Do Early Bird Writers Have an Advantage Over Night Owl Writers?
How sleeping patterns and writing routines can make or break literary success.
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No matter how long you have been chasing your novel, if you have ever researched writing advice from those who have achieved literary success, you will be well versed in in the TED Talk-worthy inspirational rhetoric.
Don’t get me wrong, most writing advice is well meaning and sometimes you find the exact remedy amongst these nifty writing tips to get you out of a creative rut.
Reading advice from fellow writers can be all it takes to give me a motivation boost and kick my creativity back into gear. Not to mention, most of this advice comes from writers who have achieved literary fame and success I can only dream of. Surely, there must be a few hidden gems of advice that helped them get where they are.
Now that my limited praise of common writing advice is out of the way, there is tea to be spilled on writing hacks that are flashy in concept but prove disappointing in practice. They may work well for some but, as a blanket rules for every writer, they have the potential to leave us feel intimated and overwhelmed by our own inadequacy.
Specifically, I am talking about the early bird writing routine: Wake up before dawn and write the majority of your daily word goal before breakfast.
“When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write.” — Ernest Hemingway
The ideal time to wake up and get shit done makes it way into a fair few writing advice resources. Most of the time, before dawn is hailed as the golden opportunity for creative productivity.
“I rent a hotel room for a few months, leave my home at six, and try to be at work by six-thirty. To write, I lie across the bed, so that this elbow is absolutely encrusted at the end, just so rough with callouses.” — Maya Angelou
As an introductory lecture during my undergraduate degree, various lecturers shared their writing routines to inspire us to establish our own. One lecturer, a published author, described her morning routine that consisted of waking up before five in the morning, going straight to her desk, and writing freely until she hit 1,500 words before it was time to get her kids ready for school and go to work. Editing would be saved for later in the day.
Several other lecturers claimed their routines looked similar. The rest, who mentioned they have tried and failed to get into this routine, still held early morning writing sprints in high regard. This discussion resulted in many compelling arguments for waking up early to write:
- Your mind is refreshed.
- Your inner critic is still asleep. You can make the most of getting the words on the page to edit later.
- No one will distract you.
- It gets the responsibility of writing done straight away, before you get the chance to procrastinate. Writing literally comes first.
- If it’s the first thing you do, your mind won’t be preoccupied with anything else you have done throughout the day.
We were encouraged to give it a go. After all, this routine has also been implemented and encouraged by many successful writers, including Sylvia Plath, Jane Austen, and Toni Morrison.
There is one problem that made this incredible feat seem superhuman. I’m not a morning person. I never have been. I accepted I never will be. If anything, I’m nocturnal. Hitting the sack before 1am is an early night for me. I live in fear of lectures, work shifts, and events scheduled before 11am. Does that mean I will never make it as a writer?
If you are a morning person, or if getting up an hour or two before you would need to for work or school doesn’t make your skin crawl, this advice is for you. It makes sense to get straight to work before it’s time for people and other commitments to distract you.
But, if you are a night owl, and not a masochist, kicking your brain into gear at 5am can be an unnecessary torture.
“I needed to be alone in the still of night, without the phone, without my friends calling, with my husband sound asleep. I needed that utter freedom” — Anne Rice
What Anne Rice’s writing schedule makes clear is that there is liberation in writing when there is no threat of distractions. Regardless of what the clock says, shouldn’t that be what’s most important?
“I never type in the morning. I don’t get up in the morning. I drink at night. I try to stay in bed until twelve o’clock, that’s noon.” — Charles Bukowski
Whether it is due to preference, lifestyle, a drinking problem or disordered sleeping, successful night owl writers do exist, but we hear less of their routines. Perhaps they are just less preachy about their own writing schedules when it comes to giving advice. Some literary night owls include Franz Kafka, Vladimir Nabokov, George Orwell, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
In general, there is double standard when it comes to perceiving early birds as organised and motivated while night owls are seen as lazy hedonists. But time of day isn’t inherently influential when it comes to improving your writing. What can benefit you is cutting off distractions and respecting your body clock.
Whether you peak at midnight, dawn, noon, or dusk, make the most of that time. Having a routine benefits most writers, but the beauty of routines is tailoring them to suit you.
If it is presented as what it is, reading the rituals of other authors can be insightful when it comes to figuring out what gets you in the creative zone. Daily Rituals by Mason Currey is an encyclopaedia on how the greatest writers, artists, and musicians got their creative juices flowing. Some are ridiculous. Some are ingenious. None are the right way to create your best work. The variety of these rituals prove how different minds require different tools to get going.
Like all humans, writers are subjective creatures, and embracing our quirks and flaws is part of what gives our work a unique shine. Of course, you must be open to improvement and challenging your bad habits. That involves thinking critically about what advice you employ and what you discard. This takes trial and error. It’s easy to take the voices of success and experiences to heart, for good or for bad. It helps to remember that writing advice is there to help you. If something doesn’t work for you, you haven’t failed as a writer.
