She's three and will officially start preschool this Fall when my oldest goes into 1st grade. She'll go two mornings per week which means I will have a grand total of 4 extra hours of writing time each week (yes, I will use it for writing and resist the urge to do laundry). 4 hours!!! This may not seem like a lot, but I cannot describe how excited I am. Don't get me wrong. I love my kiddos more than anything and will be a complete mess the first day my son is away for an entire school day, but still. I'll have writing time during daylight hours, when I'm not fighting against my need for sleep.
What's your writing schedule? Is it variable or consistent? Are you a nocturnal writer or do you prefer sunshine on your keyboard? Have you experienced the joy of unexpected writing time?
You have to resist the urge to do laundry?? I have the opposite problem!
ReplyDeleteI try to write in the mornings, first thing, which is pretty easy when I'm drafting, but so much harder when I'm in revisions. I feel so much better the rest of the day if I know my writing's done for the day.
Valerie--As my laundry basket is NEVER empty (I think it's possessed), I'm always doing laundry.
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited that I'll have time in the morning to write, because I'd love to have that feeling of being done with my writing for the day.
Whoo-hoo for another four hours! My writing routine is, well, not very routine-like. It's all over the place! But I do like writing right before I go to bed best.
ReplyDeleteI have two kids the same ages as Kristi's children, so my "schedule" looks a lot like hers. I write when I can, usually after the kids go to bed but on occasion they give me some time in the morning. If not, I write through their chatter.
ReplyDeleteAnd I too have a possessed laundry basket.
Lacey--glad I'm not the only one with that laundry basket.
ReplyDeleteSamantha--I do like writing before bed, but am not always at my most alert!
Thanks for sharing Kristi. I used to be able to get away with writing an hour or two at work, no longer. I mostly write on weekends after the kids have gone to bed or while they're playing in the neighborhood. Mine are older than yours but still can be very distracting!
ReplyDeleteMatthew-I like it super quiet when I write, so kids of any age would be distracting to me!
ReplyDeleteMy writing schedule nearly always starts with morning pages in bed or at my desk with a cup of coffee.That takes me about 30 minutes.
ReplyDeleteOnce my brain is clear I break my writing sessions up into about 90 minute periods and then I do something fun like laundry in between : )
Yeah,coffee is a given with me in the morning...and sometimes in the afternoon too!
ReplyDeleteI write after work, but I keep a notebook with me so I jot down ideas throughout the day. When the kids are in school, it's actually worse for me, because then I have to fit helping with homework into the schedule.
ReplyDeleteDorothy-my 1st grader will have homework every day starting this year. I'm hoping it'll be easy things like addition and compound words! I'm dreading the huge projects they have to do in later grades--I'm still traumatized by having to do dioramas in sixth grade. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a cutie!
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely a morning person and NOT a night person (my eyes get heavy at about 8 p.m.), so, while I sometimes do my writing in the evening, especially during the summer when I am the family chauffeur during the day, I am much more efficient when I can write before noon.
Your post brings back wonderful memories of when our son was that age. :)
I try to write for an hour or two a day, usually in the evening. If I get ideas in the day I jot them down. But I love writing in the quiet.
ReplyDeleteLisa-thanks! I'm not an early morning person but can manage with coffee--lots of coffee.
ReplyDeleteLindsay-I love quiet when I write too. I've never tried writing in a coffee shop for that reason.
Lately, I've been writing in my car while one of my son's is at football practice (2 glorious hours, five nights a week). This has been great for revisions, which I usually do in pencil onto hard copy of ms. Then, I steal a couple of daytime hours to type these edits into my computer for another perspective. Of course, all this will change when school starts in September.
ReplyDeleteI have to write in every little nook and cranny corner of time that I can. I have a 2 year-old and a 5 year-old, both boys, and they have A LOT of energy! I teach preschool part-time, and my youngest one is with me while the older one is at camp, so when we get home they are with me still. I can only write when they are in bed (but I am exhausted), over the weekend when my husband takes them, or at a writing retreat with my critique group (done that three times). It's hard, but I am trying. (And I have towers of laundry!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your blog. I've been enjoying it.
My most creative time is first thing in the morning. I occasionally have unexpected writing, but it doesn't sum to a great amount of time, just a quick burst and documentation of a plot twist or character trait of sub-theme.
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