Time is different when you’re a writer.
First, the days of the week. You forget them. If I didn’t have kids in school, I wouldn’t know Monday from Saturday. All the days blend in together. Since I DVR or purchase all the television shows I watch, I couldn’t even tell you what day it is based on television programming. I realized this was getting bad during Christmas break — when the kids didn’t go to school, I had no idea what day it was, especially the two weeks after Christmas. In fact, one day after Christmas I thought it was Tuesday. I told the kids it was Tuesday, I told my neighbor it was Tuesday, and I talked about things I needed to do the next day (on Wednesday.)
I didn’t realize until I woke up the next morning that it hadn’t been Tuesday. It had been Monday. Groundhog’s Day anyone?
If I didn’t have my calendar up on my computer, I would really be lost.
When I worked in the Capitol, Fridays were great. They were casual dress, we could take long lunches, and catch up on all those little pesky things that get put aside for crisis management. But as a writer? Fridays are just another day of the week. We don’t get weekends. One day is just like any other …
As if confusing the days of the week wasn’t bad enough, hours jam us up, too.
If I have something planned in the afternoon, I find myself constantly looking at the time because I’ve been known to get lost in writing and then rushing around to do everything I need to do. Or, when the kids go to bed and I’m totally in the groove with writing, my husband will often come into my office and say, “It’s one in the morning.” And I’ll say, “No, it’s — oh, it is. I’m on a roll.” But inevitably, that interruption messes me up and I keep looking at the name clock and thinking I really, really should go to bed.
Today, this Friday, I’m driving on a field trip. So help me. I rarely do field trips because I really need to write every day, but I try to volunteer for each kid once a year. Tomorrow is my 10 year old daughter’s science field trip to the bowling alley. I suppose bowling is scientific, but all I’m thinking about is the noise.
Tomorrow — which would be Saturday — said daughter has a basketball tournament and my youngest son may try out of baseball. He hasn’t decided if he wants to play, but he has to make his decision by 5 pm Friday in order to go to the try outs on Saturday. (He’s 9, so he’s guaranteed a spot, but he doesn’t know if he wants to play again.)
But because I’m a writer, I can do all these things and simply stay up later at night to make up my writing time. I write every day, seven days a week. Not as much on the weekends as during the week, but I put in a few hours most Saturdays and Sundays. Because, as a writer, those days aren’t much different than any other day …
Some fun things!
There’s a fun interview about me and NOTORIOUS up at Examiner.com, written by Terry Ambrose. The story about the dinner party is all true.
There’s still time to enter the giveaway for NOTORIOUS — my publisher is giving away 100 copies of my debut hardcover to US readers. The deadline is January 29th.
MSW Alum Kendra Elliot has a new book out — ALONE! Don’t miss it!
Last weekend I read Lee Child’s WITHOUT FAIL, one of his earlier Reacher books. Loved it! This weekend I’m reading my RITA books — for those who don’t know what those are, it’s the Romance Writers of America contest. I have six books to read, I’ll finish two this weekend. Probably during the basketball tournament …
What are you reading? And have you ever gone an entire day thinking it was a completely different day?
Allison Brennan is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nearly three dozen romantic thrillers and mysteries, including the Lucy Kincaid series and the Max Revere series. She lives in Northern California with her husband, five children, and assorted pets.
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