A Usual Day in the Life of the Romance Author

I was chatting in my Facebook Readers' Group tonight and thought that I would cross-post here at the blog.

Writing can be hard work, and chatting like in groups like the Babylon group keeps me going.

So, what's an author's day like?

Just as a measure, I typed +2924 words today, which came out to about 1.5 scene-chapters. I think the "book" (Arthur's book, Stiff Drink) is 145,000 words so far, and I'm not at the end yet. I may have to publish this as a "duet," two books, maybe 3.

I'm at the point where everything is clear in the book, all the motivations and backgrounds and underlying stories, and I'm going back and making things clear. I probably added/subtracted words to 10 scenes today, maybe more.

About 3K words is a good day for me. Rarely, I can get more than 5000 words, but I have to really know where and how it's going. Some days I only get a few hundred due to other things.

I took a few hours off to run to the grocery and booze store, homeschooling my 12-yo kid and being the mom, and talking to an author friend who was having some problems. I faffed around on Facebook for a while, talking about the publishing industry and chatting with other authors about going to the national RWA conference in Florida this summer.

Other than that, I typed and edited most of the day. I started before 8 AM. It's almost midnight, and I'm going up to shower before I crash and start it all over again.

Good night, all. See you on the flip side.