Sitting down to think about what A Day in the Life of Me looks like, I realised that there’s no such thing. Every day is different, every day a different juggling act between a million different things, with moments for writing stolen here and there and squeezed in around the edges. And, two and a half years after finishing the first draft of my first book, I’m finally realising that this is just the way I like it.
The Two Houses
I work full-time in a London museum, so the days on which I write vary enormously. If it’s a workday but I’m buzzing with ideas, words will get scribbled down on the Tube on my way home or while I’m cooking dinner or even in the bath! If it’s a weekend, I might have the luxury of a day at my writing desk. But life is full of wonderful interruptions – friends, family, food, sunshine – and I’m no good at chaining myself to my computer if there’s a glorious spring day outside or a snowstorm that demands to be wandered through.
Of course, this is the rose-tinted view of writing. There are days when time to write feels as rare as gold dust; when the pressure to turn on my creativity just because it’s the weekend and there’s time available is overwhelming; when the idea of finishing a paragraph – let alone a whole book – seems absolutely impossible. But one thing I have learned writing These Dividing Walls and The Two Houses is that it does add up. Imperceptible at first, when you begin a fresh document and have a word count of just ten, twenty, a hundred words. But keep at it, keep your head down when you can, and one day you’ll look down at your screen in total amazement to see you’ve hit 50,000 words (some of them even spelled correctly!).
Some people like to know about the nuts and bolts, so, for what it’s worth, I tend to write 50% of a chapter by hand and then find the rest as I type it up. My most productive moments seem to be late mornings and early afternoons. Unless I’m on an impossibly tight deadline, I am rubbish at dawn choruses and late nights. Planning is good, but however much I plan there are always things that come out of nowhere and surprise me.
It’s taken me a while to realise it, but I love the juggling. I love the complement and the contrast between the worlds I work in: I know that my writing is better because of my day-job, and that my day-job benefits from my writing. A lot of writers talk about shutting themselves away to write, or shutting the world out. Maybe that works for them, but for me, writing is part of my life, and it’s at its best when life is full and busy!