Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Dis-COURAGE-ment

I read, just today, that writers and artists are most creative at night. Is THAT what I've been doing wrong? Unfortunately, if I sleep during the day, well, I don't sleep during the day. I won't say that I can't. Once in a while I succumb to the persuasion of a siesta. But the normal pattern of my life has been as an early morning person. I love to be up at sunrise, even before sunrise, to listen to the world wake up: birds singing as the last fingers of night pull away the darkness, the breeze picking up to tickle the leaves of the oak and maple trees in my yard, and talking to God as I drink my first cup of tea.

Should my family members be described as distractions? I drop everything for them. Isn't that what a good mother/grandmother does?

But what about my writing? Would I be more productive if I slept dayside and lived and worked through the night when the world is still except for the semis that speed down off of Canton Hill and race past my house through town on their way to the hazardous waste incinerator in East Liverpool and other destinations unknown to me or too numerous to mention?

I am working on Ramblings. At this point I see it as a series of stories...seven generations of women in one family. Dr. Swarts said I had too many sub-plots for one story so it required too much work on the reader's part to keep up with everything. And that helped me. I know better what to do...well, on the one hand. I'm looking for a good book on rewriting/revision. And I think I will send what I have revised to Dr. Swartz for some input. Or not. I have to get past the discouragement (dis-COURAGE-ment. Where is my COURAGE???)

3 comments:

Jay Hudson said...

I don't think any one time is better than the other. whatever works best for you is what's best.

I like the way you describe everything here. Very nice.

Jay

JanetElaineSmith said...

I work best at night--up until 10 o'clock. I seem to have an inner alarm clock with a snooze alarm for that hour. I mean, it tells me that it is time to snooze. I think every person has to find what works best for them, then "just do it."

As for revising, in my writing, I have learned that the more I try to correct it, the worse it gets. Guess my daddy was right when he told me, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." But I know that doesn't work for everybody either.

Meanwhile, interruptions are the best excuse I've found for explaining procrastination. LOL!

Keep on keeping on, Cathy.
Janet Elaine Smith, multi-genre author

The Belle in Blue said...

I wrote most of both my first two books between the hours of 10 pm and 2 am, and I still have the dark circles to prove it! I'm just too old to do that anymore. If I try to write late at night now, I read what I wrote the next day and say, "Good grief! What was I thinking?"