Writing is my day job and has been for 16 years now. So when people ask me if I’m disciplined the answer is yes. No muse = no money = no mortgage payment. It never gets any less scary than that.
However, I also have two hounds. Little Hound – she’s a German Shepherd and Big Hound – he’s an Irish Wolfhound. Big hound likes to start the day with a song. His day starts around six thirty, which means so does mine as I have to run down and shut him up before he wakes the whole street up.
So I start my day with a walk. Then it’s breakfast for all of us, and I retire to my office, which is a summerhouse in the garden. I live halfway up a hill and I have a panoramic view of the surrounding fields and countryside. I never get tired of my “commute” to work!
If I’m working on a novel I write 2000 words and I don’t leave my desk until it’s done. Sometimes it takes two hours. Sometimes it takes seven. If it only takes two, I’ll either write some more or I’ll switch to another “morning job”. I’m at my best and most alert in the mornings.
I stop for lunch some time between 1 and 2.30 depending on how it’s going. In the afternoon I’ll do something easier than writing. This could be editing, invoicing, answering emails, publicity stuff, phone calls, a swift foray on to Facebook or Twitter. I know I shouldn’t but I can’t resist it. I also can’t resist doing things like checking to see if I have any new reviews and eating chocolate. Activities that are usually carried out simultaneously.
Quite often I get “persuaded” AKA hassled by the hounds to go for another walk in the afternoon. Then it’s tea time. I have a handful of very close friends and I try to see them in the evenings – and for the occasional lunch. If I didn’t I wouldn’t see anyone except my fellow dog walkers.
Saturdays and Sundays are not a great deal different. Recently I’ve been trying to have Sundays off. Which is not going particularly well – I’m writing this piece at six pm on a Sunday.
Hmm! Living the Dream.
I wouldn’t swap it for anything.
The Reading Group by Della Parker is a series of six novellas.
They are published by Quercus, part of The Hachette group, and are 99p each.
December, the short story that introduces them can be downloaded FREE.