From January 2 to January 9 (of 2014) I woke up every day at 4.30am. Yes, in the early morning. That was because I had concluded that I can’t use any more excuses for not writing a novel. So: I just wake up early and do the job then!
Why on earth would you wake up at that insanely early hour?
You asked it. Because I have to write. Because I have ideas in my head and they have to get out. No more “I don’t have enough time”, or “I am too busy” or “..too distracted to actually sit down for it”. It’s: Shut up. Wake up early. Grab a cup of coffee and bloody Type Away!
So I have been typing away from 4.30am. And how was it?
It is incredible. Okay, in the evenings I am knackered at 11pm. I put my alarm clock far away from my bed, so that I actually have to stand up to turn it off. Well, then I better head out the bedroom next. Easy.
It gets harder however, if I am not in bed before midnight. That alarm clock is telling me, hey – you need to be up again in a couple of hours!
In the early morning it’s dark outside. It’s absolutely silent. Nobody and pretty much nothing can distract me at that time. Words just come out and fill the screen. I am amazed at what I’ve come up with. I am actually (and finally) making things up as I go and it seems to work. It seems to fit. It feels good.
I am unable to just write for the love of writing. I know people who just love to write essays and will pump out lengthy (and even very amusing) blog posts on a daily basis. I have stories to tell. And these stories have to be written. And will hopefully they will be read in the future. But not for a long while.
These first days of the year were awesome as I was able to start creating a storyline. I know where who and what is all heading where. I have characters telling their side of the story, knowing that their expressions gives me exactly what I will be needing in future drafts about them.
Oh, the sheer fun of this just cracks me up. Why didn’t I do this way earlier?!
And after this early morning writing session, it can be just about 6am or even a bit later than that, I can return back to bed. Where I realize that my mind is wide awake and highly active and most of the times I can push myself back to sleep. Otherwise it’s “oh well, let’s await the newspapers then”.
What’s next?
I am giving myself a break. A planned break to Vietnam with a friend comes next. No more waking up early. No more typing for almost two weeks. Just enough to get my head out of Phnom Penh and to let the storyline get its rest. Back near the end of January.
The seed is there. Let’s get some water.
I have found myself waking up in the middle of the night or shall I say morning…way before sunrise pouring my heart away on my laptop. The best part is watching the sunrise and feeling like you just had a great conversation with and old friend…a feeling of contentment….or maybe some form of spiritual relief.
Perhaps our brain is in its most spiritual state in the early morning.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/how-i-stopped-procrastinating/ This article makes a similar point – maybe there really is something to these creative dawn hours!
Nice, that’s a good read! Thank you.
I have just come across your website. You are simply amazing, love your work! I once got told that the prime time to pump out productive work was in the early hours, about 3.30am. I must try it someday and see what I come up with. Thank you, Anita Hendrieka
I did this once for a creative writing class I took at our local community college. Our instructor told us that for an entire week (or maybe it was two, I don’t remember), we had to wake up early and write for an hour. And I like my sleep, so I wasn’t looking forward to this assignment with much enthusiasm. But, being the obedient student I was, and curious to see if I could in fact get up early, I set my alarm for 5:30 am. I stopped going to bed late (1 or 2 am was my norm) and started waking up with my alarm to write until 7:00 am. I got in a hour and a half and oh the writing! I got six pages of an original story out in two days! I can’t do that anymore, and sometimes I miss it! Waking up early to write might seem like a crazy idea, but it works!!
From a fellow early-morning writer!
Dear me Ramon, you have got it all backwards! You should stay up til 4 a.m.
and then sleep in. I cannot comprehend why anyone would want to get up so early, unless there is a meteor shower, and you want to have Meteor Shower Party
with waffles and strawberries. I really have to have time to crank up to warp speed.
Firstly, chum reap suor. Secondly, I have been touched by many of your articles, mainly the “day a boy/girl who travels” because it, as many others, literally describes both me and my dream man to a T! I have just spent a month traveling through Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Chau Duc, Mui Ne, Nha Trang, Da Nang, and other rural areas of Vietnam. More importantly, I spent some time in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap and have never fallen more in love with a place as I did with Cambodia. The people, the land, the culture: beyond breathtaking. I was volunteering in many schools and orphanages and quite honestly, the children of Cambodia stole my heart and I may have left it there. Continue writing and hopefully encouraging people to step outside their comfort zones, to travel, to live in the moment, and to love. Wherever my future journeys take me, I will take a small piece of you and your beautiful messages. Akun.
–Kelsey Ann