What in the World do You Authors Do All Day?

I am asked this question more times that one could imagine.  For those of us who write full-time, the answer is simple and complex:  We work all day long!

My day has become, by fiat really, divided into three segments.  The first begins about 6:15 in the morning. Still dark.  House quiet.  Coffee brewing.  Puppy ready to jump into my lap for a hard day’s writing.

My attention turns to housekeeping issues.  Emails from two accounts, facebook, Twitter, Google Circles and my blog. Several years ago, none of this existed for me but email.  Today social networking has big teeth and is crucial to an author’s professional life.  If I’m lucky and efficient, all this can be finished by around 8 AM—unless it’s a gym day, when things get pushed back by an hour.

The second segment of time focuses on actual writing.  I am best at “being an author” if I've warmed up with other tasks but am not too tired.  This is when being in the flow occurs.  When nothing is in my mind but the story at hand.  When I am squarely in my protagonist’s (or antagonist’s) head.  When nothing else matters but moving the story from here to there.  What a good time of day it is when the magic works.  Sometimes it doesn’t.  Mercifully, most of the time it does.

The third part of my professional day is decidedly not my favorite, and sometimes I skip it.  That would be marketing.  There was a time not long ago when authors didn’t have to do such things.  Not anymore!  Today one must talk with bookstores, visit schools (which actually I love), do signings at various locales (fun, too, come to think of it).  Hmm.  Maybe I dislike the idea more than doing it…

The evenings will find me with my laptop in front of the TV, which I usually zone out.  It’s then that I’ll be sure my next blog is ready to post later that evening, my calendar is up to date and coffee’s ready to brew.  Everything at the ready for 6:15, quiet, coffee, puppy…You get the drift.

I can be brought out of the flow at:

Web Site:  http://www.nancystewartbooks.com 
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