Your Typical Day As A Writer

Your typical day as a writer...

Sara's just done a post detailing her usual daytime routine. Now here's mine.
(Read on, three bits of really exciting news will follow!)

6 am - alarm goes off. I don't leap out of bed. Cat lands on belly and purrs. Other cat sits on the floor and stares up at me.

6.10 - get up, write for an hour (this is a NaNo- or Drafting-Stage-only routine. Otherwise, sleep wins out).

7.10 - shower, dress, head out the door. Read for beta reviews or book reviews on commute, run errands before work.

8.30 - 4.30 - work. Work work work work work.
At lunch:
run errands,
lunch with friends or family (especially if I'm starving from having skipped breakfast),
write,
edit,
work on Alfred Russel Wallace transcripts,
work on translations if I've received any
OR (not 'and'. You didn't think I was going to write 'and', did you?)
clear emails (saving blog comments and emails that require longer than one line for later).
Sometimes I drop everything and make lists just to clear my head. Wrote up a revised Christmas gift list today.

4.30 - 6 pm - read on afternoon commute. Get groceries, do dishes, make dinner and eat it, read the paper and maybe flip through a magazine. Do other chores if I'm out of clean clothes or people are coming over (read: speed clean the bathroom).

6 - 10 pm. here's where things get tricky. Ideally, I type up my words from the morning (I'm more inclined to do this during NaNo, otherwise I save it all for the weekend). It takes me about an hour to type 1000 words because they invariably need editing.
Other times I do blog-related stuff. There're exercises on the Forum to attend to. Pub Trivia Night on Mondays! Knitting to catch up on, friends to visit with...
And if Diana Gabaldon has a new book out, this entire schedule goes out the window: I read. (That's where the girl in the Martini glass comes in. Kidding! I'd rather have a single malt...)

Speaking of which, ooh boy! Now it can be told: a number of us November Birthday Girls got together on the Forum for a colossal Big (not beg, big: Bigging 101 rules), including Karen Henry of Outlandish Observations. And Diana Gabaldon gifted us with not one but two excerpts, one from The Scottish Prisoner and one from the next Outlander book, Written in My Own Heart's Blood.


Also, our Campaigner Challenges eBook is here! The wonderful Cat has put together an ebook of 176 stories from 81 participants in Rach's Campaign Challenge, including mine. All proceeds go to Help Harry Help Others to fund research on brain cancer.


Available now on Smashwords and Amazon.

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How's everyone doing with their goals for A Round of Words in 80 Days? I've been writing consistently for Ayten's story, and collecting reviews from beta readers for Out of the Water, but it looks like December is going to be editing month for the latter. I'm excited because now I can see all sorts of places in the novel where I can cut words - scenes I was too close to before and didn't want to chop off. But I'm at 110,000 words, so I've got lots of room to play. And here I thought I'd be querying already... Still, better to polish as much as I can.

Hope everyone's having a good week!

Comments

Anonymous said…
I wish I could take public transport and be able to read or write on my way to and from work. Retrieving children from school makes that a bit tricky.
Trisha said…
oh oh oh OH I love Gabaldon!!! But I must confess I haven't read the last few books in that series. I haven't read ANY in the Lord John series.

I shall remedy both these abominable problems in future, yes I shall!
Anonymous said…
Nice! Sounds like you have busy schedule for sure. I've tried writing first thing. While most consider me a morning person, don't ask me to be creative first thing. My brain is a clean slate and nothing comes out. I'll just sit there and stare at the page.
S.P. Bowers said…
Well, definitely a lot less diapers and mopping then me! How fun, I love to see how others work, I always get great ideas.
Aven said…
Looks like I started a trend *g* Diana's books always throw my routine for a loop, too.
I admire you for being able to write so early in the morning. I barely have the energy to arm-wrestle fellow commuters for a seat on the morning train.
Nadja Notariani said…
Love the schedule! I'll have to post what mine looks like. It's a fun idea for sure!

Good luck in collecting reviews from beta readers and final edits. You're getting closer everyday to your goal of publishing!
Carol Riggs said…
Interesting to see other writers' schedules! And that is so cool that the Campaigners have that book. We should do that all the time with the challenges! :)
Dr. Mohamed said…
What a full day; I'm tired just reading the schedule :)
Igneel21 said…
Omg Gabaldon, its been a while since i read something by her
Tracy Krauss said…
I see I'm not the only one falling into bed at night!
I'm super pleased to see the campaign challenges turned into an ebook.
Wendy Jane said…
Great check-in. You stay busy! But your busyness seems to be very productive. And I'm glad to know someone else is ruled by their cats. What would we ever do without them? Keep up the good work!
Anonymous said…
Great post. I enjoyed your writing day. I often blog in my PJ's and dressing gown, but tend to novel write once I'm showered & dressed. I write around chores and constantly feeding my cats all day. I often get inspired to write stuff of train journeys and if I'm out on a long walk.
Deniz Bevan said…
It's great to have that little extra time, Joshua.

Eee, Trisha and Tony, you're missing out! Hie thee to the library and get some more Gabaldon!

Argh, that's what happened to me this morning, Ryan and Neurotic. Couldn't even plot anything decent.

Thanks for the list idea, Sara, it was fun!

Didn't realise you'd started this, Aven - did you start it on the Forum or was it your blog post?

I'd love to see your schedules, Nadja and Carol!

I know, Mohamed, it's funny to see it all written out like that.

Falling into bed, definitely, Tracy. Some nights I can't even stay awake to read for fun :-(

Me too, Lynda, it's very exciting!

I've never been known to shoo away a cat that wants to cuddle up to me and the laptop, Wendy :-)

Love the idea of dressing up to write, Madeleine :-)
Brynne said…
Whew! What a week! Wish I could have lunch with you some time! I want to hear soOo many more things about you! Like what you dream of, what makes you laugh, what novel you wish you wrote...all those yummy questions that you could tell me over your knitting or over that delicious lunch we might one day have! Thanks for sharing of yourself, Deniz. As I said over on my own blog...you always give me smiles.
Thanks so much for your comment on Outlander Kitchen -- I'm glad to have found your blog! I consider myself a newish writer, so connecting with other writers is always a thrill...Theresa
Tia Bach said…
I was slow to the Gabaldon train, but am a huge fan now. I still need to catch up on the series. I've read the first four.

Love the schedule. ;-)
Deniz Bevan said…
Thank you so much Brynne! I'm picturing us at lunch right now... Hope you can make it up to Montreal some day!

Thanks for coming by Theresa! I love the idea for your blog.

Ooh, have fun with the rest of the books Tia. Don't know how you can hold out :-)