E.S. Raye

I first spoke on this topic nearly a year and a half ago, and in that time, quite a bit has changed–while a lot hasn’t–so I thought I might revisit it.

I’ll start by saying this isn’t actually my daily routine. I do freelance marketing writing for a living and I also dedicate a substantial amount of time to maintaining this website and blog, my newsletter, and Perseid Prophecies. So really, this is my routine for the days I am lucky enough to have an entire day to dedicate to writing.

9:00 AM: Wake Up

This tends to be true even on the days I’m doing my freelance work. I’m a night owl, have no children, and I work from home and make my own hours, so I tend to go to bed late and get up around 9:00.

Then it’s a time for breakfast and a cup of coffee before…

10:00 AM: Dog Time

Once breakfast is done, I generally take my dogs for a walk. Well, truth be told, they demands we go for that walk. But it’s a nice way to clear my brain of any sleepy fog that may be lingering after that first cup of coffee.

My Frenchie, Siggy, is now ten (a fact I prefer to think about as little as possible), and is half the size of my three year old mutt Cosmo, so she gets dropped off after one lap of our route, and Cosmo and I go for a second.

When we get home, they get their breakfast, and we’re ready to head to my basement office.

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Get to Work

Depending on the season and the weather, I may take a quick shower after the dogs’ breakfast, but regardless, I’m usually sitting down at my desk with another cup of coffee sometime during the 11 o’clock hour.

I’ll admit, this can be the most difficult part of my writing day; the distractions are aplenty (although not from the dogs–at this point, they get comfortable and usually nap for the early afternoon).

I often struggle to get started and get sidetracked with social media and news/current events. The thing that tends gets me moving is putting on a Spotify playlist–usually instrumental, as I find anything with lyrics distracting.

But getting my brain to actually put on the playlist can be a fight. I need to figure out how to automate it…

1:00 – 2:00 PM: Lunch

After a few hours of work, I’ll break for a somewhat late lunch. The dogs and I will rise up from the basement, they get a pee break, and I get something on the stove or in the oven.

2:00ish PM: Back to Work

After lunch is my real crunch time. I find I get the most–and, in my opinion, often the best–work done after I’ve eaten. This is especially true if I was able to get a good foundation for the day started in my morning session.

Even days where I had a slow start, momentum tends to pick up wildly after lunch. I find I write most effectively and efficiently in the afternoon.

I’ll ride that momentum into the early evening.

5:00ish PM: Cosmo’s 2nd Walk

The time of day I wrap up my writing efforts varies. I tend to aim for a word goal of about 2,000/day. Some days I write much more, others I write substantially less. But, Cosmo doesn’t care all that much about my writer problems.

In fact, he starts looking at me wantingly while turning circles on the office rug at about 4:00 or 4:30. I can usually get him to lay back down until 5:00. If I’m on a roll, I can sometimes convince him to give me even a little more time–but he can be a demanding fellow.

On the other hand, if the day’s work has been a struggle, Cosmo’s insistence on his evening walk can be the excuse I need to step away from the keyboard for the day.

That said, I still find our evening walk to be extremely valuable “writing” time. I’m usually still in writer mode as we head out, and I use the time to plan for the next day or mull over any problems that I ran into. (Siggy, being much smaller and getting on in years, stays home for this second walk).

I’ve filled more than one plot hole on this evening outing, especially in the darkness and gently falling snow of a Canadian winter.

6:00 PM: Dinner and Chores

This tends to be my busiest non-writing time of day. When Cosmo and I get home from his second walk, both dogs get their dinners. After that, since I work from home while my wife Jessie doesn’t (and in fact, has a fairly long commute and hours that can change from day to day), a lot of the household work and cooking falls to me.

7:00-11:30 PM: Grab Bag Time

Jessie works in film and television, so her exact position and hours can change drastically from one project to the next. But, for now, she’s been getting home between 7:00 and 7:30 PM. We grab what quality time we can get, and then she goes to bed around 8:00 or 9:00, usually taking one or both of the dogs with her.

And I am left to my own devices for the night.

I play recreational hockey a couple of times a week, and as a goalie, I can be called upon randomly to fill in for someone who can’t make their game, due to injury, illness, or whatever. I’m basically on-call and rarely turn down free hockey.

But, on the nights I’m not playing, this is time I find uniquely useful for my writing life, if sometimes in unconventional ways.

On occasion, especially if I had been really humming along during the day–or if I’m on a deadline–I will return to the office to get some more words in. But more often than that, this is my time to consume stories.

If I’m in the research phase of a project, I’ll watch documentaries or movies in the genre I’m working in. I take copious notes on facts, character traits, tropes, and much more. This is one of my favorite parts of writing, even if it’s sometimes hard to convince myself that this is technically work, and therefore important, so I shouldn’t feel guilty about doing it.

Other times, I use this block of me-time to game. I’m hardly a “hardcore gamer,” but I have found that video games play an important role in my mental well-being. I enter that coveted “flow state” in only three places: my writing desk, at the hockey rink, and with a game controller in my hand.

No matter where it happens, that flow state quiets my mind in a way that doesn’t happen any other time. But gaming in particular helps me solve problems with writing project I’m working on more than anything else does.

At the desk, the problems can feel too big, and actually prevent the flow state. The physicality of hockey and the focus my position requires doesn’t allow for much mind-wandering.

But gaming does something special to my brain, and allows it to process things in the background as I play. I’ll often have to pause to write some epiphany I’ve had down on a post-it or notebook. Like the evening walks with Cosmo, gaming helps me solve writing problems I didn’t even know I had.

11:30 PM: Bed Time with a Book

Once the dogs have been taken out one final time, I head for bed, usually with whatever book I’ve been reading.

Reading is an important part of being a writer, and has been a major part of my entire life. And while I may not read as much as some people (seriously, how do people read 100+ books in a year?!), I do aim for one or so a month.

I give myself between and hour and an hour and a half of reading time before turning in for the night, usually around 12:30 or 1:00.

And then, in the best of weeks, I get to do it all over again the next day.

So, that’s what most of my writing days looks like. Obviously this won’t work for everyone. People with 9-to-5s–whether at home or in an office–and those with children, have their own responsibilities to take care of. And honestly, I am in awe of those that juggle all of those things–I often feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to do all the things I need to, and I don’t have to deal with the rigors of parenthood and a formal work structure.

Right now, this only represents a fraction of my days. I am lucky enough to be able to make my own hours for the marketing portion of my career, but it still takes up more of my time than I would prefer. But, I’m working on that, and hopefully, one day, this will be my every day schedule.