A day in the writing life

6:00 Wake up. Debate the merits of shutting off the alarm and going back to sleep. Realize this will make me feel guilty for the rest of the day and roll out of bed.

6:05 Wonder whether turning on the coffee pot this morning will wake up my daughter like it has every other morning I’ve tried. Wonder why I haven’t bought a french press yet.

6:10 Haul the coffee pot into the bathroom on the other side of the house. Turn it on, shut the door and hold my breath.

6:15 Success! Sit down, open a Word document, read where I left off. Either 1) feel happy and start typing like a madman or 2) feel depressed/annoyed/confused and start reading blogs.

7:30 Well, that was fun while it lasted. Daughter is officially up and trying to climb out of her crib.

7:30—12:00 Play mom. Head to the library for story time; make daughter hang out in the YA section beforehand. Drive daughter to gymnastics and pray it doesn’t inspire her to try to climb up onto the windowsills like it did last week. Go to gym and tackle plot issues by swinging kettlebells and yelling. Just kidding about the yelling. I’m not one of “those” gym people.

12:00-2:00 NAP TIME. Best time of the day. Time to get serious. Type away and watch word count goal get closer and closer and pray I can make it before … crap. Kid is up.

2:00-8:00 Mommy zone again. Read board books. Play with puzzles. Meet up with friends. Make dinner and try not to react when daughter grabs a handful of avocado and rubs it through her hair. Run bath because she now looks like this:

8:00 Put daughter to bed and have dinner with the husband, who is now home from work.

8:30 Make a plan for the night. Have I met my word count goal? If no, it’s back to the computer. If yes, think about being proactive and writing some more but realize I’ll probably wind up on couch with a glass of wine and a book or the remote. Accept it and move on.

11:00 Set alarm for 6:00 and tumble into bed. Another day awaits tomorrow.

That’s my general writing schedule. What’s yours like?

Posted in Writing Tagged , ,

14 Responses

Leave a Reply to Karen Strong Cancel reply