What’s the best time to write?

I saw a quote the other day by Stephen Graham Jones, a horror writer I admire, and it got me thinking about “the best time to write.”

Here’s the quote:

“I shouldn’t need special conditions in order to get some words down on the page. Which is to say, I should be careful of ever ritualizing this thing. It doesn’t need to be a certain time of day, I don’t need to have this or that special mug, the curtains don’t need to be open or shut, the light can be however, and who cares what sounds are leaking in to wherever I am?... All I need to get some pages down is a single seat in a bustling airport, or a corner of this hotel lobby, or an overhang mostly out of the rain at this bus stop. The more you can train yourself to write anywhere—everywhere—the more you can get done.”

(and here’s the whole essay, if you prefer: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/the-case-against-writing-rituals)

I’m the type of person who needs to put my writing time on my calendar. Which is, as SGJ describes it, a ritual. And the danger of relying on the ritual is that if the conditions aren’t ideal, it feels like I can’t write.

Which looks like this: sometimes (most of the time) I don’t FEEL like writing during my scheduled writing time. So I do something else… and then I think I might as well put writing off until tomorrow’s scheduled time… and then I don’t FEEL like writing, again… and the cycle continues… 

(Sound familiar? Are you this type of person?)

I can’t see myself NOT scheduling writing time. That’s just not how I roll. I think the core of what SGJ is suggesting is “you can train yourself to write anywhere—everywhere,” and for me, that means I need to train (force) myself to write when I don’t feel like it.

So: is it better to have a scheduled writing time or just get pages down whenever/wherever? I think the answer is: just write. Do whatever you need, as long as you just write. The only way to know which approach will work for you is to try them out. The only way to get a book written is to write. So if your ritual is failing you, just write. If you benefit from structure, just write at a specific time you set for yourself.