K. Marvin Bruce

Writers are creatures of habit.  My own writing routine is to get up crazy early before I have to be at work and write the day awake.  I've been doing it that way for years.  Decades, even.  Then the time change comes. When you're young it's not such a big deal.  A few extra yawns at school on Monday and by Friday you're acclimated.  But time holds still for no one.  As an adult, it takes more time to adjust to changes in your schedule.  Suddenly what used to be 4 a.m. is now 5 a.m.  You have to get out of bed at what feels like 3:00.  The writer's schedule suffers. Daylight Saving Time was a contingency invented by the Germans during the world wars.  In order to maximize the usable light, they changed their clocks from standard time so that early morning light (my favorite) wouldn't be wasted.  Better to have later at night light.  Obviously, they weren't writers. So I get up in the morning, ready to write, but *yaw...

I have a problem with writing.  Actually, I have a problem with sleeping that leads to a problem with writing. I’m a morning person.  My circadian rhythms are chirping away at about 3 a.m.  I’m usually up and writing by 3:30 because I commute and I don’t live too close to the city.  This has become my habit.  I’m sleepy most of the time so I try to “sleep in” on weekends.  I’m up before 5 anyway. The problem is when I sleep in my mind is less sharp.  I get out of bed less tired, but less inspired.  I spend so much of the rest of the week weary that I look forward to that couple extra hours of slumber only to discover that the days I don’t have to commute I can’t write well.  What to do? I know that writers, historically, have kept idiosyncratic hours.  Staying up nights drinking, and such.  In today’s culture of running in place just to pay the rent, that’s not really an option.  Other people at work wonder why I d...

I have a problem with writing.  Actually, I have a problem with sleeping that leads to a problem with writing. I’m a morning person.  My circadian rhythms are chirping away at about 3 a.m.  I’m usually up and writing by 3:30 because I commute and I don’t live too close to the city.  This has become my habit.  I’m sleepy most of the time so I try to “sleep in” on weekends.  I’m up before 5 anyway. The problem is when I sleep in my mind is less sharp.  I get out of bed less tired, but less inspired.  I spend so much of the rest of the week weary that I look forward to that couple extra hours of slumber only to discover that the days I don’t have to commute I can’t write well.  What to do? I know that writers, historically, have kept idiosyncratic hours.  Staying up nights drinking, and such.  In today’s culture of running in place just to pay the rent, that’s not really an option.  Other people at work wonder why I d...