You Want an Agenda?

By Nancy Viau

My fourteen-year-old daughter wants to know what I do at work.

“That’s easy,” I say.  “Write!”

“But what do you REALLY do all day?” she asks.  “You never go to any meetings.  Or have business lunches.  Don’t you work WITH anybody?”

I consider her questions and realize I need to put my writing life in terms this teen agenda queen can understand.    

7:00-9:00 a.m.

Breakfast conference with Mr. Coffee to review recent projects-- five stories, three poems, and four essays.  (I can’t function without Mr. C. jump-starting my day.)

9:00-10:00 a.m.

Attend personal fitness event at local gym.

Take a step-by-step approach to market research while on elliptical trainer.

10:00-12:00 p.m.  

Jot down story ideas while sitting at traffic lights.

Decide which red-light notes make the cut and start story.

Take a 20-minute break to schmooze with Hoover who shares office space with me.  (He’s pretty good at the whole suck-up thing.)

Give annoying Ms. Gotta Dothelaundry uninterrupted attention for ten minutes.  (That’s a load off my mind.)

Finish first draft of story.

12:00-12:15 p.m.  

Lunch meeting.  Fifteen-minute conversation with established author. Try not to be jealous.  Seek encouragement.  Lunch optional.

12:15-2:00 p.m.

Re-energize by chatting with Mr. Coffee. (Gosh, I love that guy.)

Daydream about traveling bugs.

Create lists of words that rhyme with katydid and cicada. (Don’t spend so much time on this that it qualifies as procrastination.)

Get back to writing.

2:00-4:00 p.m.      

Fix computer glitch that zapped me from my poetry stupor. Use on-the-job training as technician to diagnose problem.

4:00-5:00 p.m.      

Attend afternoon meeting with five invisible writers online. Discuss recent reports of shrinking publishing houses. Critique stories.

5:00-9:00 p.m.

Tie up loose ends from first half of writing day.

Begin second shift as tutor, cook, taxi driver, maid, and official tucker-inner of sleepy personnel.

9:00-9:15 p.m.      

Exchange gossip with the water cooler/snack crowd (family).

Throw kiss to the resident hottie (husband) as I re-enter my office.

9:15-12:00 a.m.

Surf the Internet.  Look for paying writing opportunities that pay in real money.

Practice writing skills by responding to twenty-seven e-mails.  Crack knuckles and get up the nerve to send status request e-mails to three editors.

Work on organizational skills (filing).

Redirect Ms. Gotta Dothelaundry to assistant (oldest daughter).

Contemplate changing bug poem to story. (There are no words that rhyme with katydid or cicada!)

Write.

Write some more. 

Note to self:  Are you crazy for loving this job?

12:00-2:00 a.m.    

Go to bed.

Get up.

Rewrite.  Rewrite.  Rewrite.  Zzz...

Nancy Viau loses sleep writing for both children and adults. Her publication credits include:  Highlights for Children, Hopscotch for Girls, Wee Ones Magazine, Saplings Magazine, and others.  She writes frequently for The Philadelphia Inquirer and is a contributor to Family Circle Magazine, The Writing Group Book (Chicago Review Press, 2003), and the forthcoming book Boomer Women Speak.  For more information, please visit: www.writernan.com.

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