When I was first asked to write this post I really struggled, I couldn’t think of a single thing I do all day that couldn’t be summed up in a hundred words. I get up early, I write, I watch TV, ignore all my admin jobs and maybe do some washing. But that’s just this week. The truth is that most days are quite different.
Katerina Diamond
It all depends what point I am at in the process. If I am writing my first draft then its all about the word count. Growing the story until it’s long enough and has a beginning, middle and end. If I am editing, its about getting through a certain amount of pages a day until I have fixed all the things that need fixing.
The summer is easier. With the days starting that much earlier – I tend to get up at around dawn and start working. I try to gauge my mood and see how many words I think I can manage in that day. Unless I am on a deadline and then I will have already mapped out how many words I have to write. My absolute minimum is five hundred, if I can’t even do that then I know I have a problem. So, after checking Social Media I start writing, making sure to tell everyone that I am working and not just sitting on my bum at home.
After I have done a couple of hours work my family usually wakes up and I get caught up in the disruption of that. Ironing clothes, getting bags ready and breakfast and things. Then I am alone again (hooray) and I can start working again until someone in my family needs me again, either after school, or to make dinner. I tend to work best when no one else is around, whether they are out of the house or just asleep. I just finished the school run in July (after 13 years!!) and so my days will take on a new structure from September. I have hired a room that I can use as an office so that I can leave the house and get some writing done without the distraction of home (also, it has no internet). It’s very hard to work from home, there is always something that needs to be done and people phone you, expecting you to be free to chat for an hour. So many things that can derail you.
I usually work for an hour and then take a break for an hour. In the hour that I am writing I am usually listening to music, unless I have a TV show to catch up on and then I might have that running in the background. While I was writing Book 4 I watched all thirteen seasons of ER. I am very easily distractible, and I always have a million other things I should be doing, whether it’s housework or admin and so putting on a TV show keeps me in my seat. I like to keep up on what’s popular too, also trends in the TV world. You can usually tell what people want by what the shows of the moment are. I’m lucky that I can work like this and it doesn’t affect my ability to think.
Sometimes I get nothing done in that time and just spend a lot of time on Facebook posting constantly. It can be very frustrating when the words or story just won’t come out. The closer I am to a deadline the more I post on Facebook, short bursts of procrastination or frustration. I usually get there in the end, my schedule has been pretty intense since first getting published but I am now at the point where I can make choices about how to use my time better. I’m looking forward to a new writing regime in the autumn and writing many more books!
