A Writer's Tale

Two or three times a week, I take a four-mile hike after I finish my morning read.

At around 8:30 or 9:30 a.m. (mostly depending on whether I take a walk that day), I go up to my office above my backyard garage and start working.

Usually, the work involves writing a novel.

I begin by reading and revising the pages (on my computer screen) that I wrote on the previous day. This not only gives me a chance to repair any sloppy writing, but it pulls me back into the story. When I reach the end of yesterday’s pages, it’s usually a simple matter to write the next sentence, and the next, and just keep going.

Usually, I write until about 11:30. Then I go into the house for lunch. We may watch half an hour of television while we eat. Then I may read for half an hour, or take a quick nap.

At about 12:30, I return to the office. To get started again, I read the last couple of pages written that morning. Then I resume writing and continue until about 3:30 p.m.

That’s the end of the day’s writing.

It usually adds up to about five hours.

My minimum goal for a day of writing is five manuscript pages. It doesn’t always happen.

If a story is going really well, however, I might write eight to ten pages in a single day.

I usually don’t push it. (And I like to quit when I still know what’s supposed to happen next.)

When I’m done with writing for the day, I return to the house, sit down in my armchair with a beer and a novel and stay there until about 5:00 p.m., when we eat supper.

Ever since the invention of the VCR, we have eaten our supper in the living room and watched a tape of the previous night’s David Letterman show. When we can’t watch Dave (after all, he’s only on five nights a week) we usually watch news shows.

After dinner and Dave, I spend most of my time reading until we settle down to some serious TV watching at either 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. We usually watch TV (network shows, cable, movie rentals, news, whatever) until about midnight.

That’s a typical day.

It involves about five hours of writing, at least five hours of reading (mostly fiction), and about four hours of watching television shows or films.

Naturally, every day isn’t like that.

At least one day each week, we go off on a shopping trip of some kind (to buy office supplies, a new lamp, new paint for the porch, or whatever) and usually have lunch on the road. At least once a week, we go out to a movie. On Sundays, we have our “traditional breakfast” and I usually don’t start writing until about noon. And I sometimes lose a morning of work because I need to run errands: get the car washed, get a haircut, go to the bank or post office or dentist.

Every so often, an entire day or two goes by without a ‘word being written by me. This might happen if I need to read and correct proofs, if I have a book signing, if we go to the County Fair or Disneyland, if we attend a convention or go off on some other sort of small excursion.

The schedule gets thrown out the window completely whenever we go on a major trip.

We might go away for a week, or even three weeks at a time. During those periods, I usually manage to get a bit of reading done, but I don’t write at all. Except to take notes.

Some of my best ideas come while we’re traveling.

If we go on a long trip before I’ve finished a novel, getting started again after returning home can be extremely difficult. Once or twice, I’ve actually been unable to do it, and have gone on to a different project. Usually, however, I can get back into a novel by rereading the entire manuscript. It’s much better to finish a “novel in progress” before leaving home for any significant period of time.

Also before embarking, a professional novelist will almost certainly have to deal with “page proofs.” Publishers seem to have a psychic awareness of every writer’s approaching trip.

They may have been in possession of the manuscript for a year or longer, but they carefully time the galleys to arrive at the writer’s door just a day or two before he is scheduled to depart. He then finds himself in a mad rush to reread his entire book, mark every mistake, send off the corrections and finish packing.

You see, a writer’s life is more than writing.

Among other things, it includes all the chores that surround the creation of a novel.

I not only frequent bookstores, but I’m also a regular visitor to office supply stores, my local photocopy shop, and the post office. I also spend a lot of time at computer stores, replacing and updating my equipment.

If you’re a writer, you don’t need to be on the internet.

But you really should have a good computer and printer. (A fax machine speeds up communication with agents and publishers, but is hardly essential.) You must also have a big supply of ink and paper and envelopes and mailing boxes.

Thus, you are regularly forced to take breaks in the writing schedule (whether you want them or not) to deal with the somewhat prosaic matters involved in maintaining a workable office.

There are a lot of necessary interruptions.