Do you write full-time?
If you’re asking whether I write full-time for my primary income, no. I work in a corporate business position, and have done so since my late teens; that is my primary source of income.
However, most authors — including me — define “writer” as someone who writes. It isn’t necessary to do it full-time, or to have it be your primary income or career. In addition, I am open with family, friends, and co-workers about the fact that I freelance as a creative writer outside of working hours.
As a matter of fact, the vast majority of creative writers don’t write full-time or use it as their primary income. I’m a little unusual in that my income-producing job isn’t writing-adjacent (such as editing or teaching), but that doesn’t mean I’m not a writer in real life. Writing ability is a valuable skill across all career fields.
How much time do you spend writing each week?
My goal is 7-10 hours per week. I primarily write in the early mornings before I sign on to my corporate position. It takes some discipline and practice, but I’ve successfully kept this schedule since 2011. I’m lucky enough to be able to work from home in the corporate position, so I don’t lose time commuting, and that makes a big difference. I also usually write on at least one of the weekend days, if not both.
By the time I sign off of my corporate position in the evening, my brain is usually too full and distracted to be truly creative. I also schedule most of my personal activities in the evening. That said, I do a good bit of my editing and rewriting in the evenings, and I don’t shy away from writing then if things work out that way.
How long does it take you to write a novel and/or a short story?
My writing process heavily emphasizes prewriting and outlining. That can take me a while. Once I actually start writing, though, I’m usually fairly fast.
I set my word count goals between 200,000 and 250,000 each calendar year. Since I tend to rewrite instead of editing, that leads to between 50,000 and 100,000 words of actual publishable work in a year, which roughly translates to one novel-length work, one or two novellas, and/or a few short stories.
That’s not the most prolific pace in the world, and it’s not at all unheard-of for me to take a year or two to get longer projects from conception to submission-ready; because of this, I always write on spec. As long as I’m keeping up the word count, I’m satisfied with my progress.