I was asked what my “typical writing day” is like. Every day is writing day! So this is: a day of me.
On a typical weekday, I wake up between 8:27 and 8:34. Ish. I don’t use an alarm, so it’s all on my cycadian rhythm and looking at the clock. I have to be at work at 9, and it takes about 25 minutes to get there, so I know i have to pull myself out of bed by 8:34 to have one minute to get dressed.
…And that tells you all you need to know about my attitude toward mornings. Breakfast? Brush your hair? What kind of crazy extra things are other people doing? That’s sleep time being spent there!
I go to work. I work from 9 to 5. Usually I have some ideas while I’m on my way in, so I jot those down when I get to my desk. “Change the daughter in that story to a son.” or “I need to write something about trees.” Into the notebook it goes.
I have claimed in the past that I write on my lunch breaks, and I do… but only if I can’t get a lunch date. At least half the time, I eat lunch socially or I read a book. Hey, work is stressful!
I confess I do some writing-work while at my day job. I answer emails, I check social media, I sign contracts. My excuse is: I can’t leave my correspondence to wait! My other excuse is progress bars. They happen a lot in my day job and the alternative is staring at them.
But I try to keep that to a minimum because I do so enjoy being gainfully employed.
My prime writing time is when I get home from work. I’ll have a few more thoughts and ideas about writing during the day, probably, and add them to the journal, or I’ll just have it nagging the back of my brain. “Add a romantic moment with the villain. Yeah. Soon as I get home.”
Honestly, I consider a lot of this… daydreaming to be essential writing-work. I think about my works in progress as I bike, as I shower, as I do housework. I think about writing while listening to audiobooks and have to re-wind because I missed the whole last scene. (I’ve been listening to audiobooks during the commute lately. The Overdrive App is awesome!)
SO, I get home from work. I drop my backpack and take off my coat and whine about dinner or being tired or whatever. My husband starts making dinner and I settle on the sofa to write. I always seem to just be hitting my stride when the food is ready, but I know that the family will take a few minutes to gather so I use that time to finish a paragraph or two.
I eat fast, so although I’m always last to the table, I finish first and after waiting a bit and checking up on what’s happening this week in the Vibbert-Crick Household, who has a rehearsal or a meeting, what needs to be bought or fixed, I retreat to the sofa for a precious few more minutes of writing.
Then after-dinner is family time, maybe a board game or a movie, or we need to talk about something while Brian cleans up the kitchen. Sometimes, the family is like “nah we good” and split off again back to their personal pursuits, in which case, YAY it’s more writing time. Though sometimes I also take a shower.
Then maybe a little more writing, and bed.
Deviations: One day a week, I cook dinner, so there’s no pre-and-post dinner writing time. Wednesdays are date night. Frequently, Brian and I start or end date night with an hour at Phoenix Coffee on Lee, where I’ll write and he’ll work on his video game. One day a month is Game Developers Meetup, another my Gentlewomen’s Adventure Society and Liquor-Adjacent Debate club. And now that Jennifer is in Roller Derby, on Mondays I drive her to practice, but I write rink-side.
Monday rink-side is actually quite productive as there is no wifi in the roller rink so I have to write or be bored.
I guess I’m just always thinking at the back of my mind, “Can I write now?” and if the answer is yes, I write. I try to always have my laptop and writing journal on hand. When I end up stuck waiting somewhere without either, the idleness burns.
Then I fall asleep, thinking about writing.
