What's your writing schedule?

[NemoBook]

I'm trying to juggle a lot of balls these days (grad-school, day-job, relationship, social life, writing; no kids yet!). My job is a flexible telecommuting one, so I work from home and I'm curious about other innovative ways that people use to structure their days.

I used to be more of a nightowl, beginning my writing around 10pm and writing until 3 or 4am. My new schedule currently looks something like this:

7-9am: wake-up, breakfast, emails, etc.
9-2pm: data entry dayjob blah; lunch
2-3pm: WeBook (https://www.webook.com/register.aspx?invitation=1oS%2fn3T4TYcWgQI29%2b03J SwUBUfRSjbJQfBIQmjK4KPhQKviMAeTY1Nyis1lj1Ma) writing warm-up
3-6pm: writing, WIPs
6-8pm: exercise, break
8-9pm: dinner
9-11pm: schoolwork or relax


The 3-6pm writing slot doesn't seem to be working for me yet. Curious about other methods/schedules...
-A

[Just Me 2021]

My schedule is the opposite of yours.

6:30-8:30 A.M. Get 3 kids ready for/to school (two different schools, two different schedules)
8:30-10 A.M. exercise and shower
10:00 A.M.-2:00 P.M. write
2-3 P.M. household chores/errands
3:00-9:30 P.M. Kids/family obligations (homework, sports, making dinner, cleaning up, baths, read with kids, snuggle time)
9:30-10:30 P.M. Relax if I don't fall asleep first

[sneakers145]

My day is too nutty to schedule, what with running a business and two homeschooled kids. ;) But usually get up and check e-mails, shower and drive to work with kids, work til 5:30, drive home, dinner by 6:30-7pm, then write, depending on what the kids are doing.

Sometimes if work is dead I can write at work, sometimes the kids are too big a distraction, sometimes the dogs are the distraction, currently my old dog has issues and is going to the vet specialist on Weds so maybe if she can be fixed she'll stop peeing every 30 minutes. ;)

I need quiet to write.

Can you do your schoolwork during the day? Or are the classes held at night?

[scarletpeaches]

Writing schedule: when I can be bothered.

That's about it.

[PeeDee]

These days, with a baby in the house, my writing schedule is haphazard. But in theory, it is:

Tuesday-Friday, I write every day from about 6:30am through 2:30 pm, then I go do household things (or keep writing, if I need to get more done). There's time in there where I wind up just doing baby things. It can't be helped.

Saturdays, I meet with people I know and we develop video games.

Sundays and Mondays, my wife is off and we spend some time together doing extremely little, which is a delight.

[Scrawler]

I don't really have a time schedule. My goal is to write 3,000 words a day, or at least get close to that. Some days I reach that goal, some days I spend a lot of time thinking, planning, plotting, developing.

[melaniehoo]

My set writing time is from 6:30-8:30pm when my husband has class, but I sometimes try to write earlier in the day so I can have that time free to read. I do very little all day so I should be writing more, but I spend several hours 'researching' my craft online.

[JoNightshade]

When I'm first-drafting, my goal is 2K words/day. I go in to the office (my p/t job) on Tuesday afternoons.

Other than that, I have no schedule. Zero. I'm not a very structured person. :) I do whatever needs to get done that day, and I write during whatever time is left over. Right now I barely even have to cook because my husband just began his crunch period and they feed him dinner at work while he's doing 60 hour weeks.

[vfury]

Basically, I work writing around whatever shift I happen to be working that day. I do my best to write every day, or I make up for a skipped day in the next day's writing.

[ccarver30]

Sun, Mon and another day- 2 hours after 7pm at Starbucks. :)

[Siddow]

I've made dozens of schedules over the past couple of years, but with four kids, it's hard to stick to one. So I write whenever I can carve out a block of two hours or more, or whenever I can grab fifteen minutes.

But come August of 2009, I'll be on a 8am-2pm schedule, five days a week, excluding school holidays. I'm drooling just thinking about it. :D

[jennifer75]

We're on week 3 of a slowly-becoming-successful-nighttime-schedule and I've just been able to get in some t.v. time. I'm hoping soon to have worked in some writing time.

Hoping to work it all out this week, or next. Or the week after that...

[amber_grosjean]

I tend to write at night when the house is quiet but sometimes I also write during the day when ever I can. Yesterday I was alone for a few hours so instead of cleaning house, I wrote 10 pages of my WIP. I ended up cleaning house before going to bed which sometimes I do that, swap times with something else. It always depends on my time frame and how quiet it is. When people are constantly bugging you for something every few minutes its hard to sit down and write 5-10 pages let alone one so I have to wait until I have at least two hours to devout to writing.

