Business & Process Post: 7 Days in a Life of a Writer

Was thinking about this last night, just because of how weird a day is for me and figured I'd write this.

Monday (2.4k new words - no pages edited)

I can't really remember what I did on Monday (I'm writing this on Friday) so this is a lot less detailed. I know I spent time writing Climbing the Ranks 4 when I was supposed to be back on Immortal Connections and eventually ended up writing that too later in the day after the big Podium call. However, I can't recall the hours I worked, though it likely was the closest to a 9-5 day. So figure start writing aound 9am to noon, lunch while lilstening to Podium for an hour, then back to work till around 5pm. I might have had a quick nap, and I vaguely recall working a bit at night; but not much. I was quite ill, so it was a light day.

Say 8 hours worked (probably closer to 7)

Tuesday (2.3k new words, editing begun)

8.45-10am - In the chair, getting a bunch of administrative works done.

10am - noon - Work meeting. Going over changes, things that have changed in the last 2 weeks, any updates or questions we might need.

Noon - 2pm - contract, admin e-mails and getting in the brain space to start writing.

2-3.30pm - Editing time, getting caught up on what needs to be done in the LitRPG edit.

7pm-9pm - Writing time with the writing group I meet with on Tuesdays. Pure writing, no editing involved.

8.75 hours worked (only 3.5-4 hours of actual writing time)

Wednesday (3.2k new words, editing as well)

8.30am - 9.40am - Admin. So much admin (mostly e-mails and bank stuff). After that, I transit to our meeting.

10am - 2pm -  Marketing & Publishing Scheduling meeting and lunch. A bit of chatter, a lot of discussion about what we're doing in the future and what the plans for the year are for the various series. We have a LOT of series, so this meeting takes a bit, especially as we play with ideas of new platforms for series.

2pm - 4pm - Back home, time to write. Don't get too many words in, but I'm exhausted so it's nap time.

7pm - 9.30pm - Snacks, food and lots of words and editing to be done. I get to it till the kid is back home from class and then spend a bit of time with him.

10.30-11pm - One last bout of writing to get the business post up.

Roughly 10 hours worked, of which 4.5 hours are active words

Thursday (4k written, lots of edits)

8.30-9.30am - No admin, I get right down to writing. 720 words written.

9.30am-2pm - Personal errands (no work)

2pm - 5pm - Time to get to work. I hunker down, bang out another 2k or so before it's family time for a bit.

8.30pm - 9pm - Toronto Indie Author Conference meeting.

9pm - 10pm - I get one more writing ession in and then I'm done for the day.

All in, short day with around 5.5 hours worked. 

Friday (5.6k more editing)

8.45am- 11am - Writing and admin. I get nearly 2k words done in the first 2 hours of focused work, and then the brain starts getting tired. 

11 - 11.30am - General fluffling around, doing admin and reading discords as I try to get back into the zone. At this point I'm at 2.5k words in.

11.30-12.30pm - Lunch (with a few words here and there)

12.30-1pm - Writing the majority of this article (:P)

1pm - 2pm - More writing and editing. I'm at 4k at this point, tired and have rehit flow stage. Time for a break.

4pm-5.30pm - I'm back to writing. Getting a little bit more done, ending at 5.6k for the day. I call it a day, even if I want to get writing.

Days total: 5.5 (with an hour lunch break with words in-between, so 6.5~ish)

Saturday & Sunday (2.9k & 3.9k total)

These are very strange days. It's very hard to track word count and when I was working unless I'm watching it super careful. For example, I woke up very late (10am+) on Saturday, still exhausted from not having proper sleep. I spent a little while doing admin and writing a bit, then had lunch, then did a bit of writing, got bored, watched TV (Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist - so damn good), got more writing done, made cookies while writing, then stopped; did dinner with the family and Love Hurts (action comedy in theaters right now!) and then, well, home.

I don't think I picked up the computer again on Saturday night but I might be wrong.

Sunday was even more broken up. I think I had a few hours of quiet time early morning and wrote then, and I know around 7pm onwards I never worked further since I was watching the Pitt obsessively; but working out the exact timing of when I wrote through a day that I was taking off leaving / exercising because of the heaviness in my chest is... tricky. I know I did a bunch in the morning and then some more the afternoon, but there was a bunch of time when I wasn't, just hanging out or napping or a little reading.

In some ways (other than not going out on the weekends); these are the kind of 'perfect' days, where I get a ton of work done; but I'm not 'stuck' to a specific timeline of what needs to happen, when. I just sit and write when I have a few minutes, not obsessively but when the brain says, 'hey, remember this?'.

Of course, it's a little obsessive to do writing on the weekend; but ill - so my possible things I can do is severely limited.

Conclusion & Thoughts

Yeah, I work most days.  As you can see, Saturday and Sunday are often short days, entirely focused on writing. I do quick admin e-mails, but mostly to delete whatever comes in so I can have a much faster Monday start-up. The words are the main focus, on those days and where I often (especially if I skip editing) get a lot done in a very short period.

This is a busy week. It's going to be a busy week for the next 2 years; I figure. Unless I can get ahead of my words enough to get editing done; it's going to be like this. Not much fun, but it is what it is.

That being said; I'm not unhappy. If I wasn't sick, I probably could do more words in less time. If I can train my brain to do less admin and focus, I could get more work done. You can see sometimes, when I'm in a flow state, I get a lot of words written. And then, other times, a lot less as I work through edits and/or new concepts and/or do research.

So, how many hours was this? 

= 7 + 8.75 + 10 + 5.5 +  6.5 + 8 (????) = 38.75 (????) worked to get around 25k words written & edited.

Written out like this, it feels kind of lazy, doesn't it? I mean, I probably put in another 3-4 hours each on Sat & Sunday each; putting me up to 38-40 hours in total. About the usual amount most non-writers work (if not a lot less). 

Of course, some of it is flow state, being able to write when it's time to write. Some of the time 'writing' is not tracked - when I'm exercising, or transiting, I'm pulling together various plot strands in my head - consciously or sometimes subconsciously. There's also the time spent reading or writing or consuming TV where the critical part is analysing the information coming in, seeing gaps in my own work that needs fixing. Nor does it take into account the time on my phone, answering random e-mails or discord messages which isn't tracked. But every white collar worker with an e-mail does that.

And, of course, this is a bit quieter week because I'm ill. Have been running a chest cold / flu for the last 3 weeks and while this is the trail end of one (and picking up something else on Monday which is why I had a few naps through the weekday)... 

But yeah. While I do a lot of work; it isn't as busy as it might seem sometimes.

Or busier. 

This is a semi-typical week, in a sense. Some weeks I'm more productive, some weeks I put in more hours and get less words.