My Writing Routine
A detailed breakdown of my writing day routine, including variations when I'm on vs. off-duty as mom, how exercise and sleep fit in, and the ratio of writing/non-writing days each week.
Hi! I'm publishing on Sunday this week instead of Wednesday as usual because Thanksgiving in the U.S. Family starts arriving tonight! For the remainder of the week, I’ll be food shopping, cooking, hosting, eating, sleeping, walking, and otherwise not working. Huge love to you and yours.
Today, I will take you through a typical week as I write my third book. First, some context:
An overview of my books and how Book #3 fits in:
My first book, We Are The Luckiest (WATL), is a sobriety memoir with some prescriptive/teaching bits. It was published by New World Library in January 2020. I wrote here about this book deal and how much I made on WATL.
My second book, Push Off from Here (POFH), is a modern exploration of addiction that offers nine foundational building blocks every person at any stage of sobriety or life change can use. It was published by Ballantine, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in March 2023. I wrote about how POFH came to be here.
My third book, untitled, is a memoir about romantic relationships, or what I call my “second sobriety.” It’ll explore themes of attachment trauma, love addiction, the influence of cultural messages about “love” and female sexuality, and what recovery looked/looks like. I got a two-book deal when I signed with Ballantine for POFH, so they will also publish this book. Slated for Fall, 2025.
The life circumstances that shape my current writing routine.
Were I writing this book when I was in my twenties or thirties and could handle less sleep, or my daughter was younger (she is fourteen now), or when I was working a full-time job in advertising, my schedule would look quite different.
Read: my routine isn’t right or better; it’s just what works for me right now as a self-employed forty-six-year-old (perimenopausal!) woman who needs 8-9 hours of sleep and a ton of exercise to function well and shares custody of a very active teenager.
Like most writers I know, I support myself with work other than book writing.
My other jobs, in order of overall percentage of my workload, are:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Love Story to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.