writing routines

With summer winding down, so go my writing routines. No more waking at a reasonable 7 or 8 AM, brewing coffee, and settling into four or five hours of writing. No more lounging in the sun and working my way through my Goodreads' list. No more taking breaks to check Twitter or stalk agent MSWLs.

The school bell is ringing, and it rings for me.

Beginning tomorrow, I need to transition to my school year writing schedule. That basically consists of: writing in the afternoon or early evening if the kids haven't melted my brain; getting up a few days at 5:30AM to write for an hour; getting up at 7 on the weekends to write until I can't. I've been known to write from 7AM until midnight when I really have my groove on.

Of course, we can't schedule creativity.

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I'm curious how other writers with day jobs (or night jobs or kids or lives) manage to find the perfect time to write. For me, that perfect time requires one ingredient: time.

Writing doesn't always mean sitting at the computer adding a new scene to my current WIP. Writing can mean many things. Once you understand that, you seem to uncover more of that key ingredient, time.

Here's are six things I might do during my writing time.

• daydream
• read a novel
• read a book on craft
• work on my story in Scrivener
• find inspiration from Natalie Goldberg's WRITING DOWN THE BONES, and write in my notebook
• plan a story in Scrivener

This summer, I rediscovered another great way to make the most of my precious time. I gave myself homework and deadlines. I said, if I want to read five books, I need to read thirty pages a day. Fortunately, I don't cringe at this kind of homework. I love to read, and this way, I had a goal. I finished my five books. (Read my reviews here.)


This also freed up more writing time, and it gave me more inspiration for my writing. Reading before writing is like doing stretches before a run. It makes the run easier and more fun.


What do you do to make the most of your precious writing time? Please share below.
Write on!