During non-writing hours, I clean house, pay bills, work, and take care of my family. I squeeze in writing when ever I get the chance.

Amber

[ZannaPerry]

I am a nightowl so most of my writing is done in the late, late hours of night. I work better at night. No distractions.

10pm-2am or when I'm about to fall asleep - writing/reading/outlining
10:30am- waking up either going to work or class
3-5pm - either coming home from work or class
5-6:30pm - doing homework/reading/playing on computer/dinner...if I'm hungry
7-9pm - coaching my 4th grade volleyball team (usually every Mon-Wed-Friday nights)
9-10pm - come home and watch my favorite tv show.
10pm- WRITE time.

I love to sleep, and try to get at least eight hours of it every night. And when I'm lucky I get a usual 12hour sleep time. I don't have kids. I don't plan on having kids unless the great Lord decides I need to slow down in my life. I don't have much of a social life, and that's okay. No boyfriend to tie me down, no one real close except my family. And that's okay. :) I'm concentrating on my education now, and writing.

[David I]

When I'm first geting rolling with a novel, I usually move at 3 hours per day for 750-1000 words, and that tends to happen in the morning. (I know this sounds slow, but that's 750-1000 words of polished prose.)

Later in the book, the hours get longer, the writing goes faster, and it happens at unpredictable times of day, including climbing out of bed at 3 in the morning because I can't sleep.

I know the standard advice is to write every day, and in my first novel I adhered slavishly to this ideal. In retrospect, this led me down too many wrong paths--scenes and subplots that might have been good, but didn't really belong in the story. Now I don't write until I'm pretty sure exactly what scene needs to come next, and if that means taking some days off to think, so be it.

I think it's important to work on your book every day, but that doesn't mean you must write every day.

I know this is a minority viewpoint. But Pulitzer-winning novelist Richard Ford says, "Most writers write too much."

[ChaosTitan]

I don't have a set work schedule, so it's impossible to have a set writing schedule. I just plug away as often as possible, as many days a week as I can manage, until the darn thing is written.

[avid-dreamer]

I write whenever and wherever I can. I take note pads into the bathroom while taking showers, getting ready to go out...or doing other stuff:D which I care not to mention. I scribble on bits of paper at work and type it when I get home, I take a notepad into the kitchen when I am cooking and in the car when my husband is driving. I have my laptop set up at my side of the bed..I often fall asleep writing or messing around on this forum or shopping for clothing sales. :D
Sundays are my rest days. I watch tv and take it easy and if I write it's not much to talk about.

[OddButInteresting]

Writing doesn't factor at all into my current schedule. I'll jot down ideas, but nothing in the form of continuous, solid prose. I've got too much on my plate right now, so I'm giving it a few months to let my ideas stew for a little longer. I knocked out a couple of chapters during the Summer and realised there was so much more I wanted to do with it.

As an obsessive compulsive I'm naturally a perfectionist, and I really haven't the time to spare or the focus to put out my very best at this moment in time.

I don't like to write drafts. I write the one piece, and tweak it as necessary. That goes for anything I write. Drafts, for me, are just a waste of time; wasted time I could allocate to strengthening my ideas rather than hurrying to string them together.

[bsolah]

My 'schedule' isn't really up for debating, and it doesn't include writing.

7.30-8.30 - get up and get ready for work
9.00-5.00 - selling my soul to the devil
5.00-12.00 - either political meeting or too drained from work to do much else.

I did write at work yesterday which was quite nice, almost felt like revenge. But since starting full-time work over a year ago, writing schedules haven't really fitted in.

[Gray Rose]

7:00, get up, dress, feed baby, get baby ready for daycare.
8:30-9:00. Stroller ride with baby to daycare (time for thinking about my plot, scenes, etc.)
9:00-9:30. Commute to work. Continue thinking about plot, scenes, etc.
9:30-1:00 or 2:00 Teach.
1:00-2:00 writing slot.
2:30-3:00 stroller ride with baby from daycare. More thinking time.
3-7:30 Play with baby, cook, clean, read bibliography.
7:30-12:30 or later: 1/2 time work on WIPs, 1/2 time work on academic writing.

[joyce]

I'm a night writer and always have been. Sometimes the mood will hit me mid-morning, but generally it is at night. The house is quiet, I can't sleep anyway and it's when the spirit generally hits me. I wish I could do more of it during the day, but my mind gets cluttered with everything I should be doing.

[NiennaC]

I don't have a set schedule, more of a set amount of words: 2000 per day. Though it's rare that I actually get that much done.

[TrickyFiction]

I really need to make one of these.
I get too not-in-the-mood, when I really should just play BIC.

