Summer is a really hard time for me to write. I'm not sure why. The days are longer which means I don't get tired as early and that should equal more writing time, right? Only in summer, I want to be outside. Maybe that's a Minnesota thing because our summers are so short and our cold weather goes on forever. But it's more than just a desire to be outdoors, my brain also seems to move more slowly in the heat.
I find this strange in these days of central air conditioning. And it's especially strange this summer since Minneapolis had a very mild, low-humidity season this year. Highly unusual and very comfortable, but my productivity remained at its usual summer speed--slow.
Fall, though, is another story. I'm productive in fall and get more done faster. Maybe it was bred into human genetics back when we were living in caves. We had to be productive in fall to survive winters where fields were barren and animals scarce. Or maybe it's a school-year thing. That was trained into us as children. Summer was for vacation and fun and fall was when we buckled down and got to work again.
What hits me hardest, though, is the time changes. I hate switching back and forth between standard time and daylight savings. Let's pick one option and stay on it year-round. I don't even care which one, just stop bouncing me between them. Right now, I'm struggling with the change back to standard time. I get sleepy at 7pm and have trouble keeping my eyes open. It's a good thing fall productivity is with me at this point, because if it wasn't, I'd be sleeping and not writing. :-)
Springing into DST, though, is worse. Much, much, much worse. I am literally a zombie for 2-3 weeks afterward. I hate it passionately, although I do love having daylight later at night. Writing until zombie-state passes is next to non-existent because my brain just doesn't work.
So writing-wise we are in my best time of year, but personally, I'm not a fan of fall because autumn means winter is coming and I hate snow and cold. I hate snow and cold at least as much as I hate switching to DST. :-) Winter, however, is a fairly productive time of year because there is nothing else to do except write, sleep, and try to stay warm. There is no good reason to ever go outside in Minnesota from Thanksgiving until Spring.
Thanks to Mike (@storylet on Twitter) for the topic.
