It’s hard to write when you’re tired. Not because you can’t put words onto the paper or there are too many other things. I mean, it could be those things, of course. But it isn’t usually that exactly.

It’s hard to write well when you’re tired. Or stressed. Frustrated or sad.

But by all means, write anyway!

Write when you are bored and confused. Put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, voice to cell phone memo app… Just write and then keep writing.

It may be good. It won’t be. But it could be.

Write and hope for the best.

My Window

It’s the morning. That’s when I write well. After I wake and prepare for the day. Usually between seven and eleven.

After that…who knows?

Coffee isn’t the drug we think it is. Or it is precisely the drug we think it is and struggle to realize drugs don’t produce good writing.

You can drink a coffee as you write. But don’t drink it thinking it will help you write. Primarily to wake you up or snap you out of it. It can do that and do nothing for your writing.

Write in your writing window. And don’t beat yourself up for missing it.

Ability decreases with your energy. You can write outside the window. It just doesn’t work as well.

Exceptions that prove the rule

When you write late (for you) and feel inspired.

Or nail the first draft.

Deliver the clever punch line on cue.

We shouldn’t make a habit of these things. Their rarity makes them valuable. That you experience it makes it feel common. Until the next time. And the one after that.

I can write when I’m tired.

It is just far less rewarding. It requires extra writing.

I’ll write half a thing and need to rewrite it. Then again. I might start over. Or write a prequel to the thing. The thing I can’t finish. Or, you know, think it is worth my time.

Then I’ll put it in the idea folder and look for something else.

I check the news. Socials. Go back. Stare. Rethink the previous idea. Work on it. News. Socials.

[two hours pass]

Here’s an idea…

It takes three times as long for half the payoff.

Because tired is creative kryptonite.

Plowing through can work. You can get there. But that isn’t the point. The point is to have written this thing earlier. To have written it in the window. Not now.

The point isn’t this one thing only. It is the next one, too. The one we write tomorrow.

Yes, this is the time you have. So do it.

Tomorrow, use the time the way you need to.

And give yourself your night back. And hopefully, the one after that.