Is this what you imagined a writer does all day?

5am Creep downstairs into home office.

Post tweets and other social media activities like writing Facebook posts, a blog post and responding to reader communications via email/messages.

6.45am: Get the family up, fed, and out the door for school. Hubby can stay.

8am: Marketing—research or activities like writing newsletters or updating my website.

9am: Admin from paying bills and answering emails, to discussing book cover creative with designer, character drawings with illustrator, or researching images on istock for posts and website. Also creating images for social media posts or adverts.

10.15am Write an episode of Payback—either first draft or edit yesterday’s. If none to write as I only write two per week, work on novel and right now they're done and waiting to be published end of April.

12pm-3pm Work on novel. I have a writer’s room (see photo) where I work on my laptop which has no access to emails, unlike my office-based PC. Phone is on airplane mode. NO INTERRUPTIONS. I like to listen to opera while I write. It also drowns out outside noise/activities.

3pm Kids home from school. Have a chat and bite to eat with them (lol—I originally wrote “bite them”, but then it is 11.01pm).

3-5pm Juggle time. If taking a child to a sports activity, when I get there, I check all social media platforms for questions, comments and also interact on other’s pages. I love my iPad for this. Also listen to podcasts about social media marketing, editing, writing and more. If I’m at home I do the social media check and sometimes continue with the novel. I’ve been known to type chapters of my novel in the front seat of my car, laptop propped against steering wheel, while son runs laps at the track.

5-7.30pm Cooking dinner, family time at the dinner table, play board games or watch a family show.

7.30pm-8pm Family reading time. We all read together – on one bed. Yes the four of us.

8pm-11pm and sometimes closer to 1am. Due to work and sport commitments, hubby is away 4 nights per week so I keep at it. Depending on how the day’s gone, I either work on Payback or The Sassy Series, answer emails, check social media again, and read someone else’s novel—published or unpublished. This is my main time for critiquing my writer’s group work—I have a local writer’s group, plus 4 online beta readers who I exchange work with.

If hubby is home, he likes to relax in front of the TV. Got to admit my head is usually solving that pace issue in chapter 7, or contemplating the latest book cover design suggestions, or composing some tweets, rather than on the TV show. Hubby says I even ‘tweet’ in my sleep.

Being a writer today is a 20 hour a day job! But it’s crazy exciting and fulfilling. And yes it’s true—when I can’t write due to holidays or appointments, I do miss my characters.