Q. How Much Do You Write Every Day?

Q. How much do you write every day?   Do you have set hours to keep yourself disciplined?

A. I always secretly cringe at these questions because I suspect my answer makes me sound sort of pathetic or crazy, but here goes:

Normally, I write all day.  I wake up, take a shower, and start writing.  I stop for breakfast when I’m hungry, and then I write.  I stop for lunch, then write.  I stop for a walk, then write.  My family comes home and we eat dinner, and then I write until I have to go to bed.  I try to stop by nine or ten, but often don’t succeed.  I try to write less on weekends, but often don’t succeed there, either.

I take breaks for email, answering interview questions, and writing blog posts, unless you count that as writing, too.

There are some exceptions.  Most of my writing is revising, which I love, so I can do it endlessly, but when I’m working on first drafts, which are hard for me, I set myself a five-page daily minimum.  If I can finish my five pages by 3:00 in the afternoon, I’ll knock off then, but if it takes me until 10:00 p.m., I write until then.  Months of that are not as fun for me, but I usually do my reading then, too, to lighten things up.

Of course, I also put writing on hold for normal things, like seeing movies and singing in a chorus and going to my son’s school events.  But I suppose, if I had to count it up, I probably normally write 10+ hours a day.  So, no, I don’t have set hours, since I write whenever I can.  I’m not a particularly fast or prolific writer, and that’s what works for me.

I should add that, apart from spending time with my family, writing gives me more intense mental satisfaction than anything else I know.  It’s the puzzle I both solve and invent, every time I enter into it.  I want to be writing all the time, and I feel lucky that I get to do so.  Tennessee Williams is the one who said that the ticking of the clock is “loss, loss, loss” for the artist who isn’t at his craft.  I feel like he was speaking to me, because for me, each minute writing is one fully lived.