What’s it Like to be a Writer?

Or: My Exciting Day

A writer’s life is nothing like the movies. The real-life writing life is far more mundane! Over the next few blog posts, I’ll be talking about my YA novel, A Skillful Warrior. I’ll describe a little of the backstory and some of the plot elements. I might even give you a hint (a very, very small hint) about what is to come in the final book of The SoulNecklace Stories.

But before I dive into the world of Will and Dana and all the other gorgeous characters that I love so much, I thought I’d give you a quick rundown of my fabulous, glamorous and fun-filled day:

7.30 Breakfast.

8:00 Spend 20 minutes hunting for the car keys, the cat, the kids and a pair of unladdered tights. [Confession time: I love working in an office. I get to dress up and wear nice clothes and talk to people ALL DAY and get PAID. No, the novelty does not wear off.] I currently work 3 days a week, and write for 2. This will change shortly, as I have a maternity leave contract coming up.

8:30 Start Work – if a work day. This means I send emails, web browse, answer phone calls and argue with people! Clients are generally extremely nice to me, as I hold the purse strings. It’s amazing how being in a purchasing role encourages good behaviour.

If a writing day – I write, frantically, for about 2 hours. I listen to Spotify – the hard rock track. It seems to be working at the moment, because my characters definitely do more when there’s loud music playing.

12:00 Lunch, listen to podcast and go for a walk. My favourite podcasts are (in no particular order):

• StartUp by Gimlet Media. I love his story-telling skills
• Hack the Entrepreneur. This is a nice, bite-sized look at self-employed life. If you’re looking at setting up your own business, I really recommend this podcast.
• Amy Porterfield – Amy is a master of social media. She’s also very good at podcasting! This is a sales funnel for her, so if you’re thinking of listening, just be aware that she’s very very good at what she does.
• Smart Passive Income – Pat Flynn’s been running this podcast for a couple of years now. He comes across as likeable and truly engaging. The thing I really, really like about his podcasts is he talks about serving his customers, which is something I totally relate to, as I feel very strongly about serving my readers. (Which is why I’m telling you what I listen to all day, because it might help you, too!). He interviews mostly online business people, but sometimes there are authors in there too, which mixes it up a bit.
• Social Media Examiner – this is a massive podcast machine.I skim this one, because it’s really heavy-duty marketing which doesn’t rock my boat that much, but sometimes there’s interesting things to take away.
• Self-publishing Formula – this is a newbie to the podcasting platforms, but very good. I recommend the free Facebook training, too.
• Astonishing Legends – This is hilarious. AL is basically two guys jamming about the weird and wonderful. Think The Twilight Zone does Wikipedia. The production values are very good and the two presenters really know how to construct a story.
• The BBC Book Club – this is a little staid, but hey, you get to listen to Marian Keyes and John Grisham.

12.30 Work (if at work). If not, I’ll do boring administrative tasks. This week its my tax return. *Groan* . Chat to people on FB and Twitter and answer emails. Explain that no, I did not write Light Between Oceans, but I wish I had. (And I wish I had a different name). Get sucked into social media…And read weird and wonderful stuff on the internet. It’s research, honestly!

3:00 Write some more. You can check out my progress on my website. I’m not doing quite as well as I want.

4:00 Take kids somewhere. Be a taxi-mum.

5:30 Begin cooking tea.

Sounds exotic, doesn’t it? I bet Hemingway never did all that. I bet he just drank wine and sat at coffee shops and fought bulls…