What baking muffins at 5am taught me about being a writer…

Last night a series of comical, unfortunate, satirical events led to me realizing I hadn’t baked two dozen muffins for a volunteer event occurring at 6:30 the next morning. Already in bed for the night, instead of staying up late I opted to set my alarm for 5am.

The list of tasks for the next day unfolded in my mind as I drifted to sleep. I had two responsive essays to write, poetry to edit and analyze, a brit lit reading to do. Oh, and Opus submissions were due (and who submits to Opus more than 12 hours in advance from the deadline…not the prose-editor of Opus, apparently).

How was all of this going to get done?

Well I woke up at 5 am today and realized this: my mind was clear and eager to write. I quickly whipped up some muffins and threw them in the oven. As they baked, I cracked open my computer and began typing away. I’d expected to be foggy and cluttered in thought, but I couldn’t remember the last time words seemed to be spilling that easily onto a page. The distracting, stressful thoughts that built over the course of yesterday had erased themselves with the night’s rest (however brief that rest was). My mind was fresh at that time in the morning. Now I’ve known I was a morning person for a long time, but amongst the crave of college I’d forgotten to save my mornings for creative space.

Don’t worry, I know most college students aren’t morning people; I’m not here to convince you the best writing technique is to wake up before sunrise everyday. But here’s what I did learn from my morning: we all have our creative hours, and fencing those times off for writing is key to the writing process. I’ll admit I prefer it when it doesn’t come at a time that inhibits my sleep, but folks, if worst comes to worst, my one piece of advice is this:

There’s no lack of sleep or writer’s block a cup of Lemonjellos can’t fix.