Day in the Life of Michelle Douglas

When I’m writing the first draft of a book, routine helps me get into the zone. Routine doesn’t allow room for those, “Oh, but I don’t feel like writing today” thoughts. Routine is my boot camp instructor that hollers: Wake up! Get up! Go write!

Ooh, sounds grim and dreadful, doesn’t it? Despite how it sounds, though, my routine isn’t severe and arduous... it’s just non-negotiable. I wake at 7am – to a cup of tea in bed care of my dear husband (wonderful man!). At this time of the morning my boot camp instructor whispers rather than hollers encouragement. But, I must be at my desk by 8am. From 8am to 11am, Monday to Friday, I write. Three hours. Non-negotiable. Barring family dramas, of course, and appointments made so far in advance I feel guilty about canceling them. I don’t answer the phone. I don’t answer the door. I don’t turn my computer on and check my email. My family and friends know this routine. Nobody who knows me tries to contact me before 11am (thought the phone will often ring at 11:01).

The rest of my day is far more flexible. I’ll even answer phones and doors now, and check my email. As I write longhand – I seem to use a different part of my brain for writing and typing – at some stage before I go to bed, I must type up my morning’s work. Three hours of writing often equates to two hours worth of typing and is my first rough edit. Even given the fact that I now answer phones and doors, check my email and read other authors blogs, my writing day is generally over by 4pm when I go for a big, fat forty-minute walk to put oxygen back into my brain cells and recharge the batteries so I can do it all again tomorrow.

The evenings are spent slothing in front of the television with a glass of red wine before retiring to bed with one of the books from my teetering to-be-read pile.