How to Write First Thing in the Morning
Photo courtesy of Peter Gene
As I write these words, it’s a little after 4:00 a.m. and my wife and kids are sleeping. The house is dark and quiet, with no TV or music playing, no conversation to distract the voice in my head.
It’s the perfect writing environment, for me at least.
When we write, we are speaking with a voice in our heads, and that voice is communicated through our fingertips and onto paper or the digital whitespace. The more noise that’s around us, the more difficult it is to hear our voice.
That’s why the morning has always been my favorite time to write, before anyone awakes, before traffic starts up or the chickens start making crowing noises. It’s the still of early morning that allows my voice to come through.
Why Write So Early?
Sure, it can be done at any time of day. For some people, noise is a welcome relief from the heavy silence. For others, the quiet of late night is preferred. I won’t argue with these people, as everyone has to find a writing time that works for them
But here’s why “first thing in the morning” works for me (and that doesn’t have to be 4:00 a.m. — it can be whenever you awake):
- It’s quiet. For me, that’s super important. There’s no better time than when the world is still asleep.
- Work hasn’t gotten in the way. By mid-morning or afternoon, a ton of stuff has come up that must be done now … pushing back the writing. First thing in the morning, nothing has come up to push back my writing.
- Life hasn’t gotten in the way. It’s not just work that pushes back writing, but everyday stuff, like errands and paying bills and parties and family and kids. If you wait until the evening to write, what happens when a social engagement comes up that evening? Writing gets postponed.
Tips for Writing Early in the Morning
So you want to write in the morning … but need some suggestions? No problem. Here are my favorite tips:
- Wake earlier. If you normally wake up just in time to start getting ready and then head out the door, you’ll need to wake earlier to make time for writing. That’s why I wake at 4:00 or 4:30 … it gives me a good two hours. Wake just a little earlier at a time — see my tips on doing this here.
- Topic. Don’t wake up in the morning with no idea what you’re going to write about. Have your topic chosen and give it a little thought the night before. It’s great to sleep on it anyway — let your subconscious do the work for you.
- Research. Do your research the afternoon or evening before. That way, you’re ready to write and don’t have to be distracted by going online to look something up. Just look everything up the day before, and save it all to a text file, so you can write without having to go online.
- Start with an outline. It’s hard to just start writing with a blank screen staring at you. So I start typing out notes or an outline, so that it gets my brain and my fingers moving. Once I’ve done that, the actual writing is much easier.
- Don’t check email. Whatever you normally have the urge to do first thing in the morning … resist the urge. For me, that’s email. But that can take an hour of your time, and then your morning writing time has been pushed back again. Instead, close your email program and just have the writing program open. Resist the urge!
- Have it open. I like to have my writing program open (I use WriteRoom, for its lack of distractions) so that it’s right there when I wake up. I put the title on the screen, along with any research I might have done the day before. Then everything is ready to go … I just need to start writing.
- Get a glass of water or coffee. Before I start writing, I make my coffee and drink a glass of water. The water gets me hydrated, and the coffee makes the morning writing experience that much more enjoyable.
- Focus. While you’re writing, resist the urge to go on the Internet or play games or watch TV or get up and do something else. It takes a lot of practice, but with practice, you’ll get good at focusing on the writing at hand. Practice makes perfect.
- Check email (or another reward) when you’ve done an hour. If you tell yourself that you will be able to check email (or whatever it is you have the urge to do) after one hour of writing — or until you’re done with the thing you’re writing, whichever is sooner — you’ll be motivated to get your writing done. Then you can reward yourself with email (or whatever) and feel good about it.
If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us or on Digg. I’d appreciate it. :)
113 Responses to “How to Write First Thing in the Morning”
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This is the best article I’ve read on how to write better in the morning. I am a batwriter. Meaning waking up in the morning to write the best.
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Dear all, there’s another point of view for those who think that to wake up early in the morning it’s hard to put in action.
If You consider writing at 4.00 am like the better conclusion for a day and You are a bohemienne writer it sounds much more romantic and effective. Don’t You think so?
Nice post!
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I concur with your tips, although I might add that coffee is a must. The best part is simply being in the still of the day. There’s something serene about having solitude with the morning light.
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I agree with all of your suggestions. I am one of the late night writers — I am useless in the morning, but once everyone is asleep, the house is quiet, it is perfect.
The key is to avoid email and facebook until a certain amount of work is done.
Another plus is that late night/ early morning is not full of ringing phones.
Thanks.
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I am more creative very late at night, but more organised and focussed in the (late) mornings.
Have raised two daughters while a single parent at university for seven years, so have been used to a little (ahem!) ‘background noise’ when I study or write!
Although peace and quiet sometimes is lovely, I find total silence becomes distracting after a while!
Thank you … again! Another great post! :o)
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Hi Leo,
This is probably one of the best writing related blog posts I have ever seen online. Why? Because it touches a core in my heart that screams YES, you are so dead right.
This is definitely were I lack and can improve so much and I will take this to heart and start to get up early myself. I reckon writing from very early in the morning will not only be better for creativity, but also put us more into the zone.
It is hard to be in the zone when outside distractions hinder us from thinking.
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As a newbie to the web, and blogging I really appreciate this website. Funny thing is I’ve been starting out writing like this, waking up one hour earlier to type out an article and get into that habit every saturday and work up to more frequency than once a week. Again thanks!