[ZannaPerry]

We had a vball game tonight. We lost. :( but oh well, now I can hammer my kids in practice Wednesday. . . .

anyways, back to topic...

I get really bad in school because all I want to do is write about what I want to write, not what my professors tell me to write. It's a bad habit of mine since junior high. I sometimes tell myself that I cannot write my story today, I cannot write my story during class...but I can't help but not to when class gets sooo boring! :D

[John61480]

If I recall, it only took about a month for me to reach 30,000 words in my WIP. I've been getting up in the mornings between 4-5 am. I can only really write for two hours maximum before I feel like I'm forcing myself to write the story. But currently, studying has taken over and I find that it is hard to write well and keep up with memorizing and understanding chapters from the textbook. I'm a slow learner even though I'm only taking one class. Recently in the WIP, I've been working on one scene for a couple days now. I'm thinking of taking a break from the manuscript and finishing it later when I'm able to give it better concentration. That last effort in rewriting an excerpt from the first chapter nearly killed me.

For me, it isn't the time in the day, it's the studying. My brain hurts, then I take a break, but the knowledge can vanish if I'm not too careful entertaining myself.

[Voyager]

Whenever, wherever and as often as I can.

[JoniBGoode]

I'm a full-time freelance (non-fiction) writer, and I find if I don't write the fiction before I start "work", it never gets done. So I write fiction in the morning.

I don't set an alarm (one of the benefits of being a freelancer.) Whenever I wake up, I putter around for an hour or two, read the paper online, clean the bathroom, whatever. About 9:30 or 10:00 I set the timer for an hour and write fiction. If I'm in the middle of a scene whent the timer goes off, I finish it, even if it takes another hour. Then I work in the afternoon. That's five days per week.


On Saturday and Sunday I try to work on my WIP for 15 minutes, so I don't lose touch with it.

[stace001]

I'm definitely a morning person. I get up in the morning and get my son ready for school, then come home and write. Usually before I do anything else. My mind is pretty clear of distractions that way. Then from about lunch time till 3pm, I run my web-based business. Then collect my son from school, homework, housework, baths, dinners, bedtime stories, then from about 8pm till midnight more business work. It works for me.

[Mud Dauber]

My schedule is the opposite of yours.

6:30-8:30 A.M. Get 3 kids ready for/to school (two different schools, two different schedules)
8:30-10 A.M. exercise and shower
10:00 A.M.-2:00 P.M. write
2-3 P.M. household chores/errands
3:00-9:30 P.M. Kids/family obligations (homework, sports, making dinner, cleaning up, baths, read with kids, snuggle time)
9:30-10:30 P.M. Relax if I don't fall asleep first
This is nearly my schedule, exactly. Except the exercise part (and I only have 2 kids to get ready for and drive to school). I'm a lot less inclined to work out at that time in the morning, but when I do manage to get it out of the way, I'm a much happier writer. Otherwise it's hanging over my head the rest of the day and I can't concentrate on my WIP.

[narnia]

My schedule is very flexible. During the day it's whenever I can get away with it at work.

At night it's whatever free time I have before bedtime after mowing the lawns (yes, that is a multiple :(), moving rock, fall landscaping tasks, laundry, cat wrestling, minimal housekeeping, daily phone calls from Mom (she has this uncanny ability to call me when I am painting), roofing and siding and painting the barn so I can use it for storage before the snow flies, etc. etc. etc. :e2yawn:

Things'll get better once my clone gets up to speed. Or I make enough money from the sale of my first book to afford a handyperson. :cry:

[Ava Jarvis]

Schedule and schedule, what is schedule?

[Rena]

Hmm... Mine:

6am-7am: Get up and do morning-ish things
7am-3pm: School.
3pm-7pm: Avoid doing homework.
7pm-8pm: Eat, start homework...
8pm-10pm: Actually do homework.
10pm-11pm: Practice for band.
11pm and on: Writing and sleeping before the schedule resets.

(Looking back on that now I wonder, "What the heck kind of schedule is that?")

[c.e.lawson]

When I'm first geting rolling with a novel, I usually move at 3 hours per day for 750-1000 words, and that tends to happen in the morning. (I know this sounds slow, but that's 750-1000 words of polished prose.)

Later in the book, the hours get longer, the writing goes faster, and it happens at unpredictable times of day, including climbing out of bed at 3 in the morning because I can't sleep.

I know the standard advice is to write every day, and in my first novel I adhered slavishly to this ideal. In retrospect, this led me down too many wrong paths--scenes and subplots that might have been good, but didn't really belong in the story. Now I don't write until I'm pretty sure exactly what scene needs to come next, and if that means taking some days off to think, so be it.

