Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  On Writing

What Is A Weekend?

June 8, 2024 /

A Great Question That Applies to Professional Writers…

Kris and I honestly at times don’t know what day of the week it is. For example, tonight, on the way home from the Aces’s game, we ran into a bunch of traffic right near the Art’s District near where we live. Neither one of us could figure out what was going on until finally Kris said, “Oh, it’s first Friday.”

First Friday of every month there is a massive arts’ fair in the downtown area. Even though earlier we had done a normal Friday lunch with writers and I had done a webinar that is always late Friday, neither of our brains associate with a day of the week.

Why? Because to us, every day is a writing day. A publishing day.

Now granted, we do not have children or have had real day jobs since the late 1980s. Those are the kind of things that hammer home what day of the week it might be.

Should we take days off? I’m sure we should, but unless exhaustion tells us to, we tend to not do that.

Tomorrow is Saturday. Kris will get up, do her breakfast routine and be in her office writing around her normal time. I will still be sleeping. Kris does this seven days a week, week after week, and gets annoyed if something breaks into her writing time, Monday or Saturday.

I do know some long-term professional writers who had kids who managed to create a five-day-a-week writing schedule. But they were rare and none that I know personally are still around.

Writing is like any other art form. It is consuming and doesn’t much care about clocks.

So one thing to work for is that kind of freedom. When your writing is paying the bills, amazing how much fun it is to do seven days a week.

And one day you also might find yourself joking with the question, “What’s a weekend?”

 

10 Comments

  • Vincent Zandri

    June 8, 2024 at 5:34 am

    Too true Dean. I write 7 days a week. Not because it’s my job but because I love it. I only take time off if I’m flying a long haul flight to some crazy destination for an adventure. Curiously I don’t write and rarely read on planes and trains, preferring to think and/or sleep.

    • dwsmith

      June 8, 2024 at 2:42 pm

      I used to be that way as well, Vincent. Then I stopped even traveling. And I also do this seven days a week, or as Michael pointed out, 365 a year (I know, what is this year thing I talk about? (grin)) because it is who I am. Really that simple and fun.

    • dwsmith

      June 8, 2024 at 2:40 pm

      LOL!!!! Spot on the money.

      And anyone not a full-time writer will not even understand that.

  • T Thorn Coyle

    June 8, 2024 at 8:05 am

    Yep. The only reason I know what day it is is because of other members in my household.
    I also never know when holidays are because I don’t celebrate any of them and just work! 🙂

    One reason I like working for myself 7 days a week is that if I’m having a blah day, or only work a couple of hours, it’s no big deal. It gives me a ton of flexibility to do what I want.

  • Brian Thomas Woods

    June 8, 2024 at 2:58 pm

    I always know when it is Sunday night. The Great Challenge is due!

    So, if you want to remember what day it is all you have to do is sign up for a course or a challenge.
    🙂

  • Kate Pavelle

    June 9, 2024 at 3:07 pm

    Weekend is the time you might see your adult children, who work traditional jobs. You ask them to help you move furniture around while catching up, then you feed them. When they go, you catch up on writing while it’s your spouse’s turn to cook dinner.
    Weekend is also when you avoid the parks, where the biking trails resemble a Mad Max action scene.
    Beware of the weekends.