My routine, such as it is.
I'm a chaotic sort, and random happenstance can mess this up at a moment's notice. But this is generally what I do every day before I sit down and write something.
My alleged waking time is 5:30AM, so of course I start the day by randomly waking up anywhere between half an hour or three hours before that because my dreams are generally the sort of thing that wake me up with random and completely illogical crap.
Depending on how much time I have, I either snuggle with Beloved or browse my phone before the dulcet tones of One Way Ticket by Steam Powered Giraffe means that I finally have to get out of bed. For the record, I have been gassing about getting up in the wee small hours and working on fanfic, but that's quickly gone nowhere since my fluffy dressing gown went walkabout.
Once my alarm goes off, I mutter, "Shut up, Rabbit," and whine about not wanting to get up [on weekends, I lie in until lying down is outright uncomfortable] before I force myself upright for morning ablutions.
Which includes shouting my little darlings out of bed, then "all the way out of bed" and then "all the way" out of their rooms to get ready for the day. We're not morning people.
I threaten them with battle, war, and sudden death if they haven't at least had breakfast by the time I get back from my morning walk, and then walk a figure-eight around two blocks before returning home to find that, once again, Mayhem is ensconced in the dunny and Chaos is watching cartoons in her pyjamas.
Order is somehow wrangled out of this, the kids get their lunches packed, clothes on, breakfasts eaten, hair done, and shoes both found and on their feet. Which is when I usually sit and faff around on the interwebs for a bit.
If Beloved is home, they take the darlings to school, leaving me full time to concentrate on breakfast/meds/blogging/writing as is appropriate.
The regime there usually goes like this (plus frequent interruptions, mind):
- Pills plus 500ml water
- Breakfast and beverage of choice
- Reading or watching random stuff whilst ingesting these
The third point in that list is what I think of as "osmosis research". I just read about interesting things and anything that sticks in my head can be regurgitated for the awe of many. I am a writer. I research this shit for fun.
Thanks to the general chaos of the morning, I usually don't break my fast much before 8AM unless I am really, really hungry.
After I have a full stomach, I turn on my music [currently trying to get all my musics to the same play count 9_9] and start blog entries like this one about whatever random crap I feel like sharing. Then it's on to the daily story.
I read and copy the prompt into a new post, then I faff around on Tumblr for five to ten minutes while I get an idea. Sometimes it takes zero minutes to get an idea, but five to ten of faffing guarantees one. The story of the day can be interrupted by research, phone calls, or fuzzy brain moments. The last of those is cured by more faffing about.
Then it's posting and advertising and copy-pasting onto both the master file and this year's anthology before I dial up my book or other WIP [if it's my technical week off] to write until I either get to my word count or I run out of ideas.
With fanfic - running out of ideas is not a problem. With my books... I have to make the word count, so it's either faffing around on Tumblr again or faffing around in Minecraft. Days when the words fight me are especially minecrafty, because I reward myself at hundred-word milestones with more Minecraftyness.
It can take anywhere between half an hour to FOUR FIRKIN HOURS to get my word counts done.
Then I am free to do as I whist. Usually in the form of more osmosis research, Minecraft, or watching random shit on the TV. Sometimes, shopping happens. Then it's time to collect the kids and arrange dinner.
And speaking of, I need to go put something in the slow cooker because I derped and nearly forgot again.