I’ve got very few excuses now–kids are all grown, hubby is happy to leave me alone if I tell him I’m writing. It’s a matter of ironing out plot wrinkles (which beats doing actual ironing), which can sometimes take what seems like days.

As for the naps — I can doze for 10-20 minutes. Hubby can sleep 2-3 hours at the drop of a hat and still get up from his chair and go to bed and sleep another 8 hours. I’m groggy and miserable if I drop off more than 20 minutes.

Of course you can claim blogs and comments, Elaine!

Thanks Deborah I really love it.

Oh, Jen, I delete so much . . . I swear, I wrote 200,000 words to get a 100,000 word novel.

B.E., that’s exactly what I did when I was unpublished. If I really couldn’t write–and sometimes you can’t–I did something that was at least focused on my writing career. I would query, or read writing articles, or research for a book (which is a huge time suck for me.) So you’re definitely making progress.

Elisabeth, that’s exactly my problem. I usually don’t get into the flow until about 1 pm–and that only leaves 90 minutes of quality writing time before I have to drag myself out of the story and off to be a mommy. I’ve been writing a lot more at night as well.

Urgh, Karin, you’re making me very jealous!!!! I still have 14 years . . . .

Aw, Christa, school. Thank God it’s mandatory

Lynn, I’m the world’s worst procrastinator. I wish I could be like Stephen King and others who sit down and write their alloted words, whether it takes two hours or ten. For me? I sit down for 5 hours and can write 1 page or 30 pages, depending on the damn muse.

Amanda, when I read some of my favorite authors, I feel exactly the same way. There are a few I am so humbled by that if I read them while I’m in the middle of writing, I get stuck because I’ll never be that good. But the way I see it: I’m me, I can’t be Tess Gerritsen or Lisa Gardner or JD Robb or Michael Connelly or Stephen King. I may never be as good as they are, and I can never be them, but I can be the best Allison Brennan.

I’m like the rest – read to escape, write to exorcise. Currently I can’t wait to get the existing voices out of my head so I can move on to the new ones.

I’m like you in the procrastination area, too. If I know I only have an hour or two to work, I’ll find something else to do because an hour just isn’t enough time to get into the meat of the story. Just when it starts to flow it’s time to go pick kids up or do something else that needs done. Which would explain why I write at night after the kids are all in bed and the house is quiet.

I love naps. Just had one and feel energized to get back to work.

I’m jealous of all of you who have kids already back in school. Mine don’t start until Sept. 3rd!

I made myself a promise last year to do something writerly every day – writing, editing, querying, synopsizing… something. That way if I can’t get the words out, I don’t feel too guilty because I’ve at least accomplished something. So far I’m running about 90%. The most I can do in a stretch most days is a couple of hours. 4-5 hours sounds incredible. Maybe I can work up to that once my daughter goes to college and I’m home alone again. =o)

I try to write everyday when I’m working on a book, although I delete as much as I keep. In between books or on breaks, I try NOT to write. But I’m usually playing with some idea or character, even if it’s something that will never make it into a book.

As far as writing daily…yeah, I do, at least Monday through Friday when I am working and have a daily deadline for work. My other projects, not so much. I try, but with all the other things I’ve had to do and the fact that sometimes my work writing ruins me for the rest of the day for other writing, sometimes it just doesn’t happen.

Now, if you want to count writing comments on blogs, writing my own blog (which has been abandoned for a couple of months or so now as real life has intruded), and writing forum posts, I absolutely write every day. I used to not count these things as writing, but my schedule has been so messed up for the past month or so, I claim the right to count them, at least for now.