Coming Out of the Writing Closet

When we last spoke, I shared with you my intention to write at least 1,000 words per day on the second Clayton Gyler novel, The Phantom of Mulberry Street. At that time, I had successfully written a minimum of 1,000 words for 13 consecutive mornings.

Well, good news: today marked my 39th day in a row of fulfilling that goal. Yeah, I'm shocked too.

I think it's fair to say that I've now made this formerly alien behavior a habit, and I can barely remember what life used to be like before I embraced it. It feels so natural, so correct, that it's hard to believe I ever tried to write at night, after my brain was fried from a hard day of corporate writing and performing my various household responsibilities.

I realize I've been living a lie for years, and I can't take it any longer. I need to come out of the closet. I'm finally ready to admit it:

I am, and always have been, a morning writer. I deluded myself for over a decade, trying to make myself be something that I wasn't, but I was wrong.

Well, no more denial of my true nature! No more will my novels have to subsist on my intellectual leftovers! Now, Clayton Gyler and his sidekick, the lovely Jennifer Watkins, will get served first at my creativity buffet each day, when I'm at my freshest and most focused.

What has impressed me most about this method of working is not just how great I feel when I'm done (knowing that even before many of my friends get out of the bed, I've already made substantial strides on a project that matters greatly to me, and furthers my long-term career goals).

No, what has impressed me most is how quickly the pages pile up when a person commits to writing each and every day. Even a relatively small amount like 1,000 words (about four double-spaced pages) can yield impressive results after only a few weeks.

Over the past 39 days, I've written 44,510 words (162 pages) of Clayton and Jennifer's second adventure. That's about 2/3rds the length of the first book in the series (Coffee to Die For), the first draft of which took me eight months to complete.

Incidentally, I'm working on writing the first draft of the second novel in the morning, and spending any free time I can find in the evening penning the second draft of the first novel. Any new words I write while revising are in addition to the words I wrote in the morning, and are not counted towards my daily goal. (Nor are blog posts. D'oh!)

Regardless, I'm thrilled by this new routine, and the progress I'm making.

What about you? What's your daily writing routine? Are you a morning person, an afternoon wordsmith, or a midnight oil burner?

-j.