The best time of the day.

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

Is there a certain time of day when you are most creative? When do you handle the business side of writing? What’s your favourite time of day?

I write early in the morning and sometimes late at night. By early, I mean 5 a.m., when I have just awoken and my mind is at its freshest. I always started work early and got into the routine of waking at 5, now I’ve retired I can’t shake it off. Plus, there are no distractions at that time. I can just sit at the keyboard and get lost in whatever’s happening in my head. Even though I can only type with a few fingers, most days I manage to get a couple of thousand words down.

How many of them will still be there when I start the job of editing them into a form suitable to be read is debatable. But as someone once said, you can’t edit a blank page, so down they go.

I have tried using speech to text software but to be honest, I think it takes me more time to tidy it all up and put in proper punctuation than it does to write it in the first place. Probably because I talk too fast and ramble on without a break. I also get excited and forget to say things like comma or new line.

I accept that the dictating concept is handy for the time when inspiration strikes and I haven’t got the chance to type, (I have a dictation app on my phone) but for long passages, I find that typing is better. The fact that I type slower than I think comes in handy as it forces my mind to slow down, which dictating doesn’t.

Besides, at 5 a.m., me talking into a microphone might not be a good thing.

Another great advantage of getting my writing done early is that, by breakfast time, I’ve done a reasonable amount and the rest of the day is mine. I might take a look at social media but I’m not a great one for it. I have been on the receiving end of far too much trolling and nastiness for my liking (for some reason, there are people who take offence at my presence and don’t like to see me advertising my books). Because I just want a quiet life, I keep to myself. At least it means that I don’t spend ages mindlessly scrolling, then feeling guilty for wasting time.

I will try to do a bit more writing in the evenings, normally that’s blog posts and newsletters, anything official connected to writing or answering emails. If I have had an idea, or made a note during the day, I’ll try and get it down here.

Whenever it happens, my absolute favourite time of day is when I’m in the flow. Ideas are pouring out and, because I never know what’s going to happen until I type it, I get the same feeling that I hope a reader will have as they come to an exciting bit. I’ve been known to gasp in surprise or even well up as I’m reading it back.

Not that I’d ever admit it.

Let me know what you think about this week’s subject.

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