Over the years I have taken the need to create from hobby, to full time obsession. It has not taken off enough to become a career yet, but that goal is still within reach. In order to get content written and polished in a timely manner, I have had to turn this into a strict regimen, instead of the occasional half-hearted attempt once every few weeks. At the current time, I have published two full length novels, a large handful of short stories, and have a rough draft of a young adult, fantasy, trilogy. All this writing was completed while working a full time job, but still has taken me over 4 years to get this far.

I had to squeeze in time where I could. This means I’m not caught up on any of the new shows, in fact I’m still on season two of Game of Thrones and have yet to finish the second season of Tiger King. I also don’t play video games as often as I used to or draw as much, as all my creativity is poured into writing.

When I started taking the writing process seriously I tried writing during different times of the day. Through experimentation I have found early mornings provide the most productive word counts for me. I have tried to write when I got home from work, but I was usually so mentally drained, or frustrated with the day that I ended up wasting valuable time only to get a little bit of actual writing done. This in turn would snowball and I would have less desire to write. Besides, the peaceful silence of early mornings have always been a time of relaxation for me and I have almost always been an early riser. Most people are not up at this time which lends fewer distractions for someone whose attention is easily diverted. To help block out the tiniest noises that may distract me, I put on headphones and listen to instrumental music. Then I close myself off at my desk and get lost in another world. I know there are people that thrive in the busy coffee shop environment, and if that works for them, great, but that much noise, and constant movement is too chaotic for me to focus.

I found my groove by getting up even earlier than normal at 4:30 or 5am and writing for an hour or hour and a half before heading off to the paying job. But as I started to analyze my progress, I noticed that for the first 20 to 30 minutes, my fingers and thoughts were so clumsy it was like I was typing with mittens on. If I could squeeze in a little more time, I could be even more productive. It was then I started setting my alarm for 4am. Which means I’m in bed at the godawful early time of 8 or 9pm. Most nights before I go to sleep I fill the coffee pot and set it to start brewing at 3:50, so all I have to do is stumble into the kitchen, get my coffee then shamble back to the desk and start writing. Granted it usually takes the first cup of strong java to get the gears rolling enough to comprehend what I am writing about, but once the train starts rolling down that track it’s difficult to stop it. With this routine and being persistent with it, I have managed to write a lot in a relatively short time.

Now my evenings are typically reserved for most of the marketing duties, such as posting on social media, making videos for TikTok, or working on the website and making sure it is acting the way I want it to. I also spend this time learning about marketing methods, or reading books and articles that help to figure out how to sell more of my writing. There is a lot of work in making writing a career as I have learned. In the early days, I mistakenly thought all one had to focus on was writing, but the reality is, you turn yourself into an entrepreneur and CEO of all things book related.