The Best Time of Day for a Writer to Be Productive

The best time to write will differ for each writer. The best time may even change daily. Unfortunately, the best time of day for a writer to be productive is usually that small window of time where he or she can't even write. If the writer can turn any moment of inspiration into a writing session, those are the times a writer can be the most productive.

Here are 3 Writing Tips to make any time of the day the best time to be productive.

Tip #1 - Morning Ideas: 20 in 5
Tip #2 - Stop, Jot and Write
Tip #3 - Make those prompts work

Those enlightening moments of inspiration, where creativity drips from every thought, occurs during those times of the day when a writer can't write - but should. These epiphanies of brilliant ideas come to the writer while driving a car, in a meeting, or in the middle of the night.

As a writer, the best practice would be to learn the habit of making those moments work. These self inspired windows of opportunity normally come and go, and the thoughts are lost more often than saved. A writer should take that creative nudge and stop the car, excuse themselves out of a meeting, or wake up and start typing on a laptop. Unfortunately, writers don't take the time to do this: it's not that important - because if it was, every opportunity that knocks is an opportunity to churn out pages.

Here are the 3 Writing Tips to make any time of the day the perfect time to be productive, even if a writer does not have time to write. Again, these tips serve to take those unexpected moments in time and capture them - and it takes only a few minutes.

Tip #1 - Morning Ideas: 20 in 5

Each and every morning, take five minutes to jot down 20 writing prompts. They could be as simple as, 'a cat jumps from a fence' to something more dramatic like, 'a mom tells her kids she's dying'. Jot these down as fast as you can in 5 minutes. Every morning you will have 20 writing prompts. One day of ideas is not productive. But several weeks, months or a year and you made your mornings productive without even trying. That's 7,300 prompts in one year if you create a habit to do it every morning. You will find that 2 minutes of your morning is all you need to 'be productive' - that's 2 minutes to spare!

Tip #2 - Stop, Jot and Write

The morning drive, the lunch meeting, those incredible thoughts in the middle of the night - pull over, excuse yourself, wake up! The question is: is it important to you to be a writer? If it is, then stop your car and write down those ideas that come to your head while driving to work; or excuse yourself at lunch and just jot something down on a napkin, your lunch partner will respect your commitment; and wake up and write down the dream you just had - it could lead to a story that you were looking for for years!

Tip #3 - Make those prompts work

Sometimes the best time of the day for a writer is set aside, but then writer's block or story block sets in and even if it's the best time of the day, it turns out to be the most unproductive time of the day. Take your 20 writing prompts from your morning and write from them. The best advice to rid yourself of writer's block is to 'just write'. Write about anything and your prompts help you accomplish this. This will definitely help those brain synapses fire up and give you the momentum to transition into your story.

Using the prompts and including them in your story or script allows your mind to see a scene in a different way. You've already done the preparation, and now you don't have to try to think of something new for your scene. This way your mind is not so focused on what you have to write, but what you are going to write around.

In the above example, include the cat jumping from a fence in the middle of the talk a mom has with her kids to tell them she's dying. Let this lead into the next prompt and create a scene or continue free-form writing with it. If you are stuck on a scene in your script, add that little action as a part of the character's life. Make your characters react and live around it.

Each tip brings you to the next, which brings you right into the next day. Tip #1 sets up Tip #3 and Tip #2 sets up Tip #3. Soon you will discover what time of day Tip #3 will work best for you.

By starting your day with 20 ideas in 5 makes the morning time of the day productive. Stopping, jotting and writing makes any time of the day or night productive. And using your writing prompts during any writing session guarantees that time spent will be productive.

Success is writing something versus staring at a blank page. If you have writer's block nothing gets accomplished. But if you use these tips, even on those days where there is nothing to say, you will say something.

That's productive - that's success - any time of the day. And that makes any time the best time.