ON AN AVERAGE WRITING DAY
1.30 PM: Wake up
1.35 PM: Fall back asleep
1.40 PM: Wake up and play games on iPad or, if very lucky, read a bit of a book (or a whole book. Why not?)
2 PM: Turn on laptop, because laptop takes at least twenty minutes to start up properly. Then go get dressed and brushed and whatever else. On busy days dressing and brushing is optional. Pity postman.
2.30 PM: Check emails. Return blog comments that arrived overnight/day. Write up a blog post if I have time, otherwise glance over my favourite blogs and Twitter stuff.
2.45 PM: Find a song I really want to listen to right now. Usually a song that fits what I'm about to be working on.
2.47 PM: Start writing/editing/revising/tweaking/proofreading/tearing hair out.
3.50 PM: Notice that I received a text message half an hour ago. Odd. Why didn't I hear that? Hmm. Forget to reply to text message because brain is fully lost in book-world.
4.10 PM: Realize I'm hungry. Even odder. Have I not eaten today? Oh. Why didn't I? Hmm. Forget to eat because brain is fully lost in book-world.
5 PM: Brain aches. Eat a plum.
5.15 PM: Steve rings to say he's leaving work. I mumble, most irked about being disturbed while brain is fully lost in book-world. Steve tentatively inquires about text messages that were not replied to. I say 'hmm? What did you say?'
6 PM: Look around wondering where Steve went. He's been quiet an awfully long time.
Oh. He hasn't come home yet.
6.20 PM: Steve comes home and kisses me on the top of my head, over the back of my chair. Refrains from pointing out the fact that I look like a deformed crab, hunched over laptop with alarmingly bad posture.
6.30 PM: Look around wanting to know why Steve never hugged or kissed me when he came home. He sighs. I give him a hug and we manage to have a proper conversation lasting a whole three minutes. I go back to writing/editing/revising/tweaking/proofreading/tearing hair out. Brain aches. Odd. Why am I hungry?
7 PM: Steve shouts at me for only eating a plum all day. I make up for it by taking a two-hour break and watching TV with him and eating Too Much Dinner. And dessert. We have real conversations and sprawl half on top of each other on the sofa to watch TV.
9 PM: Return to manuscript. Brain does not ache. In fact, brain wants to know why Characters One and Two aren't kissing yet.
9.30 PM: Realize I haven't put a new song on since 3 PM and must do so because Steve is heartily sick of hearing the same thing over and over. Change song and play it for the next three hours.
4 AM: Turn off laptop. Brain aches.
4.10 AM: Shower. Wash hair. Trip out of shower and into bedroom, where Steve is asleep on my side of the bed. Make him move. Get in bed.
4.30 AM: Can't sleep. Bloody nuisance. Read a book. Or poke Steve and demand entertainment.
6 AM: Finish book. Stop poking Steve. Sleep.
8 AM: Wake from comatose condition to Steve kissing me goodbye as he leaves for work. Swat him affectionately and descend back into the depths of corpse-like slumber.
12 PM: Postman knocks. Stumble downstairs and offer winning smile.
12.10 PM: Comatose.
1.30 PM: Wake up. And start all over again.
what a big silly you are!
ReplyDelete(in fairness, its concerningly accurate)
waking up at 1:30 might be a little generous though? ;-)
made me laugh a lot, which i suppoe is a good thing!!!
Ha! you do make me smile. xxx
ReplyDeleteI can relate to snippets, but shower always comes first. Of course, I have this annoying thing called a job that demands attention as well. Funny!
ReplyDeleteFound you from Saumya's blog - I sure can that relate to trying to go to bed thing after writing and then you can't shut your brain off! I have to take sleep-aids in order to be coherent at work in the morning. Oh wait, who needs to be coherent at work? :)
ReplyDeleteWOW. This really hits home for me, Sangu! And props to you for working so much every day :) Now that's discipline! Waking up after noon and working through the night is incredible. I'm so grumpy in the mornings.
ReplyDeleteDelightful. I love the way you get so lost in what you're doing you don't know if Steve's there or not and can have the same song playing for hours and not notice. I can relate to the latter. I've always played music to drown out the family/neighbours and I can remember back in the old days when I only had a cassette recorder only actually hearing the click when the tape had ended and not know what I'd just listened to for the last 25 minutes then I'd turn the thing over and the same would happen 25 minutes later.
ReplyDeleteLOL! This is great! I wish I could sleep in that long!
ReplyDeleteCrikey! That's a hell of a lot of time to spend working per day. Are you getting on well with the revisions?
ReplyDeleteThat was funny. So true! Loved the "brain aches, eat plum" line...uh, been there.
ReplyDeleteWhen you're going to bed, I'm getting up! Our days are like mirror images of each other.
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of sounding corny, your days seem to pass in a daze. Lotsa time immersed in writing!
ReplyDeleteThat's hilarious... thanks for the much needed chuckle! A lot of that sounds like one of my days!
ReplyDelete