1st things first…what happened to wicked wednesday? During NaNo (National Novel Writing Month during November) I’m focused on finishing that novel.WW will return on the 3rd of December.

Second…ever have one of those days where the words won’t come? Where you’re focused on everything but the goal? I have those every once in a while. Yesterday was one of those days. A little over a month ago I wrote a post telling you guys that I was at my wit’s end with writing time and wasn’t sure what I would have to do to find balance again. Maura Anderson had some great suggestions that I’ve implemented into my writing regime. So let me tell you how I find time to write…

*warning: chalked full of personal life stuff. so click more if you want to read…*

I work a full time job (40+ hours) outside of writing, my son’s autistic and my husband is extremely supportive of everything I do…but he’s just as busy as I am. So my writing time is very limited. Very. Here’s my normal day and all the places I attempt to carve out writing time.

I wake up at O-dark-thirty in the morning, three hours before I have to go to work. For the first 15-30 minutes I’m waking up, going through email, getting the other side of the writing business done. For the next 1.5 hours I’m writing like mad, pounding out as many words as possible, hopefully chatting with my Aussie or UK friends while I do so. During this time the son and I enjoy our morning rituals of him handing me a cup and me stumbling off to the kitchen moaning like a zombie so I can get his morning drink. He finds it very funny. Then it’s diaper time (he’s still only 2!). Fun. LOL If I attempt to play or chat with him in the morning, it’s met with strong resistance and a grumpy boy for the rest of the day. He gets that from his Father…I swear!

After the morning rush, I get ready for work and head off to the EDJ. My morning is packed full of action with a 45 minute break sometimes within those first 4 hours of the day. I use that to get my laptop set up and ready for lunch, check my work email, run my required work errands (Yes, we have to do those DURING our breaks…interesting, huh?). Hopefully, I’ll be able to get 10 minutes writing time out of it. Then lunch rolls around. 1 hour 15 minutes. During that time I make a call home, check on the kiddo and the hubby. If it’s a therapy day (2 days a week) I talk longer. If not, I chat for about 10 and then get off the phone to write, barring interruptions or lunchtime meetings, of course. No afternoon breaks.

Then I get home…mad dash to the office to check email and respond. The kiddo and I have some play time and laughs if it’s a good day. If it’s a bad day he doesn’t want to interract at all or he’s upset constantly. Either way it’s my turn to play. We have snack and I do whatever it is he wants to do. Some days he just wants to sit on the couch and hang out, others he wants to play chase, puzzles, or ball (YAY for those days) or those days where he just can’t communicate and he’ll cry and get frustrated with himself and us. Those days are difficult for all of us.

Hubby loves to cook so he’s usually in the kitchen whipping up some delicious recipe and we chat about our days. Once the boy is calm and relaxed, content to do his own thing (he doesn’t like a lot of attention and prefers to play on his own most days, bringing me some odd trinket or another to look at then running off again) or otherwise occupied, I go to my office and start writing. I’ll write until either I’m interrupted or dinner’s ready. After 8 or 9, the kiddo’s in bed and it’s back to the grind for me. Hubby comes into the office and chats. If I’m speedwriting, he’ll usually ask me how much longer I have in the session (I write for 15-20 minutes at a time then break for 10 or so) and we snatch us time between those.

Then it’s bedtime and we crawl under the covers, taking our much needed alone time.

The life of a romance author is glamorous. LOL.

On the weekends I have far more writing time where 4-7K words a day are possible.

That’s how I turned my meltdown panic into a successful writing venture. I have time now. I’ve sacrificed things that were important (but not a high priority) to me…Doctor Who, Supernatural, going out during the week and gained more in the process…steady schedule with my son (extremely important), chat time with my hubby, a known writing time, etc.

Tags: Balancing Motherhood and Writing, My Writing Life, Writing

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 5:35 am and is filed under On the Writing Front. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.