Now that I’ve been writing for 6 weeks (crazy, I know), I’ve managed to hammer down my schedule. So I thought I would have a follow-up to my typical day.
8:00 – wake up; make coffee; tidy the house; read a couple of chapters from whatever book I’m reading
9:00 – sit down in front of the computer; read blogs and email; respond to email/comment on blogs; add a tweet or two
10:00 – start writing
12:00 – lunch
12:45 – reread what I’ve written and write some more
3:00 – write a blog post; check twitter; search for new blogs to follow; brainstorm for future ideas
4:30 – do some more writing
6:00 – work out
7:00 – make dinner
8:00 – watch tv
10:00 – read a few more chapters; go to bed.
So you can see that writing is only part of the job. In fact, only about 4-6 hours of my day are spent writing. The rest of my time is spent networking and following the industry. Sometimes this includes reading books, checking out predictions for where the market is headed, watching teenager-aimed television shows to better understand my target audience (if you haven’t checked out Dance Academy, do it. It’s been my favorite find), reading news articles to give me inspiration for future ideas, etc. And I know that when I get to the proper editing stage, my schedule will change even more and it will include fewer hours of actual writing.
What this also shows is that if you cannot write full-time, you can still write a novel. You just have to be more selective about which aspects of the job you focus on. When I was working full-time, I cut most of the non-writing tasks from my writing life. With my limited time, they just didn’t make sense. Now that I have the time to really make writing my proper job, I can more easily justify all of the extras that go into a writing career.
How much time do you spend writing a day or a week?
