Summer's Here - Time to Re-establish a Writing Routine

Let's talk about routine. Today is the last day of my part time day job at a local elementary school. That means it's the kick off to my full time writing job. Like most of you, I do a lot of juggling to squeeze writing around the need to keep house, make a steady paycheck, raise a family, stay involved in my church, and so on. So when summer comes, I get pretty excited for a change in routine.

Is your routine affected by a seasonal change? What sort of routine helps you accomplish your writing goals?

Here's my general routine:

• First thing in the morning -- prayer, coffee, devotions, email, and... Facebook. I'm addicted, and I'd just as soon start my day with a few hellos and some shared virtual coffee with my friends, that way the thought isn't lurking over my shoulder. But I try not to linger!

• Schedule tweets and status updates on Hootsuite.  This is actually fairly time-consuming for me. I keep a file of previous tweets in case there are some good ones I want to re-use. But I like to mix them up and talk about new things and find other people's interesting tweets to RT too. I didn't use a scheduling app for a long time, but now I use one and love it. It allows me to put networking out of mind for part of the day - much as I love it -  while I focus on the writing at hand.  

• Blogging is next on the list. I try to get a rough draft of something done in the morning. Sometimes in lieu of blogging, I work on an editing deadline, an article, a query letter, or whatever else is demanding immediate attention or some tweaking. During the school year I don't always get this much accomplished before I'm off to work. Instead, I wait until late afternoon or early evening to tackle the detailed projects.

• When I happen to have bigger bigger chunks of day to work with, I get to the real heavy writing and editing. But I do take frequent breaks to launder clothes, feed the critters, mop the floor, pop back in on Facebook, or just hang out with my family. A gal's gotta live.

• Sometimes new writing is done solely in the evening, when everyone in my family is otherwise engaged. But somewhere between 9 and 11 o'clock I stop making sense, so I engage with a good book to read.

That's my writing routine on most days. What's yours? Is it affected by seasonal change? In what ways does it help you accomplish your writing goals?

This summer, hang with me here on More Reason to Write to talk about things like routine and other tools we use to get our books written well. I'm hosting a number of authors this summer, who'll add to the conversation.

Write on!

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