When I first started writing The Auctor Trilogy, I was between jobs, and, I’ll just go ahead and admit it, I handled this very poorly. I ended up with some pretty bad anxiety which resulted in me not sleeping for 2 to 3 days at a time.  I can only write about this time in my life because it’s been over five and a half years and I have a career now that I really like.

However, in June of 2011, I was unable to sleep and extremely stressed out. I had always loved to read and had decided to try writing a novel.  This was especially helpful when I couldn’t sleep at night because it gave me something productive to occupy my time for many, many hours on end.  This is actually the reason that I was able to write the first draft of The Auctor Trilogy in three weeks – it was three weeks of sleepless nights.

I’ve always been a night owl, and have quickly discovered that writing at night is my preferred time. And when I say at night, what I mean is the middle of the night – midnight or later.  This worked while I was between jobs, but hasn’t worked for over five years now.

Now, I leave for work at 7:15 a.m. and don’t get home until after 5 every day, so the idea of writing until 3 in the morning isn’t even an option. Except on the weekends.

It’s one of the many reasons that I love the weekends – it not only means a lot of free time to write and edit; it also means that I can write and edit until all hours of the night.