Daily Life of a Writer

None of this post is a lie, I swear. Well, at least no more than an exaggeration, I promise. I read on the Internet, where everything rings true, that “NASA is currently tracking 1,400 ‘potentially hazardous asteroids’ and predicting their future approaches and impact probabilities.” Predicted by non-experts not from NASA, something big was supposed to hit last September. That would have wreaked havoc on our scheduled lives, wouldn’t it?

If I only have a short time time left to live before a giant asteroid flops down in my yard, I wonder if I should bother to plan anything. (I’ve been doing this all my life – wondering if I should waste time planning and preparing for  – well anything actually)  Eventually I usually decide that maybe planning one little day won’t hurt. I’m not convinced yet that aliens will come to earth and do my work for me. Isn’t that what happened at Stonehenge?  Given the choice in life what do you do most often, plan or chill?

In October I attended a new health clinic grand opening in town representing the Chamber of Commerce because I’m retired and everyone else works, so, of course I have time. I went up and introduced myself to the doctor’s wife who was so bored that she had begun reading my book, Images of America: Woodlake, which I gave the Clinic as a gift. As we talked, she asked me what a typical day looked like for me as an author, and wondered if I had time do lunch.

There’s nothing I like better than having lunch with an interesting person, especially one who liked my book, but that was in October, and it’s already nearly February. I should have sent her a link to this post.

Typical Day in the Life of This Writer

1. Exercise with my trainer (daughter of a friend who is amazing) Melissa for an hour or until I complain effectively enough that she takes pity on me and tells me I can go home early.
2. Write my blog for the day.  Wait!  Who’s commenting to me now?  I’d better check my WordPress, Facebook, Twitter and email notifications.  It might be important. No, I’m not ADHD, I saved my draft first before I checked my comment box.
3. I would like to finish the two books I’m reading this morning.  What?  It’s 10:15 already!  How did that happen?  I’ll finish Blue Willow first because it’s shorter, and I have to read it for the Reader’s Student Event at Tulare County Office of Education.  Then after I write a review of that one, I’ll head back to April in Paris Rendezvous with my Mother by Chuck House, and write a review of that.  I don’t think I can get both of them finished.  hmmm  OK, put Chuck’s book and the other fourteen children’s books on my week’s goal.
4. Finish unfinished projects:  different organization’s assignments, knitting, photography, new posts  Ops, too ambitious…
5. Go visit my blog friends – the ones I didn’t get to already this morning.  Write lots of comments, steal ideas get inspired.  That’s doable because I started at 5:15 this morning.
6. Take a lunch break.  I’m hungry already.  I forgot to take my vitamins.  Maybe I’d better stop now and start fixing lunch! I wonder if V wants lunch yet?  It’s almost 11:00. a.m.   OK 10:15, but that’s close.
7. Spend some spiritual time with God.  Maybe He will consider removing the asteroid threat.  I’ll ask anyway.
8. Plan my next trip before the world blows up.  I’ll do that this evening.
9. √Keep up with household chores.  V said he would vacuum this morning. I don’t hear it. OK, he’s going to do that, so I can cross that one off.
10. √Get dressed for the day.  I’ll bathe later.  If Ralph only needs 3 baths a year I guess skipping a day or two won’t make any difference, huh?  Better find out if V has started your shower yet. He likes to go first so I can clean the shower when we are both done.  Yep, he’s in there now. OK, I have to wait till he’s done anyway, so I’ll skip that one.  No, I’ll go ahead and leave it on the list.  I probably SHOULD get dressed.  Let’s see my clothes I wore yesterday are right here on the laundry basket.  sniff, sniff  Yeah, they’re clean enough.  I’m going for a walk later, and I’ll get all sweaty. There.  I can check that off.
11. I’m back.  I decided to take a bath after all. I’m going to need to take a nap this afternoon so I can stay up and blog all night when I get free gigabytes.
12. Take Puppy Girl for a walk.  That should be number one. I thought  V took her out this morning.  She should be good until after lunch.
13. V ate quite a bit of cake yesterday.  I don’t think he will want dinner.  I can cross off making dinner.  Good.  Back to my book.
14. Oops, I forgot I need to write a book for third graders about Woodlake by the time the new Museum opens on February 27. I need to get that started. A few pages each day, and I’ll be done. Sally said she would help. I’ll text her now and see when we can get started.
15. I need to make reservations for a hotel in Hawaii for the raffle tickets we are going to offer through the Woodlake Chamber of Commerce. Something is not working on the website. There are no options available. I’ll call them this afternoon to find out what’s going on.
16. I need to go to the store to make soup for tomorrow night’s Kiwanis meeting, and type up the minutes for last week’s Chamber of Commerce meeting. If I forget those, the world will come to an end.
17. I want to start pulling out and organizing my blog posts to create a book to self publish. That should only take a few weeks. The stuffs all written. I don’t think it will take much editing. The last one only took me two hours. I do not get that. I thought it would be easier if I just cut and pasted.
18. Darn, I just remembered that I promised to start editing my NaNoWriMo book I wrote in November. I should at least look at it. Or not.How do you spend your days as a writer? Do distractions bother you, too?

Author: Marsha

Hi, I'm Marsha Ingrao, a retired educator and wife of a retired realtor. My all-consuming hobby is blogging and it has changed my life. My friends live all over the world. For thirty-five years, I lived in the most beautiful area in Central Valley of California in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains minutes from the Sequoia National Park. As a child I moved from Indiana to Oregon. With my first husband I moved from Oregon to Colorado to California. Every time we moved, it hurt so much to leave friends. I never wanted to move again. After Mark passed, I married again. I told Vince that I could never budge from my roots in California. He said he loved the high desert. I don't think he ever thought he would realize his dream. In November, 2020, we sold everything and retired to the mile-high desert of Prescott, AZ. We live less than five miles from the Granite Dells, four lakes and hundreds of trails with our dog, Kalev, and two cats, Moji and Nutter Butter. Vince's sister came with us and lives close by. Every day is a new adventure. View all posts by Marsha