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Cool blog. This blog is probably one of the most informative website about writing I have ever come across. I am one serious night owl, but after reading your post, I decided I want to change myself into an early bird. Admittedly, I have been slacking a lot in my studies ever since I started sleeping at 2 a.m. almost every day. Hopefully it will work. I think it will. =)
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Another full screen text editor for Windows is Q10: http://www.baara.com/q10/. Because it fills the screen, all distractions are gone. All that’s left is writing!
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Thanks for another great article Leo!
This is a great website for writers and an ideal offshoot to Zenhabits!
I’m not quite as hardcore with the 4 or 5am starts, but I’m focussing on waking early purely to write and I’ve found it very rewarding in ways I hadn’t actually foreseen and you manage to incorporate all of them on here.
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For PC Users, I LOVE Microsoft OneNote for organizing my research notes. It is SO easy. You can have as many different notebooks as you need, and it saves as you type. You can cut screenshots from the web and it will automatically put the web address with it so you can refer back to it. As a writing tool, it is amazing.
My question is, how do you make yourself get out of bed at that time of day? I’ve long known that I am more productive throughout the day when I get up early, but whether I’ve had 2,6, or 8 hours of sleep, I find it nearly impossible to force myself out of bed that early. Any suggestions? I have 3 alarms, but I either hit the snooze alarm or sleep through them completely.
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Elynn,
I use a vibration alarm under my pillow, since I needed an alarm that would only wake me and not my spouse. It’s actually my cellphone switched off, and for turning the alarm off I need to find a specific small button. Plenty of time to wake up enough. For me that works great.
I heard a lot of good stories of waking to alarms that work by illuminating the room slowly, as if the sun rises. You wake up very relaxed, and it’s very uncommon that people don’t wake up to it. And there’s nothing to snooze :)
And you’re right OneNote is a great tool. I used it with great pleasure for a while, but in the end it turned out too chaotic for me. Or rather, it left too much room for my chaotic mind to expand.
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I wrote a book exactly ths way when my kids were in preschool- I had to get the most done before 8am wakeup for them. The night before priming with notes and such was really helpful for me then. Email wasn’t such a pull then, though! You are really right about that, and my email/web addiction is so apparent as the biggest energy consumer now. I tell myself “I’ll just check in until I’m more awake…” but what a time waster. I can’t do as early in the morning as you, but your “call to discipline” may just help me slap my fingers away from the email/browser buttons! Thanks.
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Guess what the first thing in the morning I write something and that happens to be looking at your website and you typing on your laptop and therefore being very easy going and simple minded and therefore being very creatively creating word smiths out of your backside of thoughts and putting them in writing virtually on the instant and on the internet of connected people who wrtie and therefore author things and therefore are webmaster of their domain and are very creatively energized for writing in the moring.
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I am a writer. And I work best in the wee small hours of the morning. I realize I am a night person and work best after midnight. I was fortunate. When I worked as an advertising copywriter the owner of the agency (and you would know him) realized this and did not put restrictions on me.
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Excellent article… it’s simple, but a really effective way to draw from your “first reserves” for writing. I have been trying to push up my wake up time to do this more and more. I also keep a list of possible articles at my bedside in the evening and having my mind work through it in my sleep really helps. I am going to link this post into a post I am writing for moms who are looking for time to journal. Thanks!
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If you’re committed to getting up early to write, get a cat. During your first week with the cat, set your alarm clock for 4 or 5 a.m. (or an hour or two before you normally rise). When the alarm rings, get up immediately and feed your cat something wonderful–the best canned cat food money can buy. After about a week, the cat’s internal alarm will be set. For life.
Every morning from then on, your feline alarm will wake you at that same early hour. There are no snooze buttons on cats, although you can try to ignore them. (They like it when you do, as that gives them license to increase the gentle taps and quiet mews to solid whacks, hair pulls, nose nips, and yowls). Dogs may be loyal, but cats are dependable and persistent as hell.
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LOL re getting a cat, Karin.
My cat expects joy, kitty snacks and a rousing game of peekaboo chase when I wake up. When I want to sleep in this is not nice. A small attitude adjustment on my part would reinvent joy, kitty snacks and peekaboo chase as the signal for “after this there will be a lovely and productive morning writing session.”
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A Great Article and Tips! Also enjoyed the tips from other writers.
I usually get up when my body awakens which is late morning. My
situation is quite different because my husband and I are RVers. That
means we live and move around as we work various jobs as work campers. I am a writer and have to adjust my time to work accordingly. I will take your advice and try to get up earlier by increments of 15 – 30 minutes. In an RV you may have only two choices of where to write. My husband is an early riser and he enjoys his own quiet time. HMmmmm,
this is going to be quite an interesting new found thing to try.
Thank you for your suggestions.
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If these articles are what you use your quiet mornings for, and what your voice tells you to write, perhaps you should not write. This article says nothing. Worse, it is just more evidence that mediocre writers obsess over themselves rather than their craft – as is then proved by every comment on this page. If you need to write, and have no time during the day, then you will be up at four without advice or an alarm. If you do not need (truly) to write, then get some sleep.
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Sometimes, I can just stay awake the whole night to write. Then when I finally get to sleep and wake up again, I will continue to write. I just love to write the whole night because night time is so quiet and peaceful.
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Great post! and lots of golden nuggets to take away.
Thanks.
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I write from 5:00 to 7:00 every morning and found your post to contain some good tips I hadn’t thought of. Thanks.
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Thanks very much for the tips. I’m experimenting with this and finding it a great practice, though it’s only been a week. FYI it’s on Edison, the Think, Try, Learn experimenter’s journal: ”
reserve mornings for writing” – http://edison.thinktrylearn.com/experiments/show/203
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