Night Writer
Typing in the dark
Since I was a child, I have found that it has been easiest for me to write late at night. I was always a night owl, as they say, and even though I cherish my sleep as an adult, it sometimes conflicts with the hours when I am likeliest to feel free to create.
For a long time, I slept through sunrises, unless I simply hadn’t gone to sleep yet and happened to catch the arrival of the day. Now, I often choose to get up quite early. This would’ve seemed like absolute lunacy to me for much of my adulthood, but the lack of hangovers certainly helps.
Thankfully, I now have several years of experience with the beauty of the early morning hours. I cherish the quiet time when the sky is still dark and then lightens into a dark blue or grey before being shot through with pink and peach, or with the particular sickly yellow light filtered by wildfire smoke.
My grandmother used to say that the very early morning was her favorite time of the day, the only time when her home was really quiet. Unlike her, I’m not taking care of four kids and a husband. My cats, while sometimes vocal, are not exactly the thunderous pack of ravenous dinosaur-like creatures known as human teenagers, or the adorable chaos agents called toddlers. Still, though, I love being awake and cozy in the very early morning.
I don’t love getting up for the very early morning. But once I’m awake and have made an agreement with myself that I will remain awake, I enjoy it.
I enjoy meditating, praying, feeding and cuddling my cats, having my first cup of coffee or tea. But I don’t get much done in the way of writing. It’s more of a reverent and spiritual time for me, not something productive. I’m more productive at night.
But one can’t stay up all night being productive and then expect to greet the day with gentle serenity. It’s a choice: I get up early and feel for an hour or two like a beatific little meditative creature, or I stay up late and type a shitload of things and then spend the next day exhausted and possibly cranky.
There is also the matter of my day job, which typically does in fact take place during the day, though I have the luxury of working from home. It does not lend itself to late nights spend musing over choices of adjectives.
If you’d like to share when you write, or make whatever art it is that you love, please let me know in the comments. I’m endlessly curious about people’s creative habits. And I hope you have a very good day or night.
This also makes time for prime-time catting. I unfortunately have a job where I have to wake up early, so my bedtimes tend to be modest. Essie (that’s the cat) always seems disappointed when I go to bed, and when I get up in the morning she is snoozing away. We have a good window from dinner time until midnight, but I honestly would prefer to live by her schedule.
A very good day and night to you, too, Sara. My creative times have always been flexible, given the impingements of life's manifold demands. The important thing for me is not to let too much time go by without working on my writing or photography. If I do slack off, soon enough I'm feeling lost, depressed, and vaguely wondering what's gone wrong and why should I bother with anything at all.
Lately my creative work has gone mostly into my Substack and photography. With Substack it's a matter of feeding the beast, which is a daily thing; with photography it's a matter of finishing what I started. Most evenings I am to be found at my computer, working on my photography. I like to pretend it matters somehow, because if I don't, my life loses meaning.