What's your Xanadu?

[Kethandra]

When my writing it at its best, I wake up early, characters vividly on my mind, interacting, talking to each other and interacting as I awake. Sometimes plot issues are solved, ready to be keyed.
The hours between 4 and 6 AM are ideal for me to write down these first images, words and thoughts. Typically 500-2000 words.
I can and do write during any hours of the day, when the Muse's voice may not be so powerful, but I really cherish and enjoy those early mornings when - perhaps a bit like Coleridge - the retreat of my sleeping mind leaves behind a well-marked path for me to follow.
Do others experience this?
Under what circumstances do you feel the creative writing flowing most effortlessly?
Have you experienced the dreaded Person from Porlock? He visits me at least once a week, in my head.

 

[HeyAll]

In terms of story ideas, I think of it throughout the day. If I'm stuck on plot, same thing, I just think of it throughout the day until I get something.

I just think, "What do I want to write about? What should happen here? What should happen there?"

I fill out the details when i write. But sometimes I think of the dialogue descriptions when I'm away from the computer, and i try to remember it for when i can get to the computer.

I also write in the morning and night. I normally don't get much done after lunch. After lunch, I have no desire to do anything.

 

[lovecraft68]

I think many people have those vivid creative feelings early AM, we're just waking up, or maybe partially asleep and the mind is fertile.

But as I get up to work out or run at 5am and have to be to work for 7-8 I can't write much in the mornings.

For me the best time is between ten pm and midnight. I'm tired, but not ready for bed and my mind is relaxed and I can bang out a lot in those two hours. If you follow my posting history you'll see I rarely post later at night because its full bore on the writing as opposed to earlier in the evening when I'll write, but post, list a couple things on e-bay and multi task.

The wife used to bitch I don't go to bed with her, but she since learned that when the writing is flowing hot then when I come to bed she gets the effects of it.

 

[sr71plt]

My ideas mostly come while I'm waking up. But my morning waking up time is more like between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Our dream cycles occur every two hours or so, day and night. Daydreams and creative spurts are how you spot them. You can put the processes to work. Long ago an old man suggested I solve problems by forming the problem construct in my mind then wait for the dream cycle to solve it. And it almost always does. Hypnotists use it to help subjects recall old memories, etc. Pose the problem and forget it.

 

[Hypoxia]

It's mostly any extended quiet time when I'm not distracted by life's necessities. Such time windows are spottier now than, say, a year ago, which is why I've not written much fiction lately. That's my excuse anyway. My "Xanadu time" is whenever I let a story force its way out of me.

 

[AMoveableBeast]

I'm almost the opposite. I'm a late night writer, at my most creative when the day has been strained through me, leaving little bits of reality and imagination clinging to the collar of my shirt. I pick them off and try to harvest them.

Okay, so I'm less like Byron, and more like a monkey pawing his neighbor for insects. Eek, eek, eureka.

 

[Penuche]

I need boredom - not mild fedupness, but climbing the walls screaming with the lack of mental stimulation.

A migraine helps with ideas too, although there's no way I can read or write during one without it needing rewriting once lucidity has returned (far too many typos).

 

[legerdemer]

I'm a night owl, generally (except as re-molded by a morning partner), so my creative juices tend to flow faster and harder at night. But it's tricky - sometimes I'm exhausted. Sometimes I need a second wind. Like most procrastinators, deadlines give me a huge boost in adrenaline, and creativity just crystallizes spontaneously on all surfaces. If I'm lucky.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

When my writing it at its best, I wake up early, characters vividly on my mind, interacting, talking to each other and interacting as I awake. Sometimes plot issues are solved, ready to be keyed.
The hours between 4 and 6 AM are ideal for me to write down these first images, words and thoughts. Typically 500-2000 words.
I can and do write during any hours of the day, when the Muse's voice may not be so powerful, but I really cherish and enjoy those early mornings when - perhaps a bit like Coleridge - the retreat of my sleeping mind leaves behind a well-marked path for me to follow.
Do others experience this?
Under what circumstances do you feel the creative writing flowing most effortlessly?
Have you experienced the dreaded Person from Porlock? He visits me at least once a week, in my head.

My Xanadu, it's in this:
http://vigilante8.wikia.com/wiki/Dave's_Cultsmen

 

[Ewobbit]

I'm pretty much housebound these days and don't really have much of a schedule beyond my discount therapy puppy making me get up (often when I'd really rather not). But, I still find that everything flows easier when everybody else (four pawed and two footed) is asleep (or at least not pestering me). Sometimes that's late at night or the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes it's in the middle of the afternoon. But, pretty much so long as I have a quite hour or so, it just happens.

Now, whether it's actually any good or not is beyond my ability to discern.

 

[GoldenCojones]

Sometimes after my wife and I play, I lay awake until she is asleep. Then I break out my laptop and write until 3 or 4 in the morning. Those are my most productive times, but I can only do that 2 or 3 times a week or the lack of sleep starts getting to me.

 

[Sammael Bard]

I had a writing schedule from 12:30 am to 4:30 am last year. The dead silence of the night and the excitement of jotting down ideas that came throughout the day was what kept me awake without any caffeine of sorts.

 

[JKendallDane]

I only sleep two-and-a-half to three hours at a time twice a day. I'm usually ready to rock and roll the laptop after the second cup of coffee each awakening.

Sometimes the Muse needs a third cup, though.

.

 

[sr71plt]

It's sporadically through the day and then 11:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. for me.