I wanted to post something a little more humorous and hopefully somewhat insightful. All of you writers, authors and freelancers out there who don’t adhere to the 9-5 hours and work 7 days a week, this is a post for you.
My average writing day doesn’t begin at 6am or even 7am like most people. It’s not because I’m lazy or because I don’t work for the same amount of hours, it is because I have often been up the night before writing til dawn. My day begins at around 10am, and sometimes my alarm clock is the sound of window cleaners banging their mops and brushes against my window. In my half awake state I’ll head straight for the kettle for some glorious caffiene. If you know me well then you will know that most conversation with me is futile before I’ve had my morning cup of tea. As I’m eating my late breakfast, I have come to realise that happiness is the sound of the window cleaners singing a Little Mix song, I’m certain they don’t realise I am at home but they have pretty good voices.
My work day begins during breakfast, I check through all of my social media platforms and my emails for any news, interesting writing articles, and work. Once I’ve updated my statuses, replied to messages, blocked and deleted all the spam, I make a mental note of all the extra jobs besides writing my novel that I’m aiming to complete that day; Is there any research work? Which blogs do I need to write? What project am I going to work on? I’ll also check my peopleperhour page to see if I’ve had any work requests there.
Once satisfied, armed with a list of goals and usually still in my pyjamas, I’ll make myself a green tea, open up my laptop and get to work. Now my work can be anything from writing and researching for blogs or clients, or researching and reading in order to improve my own writing and online image. If I’m not working for a client, I’m working to improve myself and my skills as an author. This can easily take up to three hours, at which somepoint I’ll shower and get dressed, and during this time I’ll take a couple of five minute breaks here and there to get up and move around, and to recheck all of my emails and messages.
My stomach interupts me sometime between 1-2pm, I have to eat at this point or I won’t be able to concentrate for the rest of the afternoon/evening. I’ll usually make something quick and easy (and raid the cupboards for biscuits), and I’ll indulge in another cup of tea, even though I know I really shouldn’t. Then I’ll get back to work, finishing off whatever I started in the morning before moving onto more reading or continuing work on my novel.
If I’m working on my novel I will go over last night’s work and I will probably delete 1,000 words before continuing and writing up to 4,000 new words that day. Now it’s important to say that I don’t just simply sit and sprout out 4,000 words all in one go, I’m often thinking during this time, imagining my story and making notes in a notepad whilst I write. I will also stop to check through my social media and emails again, and reply or update as necessary. I usually recieve phone calls during the second part of my day, family members call me to lecture me about getting a job even though they’re already eating into my work time. I don’t mind, it’s nice to talk to family and friends and I humour them like I’m sure a lot of new authors do. This will take me through the late afternoon and into the evening, where I will break for dinner at anytime between 6 and 9pm.
After dinner I’m still working on my novel and sometimes I sit and read more writing articles and blogs. I’m surrounded by bits of papers and notebooks and I hear everyone else getting home from work at around 7pm. I tend to procrastinate during the evening, my imagnation doesn’t seem as lively as the hours race to midnight, so I’ll watch some youtube videos or read a book, a book I’ll write a blog about the following week. When everyone else is in bed, my brain decides it’s time for a burst of creativity. Suddenly I’ll have ideas and I will write, I will continue to tap away words on my keyboard until the early hours of the morning. Around 2am, I’m exhausted and my body demands that I sleep despite the fact that I’m at my most creative. Reluctantly my brain agrees with my body and I’ll settle down for the night so I can begin the whole process the next day, and the next.
Do you work from home? Are you a writer, author or freelancer? What is your average day like? Humour most definitely welcome! Thanks for reading this blog, check out my other blogs for writing advice, tips and hints.