Who Needs Sleep?

One of the biggest challenges I've had since I began seriously writing is finding a work/writing/personal life balance. There truly aren't enough hours in the day. I get up at 6:00 a.m. to get ready for the day ahead. I arrive at my full time job at 8:00 a.m. and don't leave until after 5:00 p.m. unless I take a lunch hour. Then it's home to do my family time. Once I've made sure everyone is fed and settled into their evening routines (usually around 8:00 p.m.) I get on my laptop and write/research until 11:00 or 12:00. On Saturday and Sunday I'm hard pressed to do anything other than write.

During a normal work week I try to write about two thousand words per evening and another five thousand on the weekend. I wish I could do more but until I have the luxury of becoming a full time writer this will have to do. I've been told it's not a bad start and I cling to that knowledge on days when I feel like a slacker for not meeting my goal.

One saving grace in all of this has been finally dealing with a long standing problem of procrastination. Now I don't put stuff off at work or at home. At work I deal with projects as they come in so they don't sit on my desk for more than 24 hours. At home I do a load of laundry almost every night so that I'm not face with a mountain of laundry on Saturday mornings. I also check my social networking sites daily to stay on top of what's happening in the publishing world. I tweet, I post on facebook and of course I blog.

Basically I spend 80 percent or more of my time writing and reading. For as frantic and chaotic as that may sound to others I'm thriving. I love writing and everything involved with the writing process. I love communicating with other writers and knowing I'm not alone in the universe. I love researching new characters/locales. I'm even learning to love the editing process. So again I ask, who needs sleep?
~Elle
Chief Erotic Officer