Lately, the wonderful and funny writer Eileen Cook and I have been commiserating about the fact that while we have the best job in the world, we also don’t have enough to do writing-wise and it makes us blue at times. I know I had the misconception that once I’d sold a book, the waiting would be over. HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA…that’s the sound of every other published author laughing themselves silly.
I don’t mean the waiting for the book to come out, or the waiting for the edits, or anything like that would be over…I mean, the waiting to write. I just kind of thought that between new projects and edits flying back and forth, I’d be busier. And I am busy at times (like a few weeks ago!), but for the most part, I still have a lot of in between time.
Eileen hit the nail on the head when she said that she thinks the blueness comes from the fact that writers like schedules and when we’re writing, we have one, but when we aren’t, we are totally up in the air about what to do with our day. For example, my agent asked when I was free to talk to him today. My answer was NOT, “Well, you can make an appointment with my secretary.” My answer was, “Well, I have to feed the neighbour’s cat…but other than that…I’m open.”
Here is my dream schedule:
Mon-Fri
6am – wake up, drink tea while writing in my journal
7am – check email and blogs, eat breakfast
7:30am – start writing (taking mini-breaks every hour or so)
10:45am – get a snack and listen to The Archers, the British radio serial I’m addicted to.
11:30 – write
1 – lunch and reading
2:30 – write
4:00 – wrap up the writing
After “work” I would walk to the Village with my husband for groceries or socialization and library books…have tea and a snack, listen to baseball on the radio, make dinner around 7pm. Hang out. Go to bed around 10pm.
This IS my schedule when I’m working (except when edits force my days to be longer, then I just skip making dinner!).
The thing is, if I did this schedule every day, I’d need about 3 pseudonyms to publish all the books I’d create and my agent would go crazy with all the stuff I’d want him to read! No one is telling me not to write like this (not exactly anyway), but both Eileen and I find the idea of writing stuff that won’t be read for years and years to be somewhat disheartening too. So where does that leave us?
Eileen and I have been trying to brainstorm ideas of ways we can be involved in this writing life in between projects. We both hope that someday we’ll have enough books out for our lives to be BUSY…maybe not Meg-Cabot-busy, but say…Sarah-Dessen-busy (well, maybe Eileen wants to be Meg-Cabot-busy, but that would involve leaving the house too often for me).
Eileen suggested that maybe I use my marketing skills to help other people market their books. Or she might teach writing in lower-income schools via the internet. I’ve thought of writing a play I can perform in schools that has to do with books/writing/authors??? I think the crux of our problem really is that all we want to do is write though. The other things sound good in theory, but they don’t light a fire under our butts the way sinking ourselves into a new story does.
Eileen suggested I get a job, which made us both laugh. I mean, come on, “don’t be rash” as my husband always says in regards to real jobs. I know that this is an excellent problem to have, the too-much-time-to-write-problem, and that a lot of writers would be envious as they try to squish writing in between helping kids with homework and doing laundry, but it actually is an issue that I think a lot of full time, just getting started writers have. Anyway, if you are a full time writer, what do you do? Do you write anyway?
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