A Day in the Life of Two Authors

Being a writer sounds like it would be such a fun, easy way to make a living. You get to lounge around all day, writing whatever you feel like until your book is finished. Then you go get it published, and bam! You start making lots of money and get to travel all over doing meet and greets, book signings, and guest visits to different places. So why doesn’t everyone become a writer? Well, once you decide to buckle down and do it, you realize that being a writer can be horribly difficult.

I recently had the chance to ask two authors, Kate Devlin and Kara Griffin, what it’s like to be a writer and what their typical writing days look like. I was surprised to note how different their days were in terms of when they do their writing and how they buckle down and get to work.

Kara’s writing day “starts at 6pm when I get home from my day job.” She has a set routine once she sits down at her desk: “I usually check various sites to see if I need to respond to anything. I then open up my latest work-in-progress and either continue on or research anything that needs to be looked at before I move on in the book.”  On the weekends, Kara focuses on more than just her writing: “I typically join in on author chats or promotional opportunities.”

There is a very marked difference between Kara’s typical writing day and Kate’s. Kate told me “I’m up as early as possible. I get coffee, let the dogs out and back in and sit at my computer. The best three hours of my writing day happen in the morning, those three or four hours before the rest of the world is awake.” She also sets a daily word goal of three thousand words. “If I finish those in the morning, great! If not, I work until I do, between the commitments of the day.”

Along with having differing writing schedules, the two authors have differing outlooks on what it’s like to be an author. For Kate, “To be published is a kick in the pants! But to be honest, I’d have to say I’m a writer, even if no one ever read my work.” Kara told me that for her, “Connecting with readers is the best thing about writing. Being an author allows me to have creative freedom and to explore my imagination.”

The last part of Kara and Kate’s typical writing days are the use of music. Kara uses music through her entire writing process, both as inspiration and background noise. To her, “Music is an important tool when I’m writing. I need background noise to write. I will often listen to various genres when writing from classical to hard rock.” Kate is the complete opposite. Music is beneficial to her, but she “cannot listen as I’m writing. Beforehand, sure! If I am having trouble with a scene or a character, I listen to the music they inspire and the words come.”

Hopefully this will give all potential authors out there a glimpse of what a typical day in the life of an author is like. Don’t let it daunt you though, for everyone is different. If it’s your dream to write a book, then go write it and find out what your typical writing day is like.