Are You a Lark or an Owl?

After the Amazing Email that changed my life, I went about the business of wrangling a new world. First the website had to be revamped, then my Tumblr account, the blog is brand spanking new thanks to the College Kid, and I have awesome new business cards to give away at Nationals.

At first I was so busy getting to know my new publishing home, joining groups on Yahoo, reading about other debut sales, and more that I barely had time to write. And I get kind if twitchy when I can't write. Really. Twitchy.

I cleared my desk of all the technical, business issues slowly and steadily, but I was frustrated by the brain drain of my creativity. Fortunately, I had already started revising a book before we went on vacation in May, and I had signed up for a very cool plotting class with Suzanne Johnson (more about that in another blog). So while I knew I have two new stories to write for 2014 for Entangled Publishing, I also know myself well enough that I need the proper planning time to do it. So instead of stressing out about what was expected, I decided to focus my energy on the current revisions during the plotting class.

I harnessed all my creativity for this class and the manuscript I was revising for another reason: it's summer in the South and everyone is underfoot. The Physicist is taking extra time off work, the College Kid is in and out of the house at odd hours, and we're all traveling more. Plus there's the 2013 RWA National Convention just around the corner which entails a lot of pre-planning and prep. Not a lot of time to generate new story ideas, but plenty of time to work with words that have already been written and need revision.

The first thing I had to do was reevaluate my schedule. It's so easy to get sucked into the Cyber Vortex of emails, new Yahoo Groups, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and my latest obsession Vine. But if I do that I lose precious writing time. I'm best in the mornings, but I won't stop going to my morning Zumba Classes so what's a writer to do?

This writer starts writing early. At 7AM I'm usually up and at 'em. I write for 2 hours with a breakfast break, then I get ready for the gym. After my workout, I get ready for the day and grab lunch, then I sit down to write for 2-3 more hours. After that there isn't much left in the creative well. That's when I bumbled my brain through the business side of writing (and the Linda Howard Contest).

This rhythm has ebbed and flowed over the years. I'm a Lark Writer. I'm most productive if I start early and finish early. I have another writer friend who is the complete opposite of me: she's an Owl Writer. Often times she'll be signing off Twitter when I'm signing into see if there are any #1k1hr writers who want to sprint write with me.

I've always been a Lark. The College Kid is an Owl. The Physicist just wants coffee and a trip to his cave. Tell me, are you a Lark or an Owl?