What a typical writing day looks like for me...
by Jenna Night
Lots of authors have regular jobs along with their writing. When I have a day that I can dedicate to working on my book, I plan it out in detail so I can be monumentally productive. Here’s what usually happens, instead:
 | Set the alarm for 6 AM, smack the snooze button several times, and if all goes well I roll out of bed by 6:45 or so. Start a pot of coffee, feed the cat, then sip coffee while reading my devotionals, praying, planning my day and staring off in to space. I do a fair amount of staring off into space in the morning. |
At the computer by 9, whereupon I start by checking my email and taking a look at my author social media accounts and a few other things and suddenly it’s 10:15 and I’ve done nothing productive. I finally focus on work only to be interrupted by a hollering cat who is ready for second breakfast.
Back at the computer a short time later I open my manuscript-in-progress and get to work. Once I’m warmed up, I’ll likely roll along with my writing for an hour-and-a-half or so, whereupon I will reach a point where something like this happens: I’m imagining a character and he looks like ‘that guy’ in ‘that movie’ but I can’t remember the name of the guy or the movie. It doesn’t matter for the sake of my story. Not one bit. And yet, I can’t stop wondering about it. So I go online to check and the next think I know it’s 1 PM and time for lunch.
After lunch, I’m back at it and I’m really going to focus. That lasts until the cat wakes up. He likes to stealthily approach me from behind so that I have no idea he’s there and then let out a yowl that makes me jump out of my skin. Of course he wants food. He’s also full of energy and wants me to play with him. If I don’t play with him, there will be repercussions. More than once, he has taken a flying leap onto my keyboard while I’m writing. When feeling ignored, he also loves to go into the bathroom and knock objects from the countertop onto the tile floor so they make a nice loud clattering sound. That gets my attention. Oh yes, it does.
Back at the computer a short time later I open my manuscript-in-progress and get to work. Once I’m warmed up, I’ll likely roll along with my writing for an hour-and-a-half or so, whereupon I will reach a point where something like this happens: I’m imagining a character and he looks like ‘that guy’ in ‘that movie’ but I can’t remember the name of the guy or the movie. It doesn’t matter for the sake of my story. Not one bit. And yet, I can’t stop wondering about it. So I go online to check and the next think I know it’s 1 PM and time for lunch.
After lunch, I’m back at it and I’m really going to focus. That lasts until the cat wakes up. He likes to stealthily approach me from behind so that I have no idea he’s there and then let out a yowl that makes me jump out of my skin. Of course he wants food. He’s also full of energy and wants me to play with him. If I don’t play with him, there will be repercussions. More than once, he has taken a flying leap onto my keyboard while I’m writing. When feeling ignored, he also loves to go into the bathroom and knock objects from the countertop onto the tile floor so they make a nice loud clattering sound. That gets my attention. Oh yes, it does.
| Around 2:45 or so I start to realize I’m nowhere near my word count goal for the day. So I really buckle down and get to work for the next 2 or 3 hours. And here’s the funny thing, oftentimes the entire chapter or scene I wanted to write for the day is crystal clear in my mind at this point. It wasn’t earlier, but it is now. So I work until dinnertime. And then I’m done for the day. |  |
Before you ask, let me just say that if I skip the morning busyness and just sit down to write in the afternoon, it doesn’t work. I wish it would. That would be so much more efficient. But despite the distractions, this meandering process works for me. At least for now And the cat seems to be happy with it. Which keeps him from leaping onto my keyboard.
Jenna Night writes for Love Inspired Suspense. Her newest series, Range River Bounty Hunters,
debuts in April with the release of ABDUCTION IN THE DARK. You can find her on Facebook,
BookBub, or her website, JennaNight.com where you can sign up for her newsletter.
debuts in April with the release of ABDUCTION IN THE DARK. You can find her on Facebook,
BookBub, or her website, JennaNight.com where you can sign up for her newsletter.
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