People who find out that I am a writer, will quickly ask about my routine. When it is that I fit writing into my schedule? Am I an early bird or a night owl? I have always found it a tricky question to answer, as of course there are so many variables in any given week.

In the last week and a half, I’ve had a bout of sickness which left me sneezing, headachy and feeling completely miserable. The week culminated in South-East Queensland being gripped by Cyclone watch as we prepared for Cyclone Alfred. Cyclone Alfred was big news given that Brisbane hasn’t experienced many Cyclones crossing the coast and even those that were considered “near misses” caused quite extensive flooding and damage.

Shops were bare, news sites and the television were bombarding us with tips to prepare for the cyclone and constant updates with ever changing forecasts of exactly when Alfred was expected to cross the coast. It was stressful and as much as I would have loved to have the energy to write (I love writing when it is rainy outside) the idea of picking up a pen or sitting at my computer was far from my mind.

I live in Brisbane and was fortunate not to have too much upheaval in my life and unlike a lot of people I know, didn’t have to contend with power outages. I sat back, still trying to recover from my illness, and life went on. Throughout the time, as much as I wanted to be seated in front of my computer and transported into my own little world, I did not have the energy or the concentration to focus on writing. My mind was plagued with worry for friends and family (and complete strangers) caught up in high winds, flooding and extended power outages, marvelling at those who risk their lives to brave the elements to assist those in need and watching the endless videos from both news and social media that were doing the rounds.

While frustrating, it is okay not to be writing. Life will get in the way. Life is messy. It’s simply how it is. For me, the key is to forgive myself for the times I don’t manage to get any writing done, despite my plans and intentions. And remembering that although I may not be actively writing, either by hand or by furiously typing away at the keyboard, I can still be working on my writing. A lot of thought and planning can go into stories. Research can take you down quite a few rabbit holes and compiling the list of just what it is that needs to be researched in the first place, is a valuable use of time. You can’t be writing 100% of the time and shouldn’t be doing so. And I will never think of writing as a chore. It is something I love, have always loved.

I like to write of a morning, after breakfast and once I’ve completed my morning journal. On workdays, it feels like I can start the day with my own sense of achievement if I get further along with my edits or adding another scene to a draft. I then go to work and wait until lunchtime where I can switch out of work mode and dive into my story once more. Those I work with know that I am a writer and are well accustomed to seeing me scribbling in a notebook or speed typing into an app on my phone. They are also generally lovely and considerate enough not to interrupt me during those writing sessions. Although, when writing in public you do have to accept that at times you will be interrupted.

When home, I like to exercise and tend to use the treadmill time for a chance to catch up on reading (yes, audio books or even E-books are possible to read on a treadmill, I haven’t mastered reading from a standard book while briskly walking as the font size is generally not agreeable).

After dinner, if the day hasn’t left me feeling like my brain has dribbled out of my ears and slunk off to hide in a corner, I will sit either in front of my computer in my writing room or grab my laptop and join my husband on the couch to continue my work. Couch writing, as I call it, tends to only work for me when working on first drafts or researching. It can be particularly useful when writing scenes where the main character is being distracted by her own environment. As much as writing is a solitary practice, I do value the times when I can be close to my husband and he is quite happy for me to be sitting on the couch beside him, typing away and occasionally muttering random words or asking him for an opinion.

My most valuable writing days are of course the weekend. Work is done for the week and apart from grocery shopping and housework, I can slot in at least one day of solid writing time.

This is what works for me and may or may not work for you. Please don’t feel like you are expected to withdraw from your social life and lock yourself into a room in order to be a writer. Although entering your own space where you can control the atmosphere is indeed useful, it doesn’t mean that you can’t write in other environments. I think it can be incredibly useful to challenge yourself to write in different settings. I’ve written in coffee shops, on a couch in a shopping centre while waiting for a friend to finish a hair appointment, on public transport (train is far easier for me than on a bus, which does tend to give me motion sickness), while sitting around Uni and waiting for a lecture to start. I like to take advantage of using as much “free” time as I am given and have never worried about looking odd while writing in public.

Make time to write. 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there. The time will add up and you will be surprised at how far you can go.