I think it's important to work on your book every day, but that doesn't mean you must write every day.

I know this is a minority viewpoint. But Pulitzer-winning novelist Richard Ford says, "Most writers write too much."

Yes, yes, yes - that's EXACTLY how I work. I've only been writing seriously for about four years, but I'm a firm believer in mulling. Mulling is key. I have to have a scene planned, complete with character motivations/progressions at least in a vague way, before I can have what I consider a good, productive writing session. Interestingly, after writing several short stories, a 22 chapter story and a 14 chapter story, I've found that I don't need to cut or rearrange much at all on revisions - my revisions consist mostly of polishing the prose. That process works for me.

As far as a schedule? Gah, with a five year old and a 9 year old I'd give anything for a stay-at-home mom writing schedule. But I work part time. On the days I don't work, I write best in the mornings to early afternoon. I work out after I've written for a while and I'm feeling my brain slow down. A run or a brisk walk with the dog (along with more mulling, of course!) can get my brain back in gear for another writing session. I'm just too tired most evenings after the kids go to sleep to be very creative.

[bsolah]

...I'm a firm believer in mulling. Mulling is key. I have to have a scene planned, complete with character motivations/progressions at least in a vague way, before I can have what I consider a good, productive writing session...

I'm a believer in mulling too, except I've really been doing it for 2 or more months. I haven't had any solid plots/ideas that makes me want to cast everything aside to write.

There has to be a limit to mulling, especially if it's not going anywhere. It seems a lot of posters here are really only factoring in hard writing time as part of their schedule. Does everyone come to the desk with fully formed plots? Or do they schedule in idea time?

Also, I've noticed a lot of people here seem to have a decent amount of time for writing. How many of you guys are full-time writers and how do you survive financially. Also, how many work full-time and how do you manage to fit in writing? Do you write on the bosses' time?

[Just Me 2021]

I walk/run right after getting the kids off to school. Since I live in the South, it's nice and cool in the mornings right now, but it can get into the 80s by the afternoon. As the year goes on, my walking time changes from first thing in the morning to early afternoon (to enjoy the warmest part of the day before the kids get home).

I always love to hear about other writing moms and their lives. We moms need to support one another!

[Prawn]

Right now I am editing. I edit for half an hour during lunch, and I edit for an hour or two every day after work before I pick up the kids from day care. When writing I have a word a day goal of 1000 words, and I can almost always get this done with a half an hour at lunch and a a half an hour after work.

[a_sharp]

No you're not editing. You're fooling around with this forum. Liar, liar!

[Jaycinth]

Recently I've been able to fit in 2-3 hours on Sat mornings.

I just ditched a client so that should open up an extra 1/2 hour on weeknights.

SIGH: At my old job I was guaranteed 2 hours from 9:30 to 11:30 when there was nothing to do but answer the phones..so I wrote up a storm there...but the current job..they are paranoid about people taking home propriatory information, so unless I want to let them 'read' my work daily, I don't do it here.

But I can AW here...so that's good.

[kellytijer]

Sun, Mon and another day- 2 hours after 7pm at Starbucks. :)
i've been thinking about doing the starbucks thing. seems like i can't get anything done unless everyone is asleep...which doesn't leave me much time for sleeping...

[Prawn]

No you're not editing. You're fooling around with this forum. Liar, liar!

I am done for the day, baby! What time zone are you in?

[Merry]

I try to fit it in during lunch at work and whenever I have free (non-familial-duty) time at the weekends.
6am I'm up and taking the dogs out
7:15 I leave for work
Work till 5pm (except for one night when I work till 9pm)
Go to bed at 10pm (can't get up if I don't go to bed early)

So everything else has to be fitted in before then! But sometimes it's quiet at work, and during two long-ish coffee breaks last week I managed to plan out a couple of chapters in the coffee shop which was good.

[BL_Garver]

I've been working to get my writing out of the way before Life distracts me.

It's only worked a few times, as I've had to adjust my sleeping pattern, but this is what I'm trying for:

4:00a - 4:30a :: Rise and Shower, struggle to maintain consciousness
4:30a - 5:00a :: Dress, put the tea or coffee on, clean up the house a bit
5:00a - 7:30a :: Write, or stare at the screen thinking of the next bit
7:30a - 8:00a :: Double check the house, shut everything off
8:00a - 5:00p :: Work, and a little writing if it's not too busy
5:00p - 6:00p :: Soak in tub with whatever book i'm reading
6:00p - 7:00p :: Make more tea, cook dinner
7:00p - 10:00p :: Write
10:00p - 11:00p :: Adult Swim
11:00p - 4:00a :: Sleep

This isn't reality yet, just what I'm working for. It's taking me a while to get used to it. But I feel SOOOOO much better when I get my writing out of the way before I have to deal with real life.

