My Creative Schedule, A Snippet of An Essay-In-Progress, And Light-Hearted Reads

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Morgenmuffel (German)

Someone who is in a bad mood in the morning and does not like to wake up early, a morning grouch, not a morning type of person (Wiktionary).

During the first year of college, I was the polar opposite of a Morgenmuffel, more of an Abendmuffel (evening grouch). I went to bed at 8.30 pm sharp and woke up at five every morning to “work on myself”. But then I moved out of home into the CBD and started a chapter of my life that slowly mutated me into a Morgenmuffel. My evenings were packed with grabbing drinks with friends, friends of friends and grandmas of friends. Before I knew it, I started attending lectures hungover and considered anything before 11 am a figment of my imagination.

After I moved out of the city, I tried to slip back into being an early riser, but I found it impossible. The snooze button was my best friend, and waking up at 2 pm was common sense. Work suffered because after 1 am, anything I wrote needed to be re-drafted because it read like a madman’s diary, and I couldn’t get up at a reasonable time for a full day of writing. This continued for a year until I got my shit together at the end of my B. A. and became a monk, only to slip back into my night owl tendencies after I graduated.

This week marked the beginning of yet another attempt to fix my sleeping habits, and here’s where we have to take a step back and answer some great questions from the chat.

I want to lump three questions from the chat and write an extended response because they all fall under a similar theme.

Ada Oberman from asked:

What is something you struggle with the most during the creative process?

In a similar vein, K.v.D from asked:

How do you overcome blank page syndrome and just start writing?

Last but not least, lovesicksummer from asked:

Can creativity be learned? Is it possible to not be creative at all?

Let’s start with the last question.