I know that most writers have to work at another job to survive in this world, which leaves them little time and energy to write. I’m one of the extremely fortunate ones who has the time and energy to write. So let me fill you in on a typical day in this writer’s life:
I wake up around 7:30 and make my breakfast while my wife Joan is busy studying Latin or ancient Greek at the kitchen table. While eating and sipping coffee, I’m simultaneously reading the morning paper and listening to the news on the radio.
At 9:15, it’s time for me to drive to the YMCA for my 9:45 water aerobics class (a.k.a. deep water running). I attend this class four days a week. (In the old days, before my right knee and two hips started bothering me, I’d go for a brisk walk down by the ocean six or seven days a week. I still walk, but only a couple of days a week now.) After a vigorous one-hour workout in the pool and a relaxing twenty minutes in the dry sauna, I take a shower. While dressing, there’s always someone in the locker room to shoot the breeze with about politics, economics, sports, movies, religion or the state of our health. It’s the only time of the day when I get a chance to socialize. Along with exercise and proper diet, I believe social interaction is a large part of a human being’s well-being.
After getting home from the Y at noon, I put a lunch together.
Around one o’clock, I get to my desk. For several hours that seem to go by too swiftly, I’m doing something related to writing. I’m either writing in my journal to chronicle my past or present life, or I’m writing in my journal as fast as I can to get an idea to write about. If an idea, such as a story, chapter, essay or poem, hits me, I’ll write like the wind to get it all down. Then comes the inevitable revising, which can take hours, days or even weeks. Included in all this is sending query letters to agents, sending my short works to magazines or posting something on my website.
Come seven o’clock, it’s eating dinner with Joan.
Around eight o’clock, I’ll unwind for a while by watching the news or a sporting event on TV. I’ll return to my desk around ten o’clock to either revise whatever I was working on or check the many e-mails I receive and answer those that warrant a reply.
When 11:30 rolls around, it’s zzzzz time.