[jennifer75]

I've been working to get my writing out of the way before Life distracts me.

It's only worked a few times, as I've had to adjust my sleeping pattern, but this is what I'm trying for:

4:00a - 4:30a :: Rise and Shower, struggle to maintain consciousness
4:30a - 5:00a :: Dress, put the tea or coffee on, clean up the house a bit
5:00a - 7:30a :: Write, or stare at the screen thinking of the next bit
7:30a - 8:00a :: Double check the house, shut everything off
8:00a - 5:00p :: Work, and a little writing if it's not too busy
5:00p - 6:00p :: Soak in tub with whatever book i'm reading
6:00p - 7:00p :: Make more tea, cook dinner
7:00p - 10:00p :: Write
10:00p - 11:00p :: Adult Swim
11:00p - 4:00a :: Sleep

This isn't reality yet, just what I'm working for. It's taking me a while to get used to it. But I feel SOOOOO much better when I get my writing out of the way before I have to deal with real life.

These are the reasons I hate you. :)

[jennifer75]

I always love to hear about other writing moms and their lives. We moms need to support one another!


Yes! Yes we do! So, that said - pay my bills so I can stay home and write!

[Carrie in PA]

Monday - Friday

6:30-7:50 Get Hubby, kid and self up and ready for work/school
7:50 - 8:15 get son to school and self to work
8:15 - 4:40 Work
4:40 - 4:55 drive home from work
4:55 - 10:00 change clothes, check homework, help kid repack backpack for next morning, shuttle to sports practice, make kid practice trumpet, laundry, dishes, scrub toilet, play with cats, fit a meal in somewhere, scoop litterbox, pack lunch for tomorrow, work on hours of volunteer obligations, work on household projects, sweep and scrub floors, spend time with hubby/son, check email and boards, balance checkbook, baths... etc.
10:00+ get ready for bed and make private time with hubby

Saturday and Sunday

See 4:55 to 10:00 and add in more volunteer stuff, more sports, grocery shopping and more household projects.

I miss being a SAHM, and I regret how much I took being at home for granted. I write when I can.

[c.e.lawson]

I miss being a SAHM

Oh, Carrie in PA - I know, I know, I KNOW! I was one for all of seven months last year, and during that time I had my four year old home with me and not in pre-school, so not much writing time then either. It literally KILLS me to hear about SAH moms at my daughters' school who have their kids in school all day, have housekeepers, do NOT work, and STILL complain about "not having enough time". TO DO WHAT? If I had that time, my damn novel would be finished already!

[Chameleon]

right now, I write when I have free time and there's no one else in the apartment.

Tonight, I wrote at star bucks for an hour 8-9pm, and quite honestly, I wrote half a scene. I'm going to try that time slot a couple more times to see if I'm more productive during those hours. I also write/learn to write during the wee hours of the night, say around 2am. But those hours are not feasible once my work/school schedule comes back to normal.

[leenakincaid]

I have a binder filled with my writing on a desk. Every morning I wake up and it's, "Oh, I have writer's block. I will write this afternoon." Afternoon, I sit down. "Wow, I sure have written a lot. I need to write more. It's in categories [difficult to explain]. I don't know how to put this together. I'll do it tomorrow." Repeat. Repeat. This has been going on for months.
So yeah, no real writing time. When I lived at home, I wrote before and after dinner. Now, hardly anything and it's usually in the afternoon.

[jedimaster107]

My schedule is very flexible. During the day it's whenever I can get away with it at work.

Sounds like me. I have an hour to kill before work so i do my writing then. (i have to come early becuase my hubby and i only have one car so i get to be dropped off at work early so he can get to work on time.) During lunch i work again. Either i'm reading, writing or doing my edits on the computer. But during work it's usually working on ideas and stuff. (not lately. been too busy to do that. Everyone wants everything asap).

[BL_Garver]

These are the reasons I hate you. :)

:) Well, like I said, it's not in full effect yet. I'm still training myself to wake up at 4:00am. I've done it so far the past three days...only to fall asleep about an hour later.

So it's a work in progress.

[NeuroFizz]

With a wonderful day job and two little ones (2nd grade and kindergarten), I can't get to any writing until after Little Fizzy and Fizzette are in bed, and I have some snuggle time with Mrs. Fizzy. So, my writing is all done at night, usually after around 10:00p.m. Sometimes I get some writing time during daylight hours on weekends, but not often.