Writer Wednesday: A Day in My Writing Life

Over the weekend, I stopped by The Selkie Reads Stories as part of my blog tour for The Disappearing Girl to talk about a day in my writing life. Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a $75 Amazon.com gift card going on now through June 28. 

A Day in My Writing Life

Would you like to be privy to the glamour of my writing life? Here is an average day in the life of Heather Topham Wood:

My boys wake me up around seven in the morning. My husband has already been gone for an hour and my three-year-old has probably snuck into our bed at some point during the night. After throwing on the first thing I find in my closet, I get the boys ready for school and we eat breakfast together.

After the bus picks up my kindergartener, I drive my youngest son to preschool. Preschool only goes to 11:30, so I make a mad dash back home to try and fit in as much writing as possible.

I open up my latest work in progress in Word, but then decide to check my email/Facebook/Twitter/Goodreads/Amazon/Blogger accounts first. I look at the clock and realize an hour has gone by and I haven’t written a single word. I mentally berate myself and settle into writing.

I’m right in the middle of writing a steamy love scene when I realize that I have to leave that second if I don’t want to be late to pick up my preschooler. I was a minute late once and the scene he caused was not pretty. I’m well aware of who wears the pants in our relationship.

I pick up my little guy and we go out to lunch. If I’m lucky, I can get him all amped up at the park and he’ll be tired enough to take an afternoon nap and let me sneak in some more writing until my older son’s bus drops him off. On a good day, I can finish at least a chapter. On a bad day, I write a few pages of crap that I’ll most likely delete during the editing process.

Most nights, I try to avoid work to spend time with the family, but sometimes it’s unavoidable and I’ll stay up until the wee hours to finish while my husband puts the boys to bed. I usually collapse into bed, but I often try to read a little off of my Kindle before I pass out.

So, there’s my usual day. With the summer coming, it will of course change with the boys home all day, but my husband and I usually work out a schedule so I have plenty of time to write.