As a writer who works from home I’m constantly grateful that instead of the one hour commute by car that I used to have, I now just walk downstairs to my desk. Truth be told, I sometimes have my laptop by my bed so the commute can be as short as the stretch of an arm.
The Smoke Thieves
This morning I was up at 7, set coffee brewing in the mocha and got straight into picking winners for a prize (my new book) on twitter as I knew I had to get that job out of the way. After breakfast of cereal and toast I really should have looked at the other things on my To Do list, but I often forget it (or get depressed by it), and so I just did the thing that’s uppermost in my mind. I’m currently writing the second book in my new series and the first draft has to be submitted in 15 days so this job is most definitely uppermost in my overfull mind. But this week is particularly busy as I’ve got a book coming out and lots of launch related events, so there just aren’t enough hours in the day.
Every other day I run for an hour or so down to the nearby park or along the canal. I run on my own rather than with a club as I prefer to run during the day rather than evening. I don’t miss my run even with a deadline approaching, but today is not a running day so I can get on with some writing.
As I went to bed last night I thought about the chapter I’m about to start and worked out what would happen in the story. So I know what I’m going to write and get into it without too much procrastination, though I do take a coffee break part way through.
I’m highly self-motivated and good at working on my own, but sometimes I think I’m too good at it and it is healthy to take a break and talk to a human being sometimes! Today my gardener is here to do some heavy digging as I’m beginning to remodel the back lawn. It’s good to discuss trees and plants with him, and think of something other than ‘the book’.
The afternoon is filled with more writing, a phone call about an event the following evening and I’ve got a couple of skype interviews with U.S. publications so I put some make-up on (if I’m home alone I may not do that – not even for the gardener). I’m more nervous about the skyping going wrong than the interviews themselves, but it all seems to go fine.
In the evening after dinner, happy with my skyping success I skype a friend, who it turns out has a horrible cold so I’m glad we’re only together via technology.
I’m behind on my book two deadline so I need to do another 500 words of my novel this evening, which I just manage though my eyes are closing.
As I go to bed I start thinking about the next chapter of the book, as it all starts again tomorrow.
The Smoke Thieves, by Sally Green, is out on 3rd May, published by Penguin, £7.99