But writing is what I do. I write as much as I can and as often as I can. When I’m working, I write on my lunch break at school. Or during planning period, because trying to decide when Guy is going to kiss Girl totally counts as planning. When I’m trying to sleep, I write in my head. Which accounts for my charming, sometimes Zombie-like personality. In short, I write all the time. In fact, when I’m not working, this is what a typical day looks like for me.
- 6:00 am: Wake up, make coffee, and make what feels like four-dozen breakfasts/lunches.
- 7:00 am: Throw on sweatpants and an old t-shirt—my writer’s uniform of choice. Hooters has skimpy tank-tops and cleavage, I have baggy knit pants and…whatever. It all evens out.
- 7:30 am: Close door on two departing kids. Give self a mental high-five.
- 8:15 am: Drop off teenage daughter at junior high, give another internal high-five, and drive home.
- 8:30 am: Hand money to oldest child and watch as he drives off to high school.
- 9:00 am: Grab more coffee, and sit down to write.
- 9:30 am: Answer message that random child forgot lunch—again—hop in car, and take to school.
- 9:45 am: Once back home, sit down to write.
- 10:00 am: Feel guilty that dryer buzzed thirty minutes ago, switch laundry, and, now distracted, begin wiping down counters, organizing drawers, and color-coordinating closets.
- 11:00 am-12:00 noon: While organizing shoes by style and color, ignore repeated texts from oldest son to be checked out of school for lunch, eventually feel guilty and head to school…where I grab him and three random friends.
- 1:00 pm: With lunch over, sit down to write.
- 1:30 pm: After staring at screen for 30 minutes, realize I’ve written about 12 words. If you’re doing the math, that’s one word every 2.2 minutes. Which translates into not much. Which translates into this seriously stinks.
- 2:30 pm: Wake up after accidentally falling asleep (because I bored myself into a near-coma with all that non-writing).
- 2:30-3:30: Make more coffee, open a box of Milk Duds, and write like a crazy person before kids come home. Somehow manage to pull off 2000-ish words in record time.
- 11:00pm: After day is over, climb into bed with laptop, review in horror the awful words I wrote earlier in the day, revise and knock out a few more words, and fall asleep with laptop on chest.
So that’s it. That’s what I do. Sometimes it’s frustrating, especially on the days I’m awaiting answers from my agent…from editors…from publishers. But despite that, I do think it’s kind of fun. Actually, it’s more than fun—it’s my dream. It’s what I need to do almost as much as breathing, sleeping, and eating.
Okay…maybe not eating.
Amy
As the mother of four children with a husband submersed in political life, Amy has very little free time. She prefers to spend that time enjoying intellectual pursuits such as: watching television with her feet propped up, watching movies with a bucket of popcorn, and watching her laundry pile high—with no desire to do anything about it.
She can be found on her blog, www.amymatayo.blogspot.com, and on Facebook and Twitter.
Image courtesy of adamr / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
