What Is the Full-Time Writer’s Schedule?

I bet I have it all wrong!

photo via pixabay

This post is inspired by Jathan Maricelli’s comment on my previous post describing the process of signing up with an agent.

My Path to Signing with a Top NYC Literary Agent.

He asked me what a day in life of a full-time writer looks like. Here are some words of explanation: I’ve been writing my book Your Creative Career full-time since February. The book sold on February 1st and with a full submission deadline of July 17th and 20,000 words written back then, I knew writing and doing research had to be a full-time commitment. When Your Creative Career sold, I received half of the advance a month after and I’m due to receive the other half after the book launches in January. BTW I am ready to share all the financial details of the book sale, future income and royalties if any, etc. I just have to think in what form I’m going to do it. If you are interested, please sign up here.

My book income is not enough to live on so I need to keep my career coaching business and jewelry business going. I’m able to scale it down to part-time for now.

On May 1st I also committed to writing on Medium daily.

I can describe my schedule right now as: unsustainable.

Here is my daily schedule:

7am–9am — breakfast, exercise, errands, doing things around the house.
9am–10am — coming up with the title of my Medium article, promoting the article I wrote the previous day, reading and commenting on articles of my favorite Medium writers.
10am–7pm — book research and writing with a 3 hour break for coaching calls, jewelry orders fulfillment, email, etc.
7pm–9pm — dinner and relaxation.
9pm–12am — Medium article writing, sending ships.

I take one day off a week but I still write a Medium article that day. It’s usually a Thursday and I work over the weekend. If I feel inspired and can write two articles in one day, I have an extra article to post on my day off.

I suspect other writers have achieved a better life/work balance. I’m still a slow writer even though writing daily on Medium made me more efficient. I’m also extremely motivated to submit a great manuscript. I have read about 50 books for Your Creative Career inspiration, numerous articles, blog posts and have conducted interviews. I feel like my passion took over a bit too much here so when I write my next book, I’ll make sure my schedule is more manageable.

When do you write on Medium? Do you feel like you have to squeeze it in?

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