A publisher who is also a writer herself posted a query on Facebook yesterday, asking other writers what their routine is: Do they give themselves quotas (she didn’t use that word) of turning out so many words per day or putting in so many minutes or hours per day of writing?
I wanted to help her, but the truth is that I don’t have the kind of routine she was asking about. It all depends on what’s on my to-do list for the day. Some days I don’t write at all. Other days, I may be busy writing, but it has nothing to do with a book.
Take yesterday. I publish a weekly ezine, and every Tuesday I edit as much material as has come in for that week’s issue. Also I write a daily food quiz for someone else’s ezine, and every Tuesday I write a week’s worth of columns for that publication. I host a weekly radio podcast every Tuesday (and starting in two weeks I will be hosting TWO podcasts every Tuesday). So, as is the case every Tuesday, I did all this yesterday.
In addition, yesterday also saw me write an article for a monthly magazine I contribute at least one article to every issue of. I have at least two books coming out this fall, and I am knee-deep in going through the requisite sets of page proofs. I just finished one and am in the midst of reading the second set. I put in some time doing that yesterday as well. And I also spent some time proofreading some documents for another publisher I do some work for. I also did some promotional work yesterday, trying to market some of my existing books.
Does it sound like I had any time yesterday to put toward writing a book?
My days start at 5 AM if not earlier. (Today I was up just after 4, a not-uncommon occurrence.) Yes, I’m one of those “larks,” early birds, who get up and to work long before the sun starts its stint. My office is the nominal second bedroom of our condo, so my “commute” is a brief one, though I do detour to the kitchen long enough to snag an iced coffee before trundling back to the office to answer all the email that has piled up since I quit work the night before. (Which usually occurs around 4 or 5 in the afternoon, depending on how tired I am and how time-consuming a dinner I plan to cook.)
So do I have a writing routine or quota? Absolutely not. Do I work on a book every day? Assuredly not. Do I write SOMETHING every day? No, not even that. Some days I’m immersed in an editing project—a client’s book or some other editing work—and I don’t write anything at all. Other days I write like a fiend—but not always on a book. It might be a magazine article (like yesterday), a blogpost (like this one I’m writing today), or some other project that involves writing but has nothing to do with a book.
I’m afraid I wasn’t much help to the publisher who put out the call for info yesterday. But I sure do love my work and my life. It’s never routine and seldom boring!