up with all the algorithmic nonsense that goes on these days in getting found. So, I no longer focus on being mindful of trending topics, although I do keep up on what continues to be evergreen as to not sound entirely out of touch. These days, I just write whatever is on my mind. I’m not being as stressed or panicky as I used to be, thanks to not worrying about where my next meal or rest period would come from. So, I can maintain a bit more focus in writing more coherent essay-quality works.
It’s important to me to not tie tasks to specific times or dates as many other professional writers do. There’s nothing wrong with creating accountability for yourself, but I require spontaneity to maximize my creativity. It comes down to whatever works for the individual artist. For me, I’ve struggled so long separating the mundane from the gems of genius that arise sporadically in the pursuit of creative happiness. Now, more than ever, I live to savor the moment and deliver the sensations it offers through my words. My only requirement for myself is that I always write something every day, no matter how disjointed or strange it might be.
Each morning, whether dreary, sunny, or anywhere in between, my mind becomes increasingly focused on intimate reflections with my inner self and my intellect. With each new essay I complete or old journal entry I revisit, there’s a new dawn of realization. I have wished for years to come this point: that I can keep my writing flowing consistently. I write these words hoping that even just a few will be like rays of sunshine that allow you to peer into your own soul. May you find a way to better appreciate your own moments with new clarity and appreciation like I do now.
~ Amelia Desertsong
