A Day in the Life of an Author (and Mother): A Guest Post by Christine Meade
I’m on maternity leave! During this time, a few of my favorite authors offered to step up and write guest posts so that this blog would remain active while I adjust to my new role as a mother. I may also be a bit slower to respond. Thanks for understanding and for being so supportive of me, my family, and my blog. Want to donate a few dollars to keep this blog running or perhaps contribute to my diaper fund? You can do so on Venmo or Paypal.
A Day in the Life of an Author (and Mother): A Guest Post by Christine Meade
When does my day truly begin? Who’s to say. It could be sometime around 3 a.m. when I hear my four-month-old snorting around in the bassinet next to me, looking for a late-night snack. Maybe it’s at 6:15 a.m. when my alarm goes off at a time I promised myself I’d get up to do yoga, which I promptly snooze. It could be at 7 a.m. when I hear my toddler hollering my name through the monitor (he somehow managed to take off his pants and diaper before I am able to make it in there) or it could be 7:15 a.m. when I hear my teenage stepdaughter sleepily dragging herself out of the house to make it to school on time.
But each morning, it feels like my day truly begins when I sit down at my desk, alone, a cup of coffee beside me, a notebook to my right, and a piney-scented candle to my left. Bonus points for moody, rainy weather outside my window. Those days are the best for writing. The--albeit brief--time I get each day to dedicate to my own creative pursuits is often a highlight, space I took for granted in the before times of becoming a mother. When I open up Scrivener and see the last words I typed out for my new novel project the previous day, I feel like I’m cozying up next to a friend I’ve been dying to catch up with.
Many aspiring writers believe they can only be writers if they dedicate whole entire swaths of days, luxurious stretches of hours to writing, but let’s be serious—who has that kind of time? Certainly, it couldn’t be done while mothering or working a full-time job, they say. But all you need is thirty-uninterrupted minutes each day, I remind them. One beautiful hour. All those small chunks of writing time add up fast to a completed draft.
After working on my new project, I move on to edits for a near-complete novel that’s in its final stages of revision. As an author, it’s important to always have a few irons in the fire—I’m typically drafting one novel as I’m revising or pitching a second. When my coming-of-age mystery novel The Way You Burn was first released in April 2020 I was already drafting the novel I’m now revising.
After that, it’s time for reading and giving feedback to the writers I mentor or whose novels I edit. Before I know it, I check the clock and it’s time for me to relieve the babysitter or my mom and start my second shift. Yes, my glorious mornings of work wouldn’t be possible without the help of childcare I’m so lucky to have.
The rest of my day is filled with stroller walks, park visits, Magna-Tiles (if you know, you know), and The Little Blue Truck. I don’t get as much time as I’d like to read my own books nowadays (essential for any writer!) so I make household tasks more enjoyable by playing audiobooks. Who cares how many dishes you have left to do when you’re immersed in the final few chapters of a Lisa Jewell mystery?
My son is constantly asking me to tell him stories because he always hears me listening to mine—in the kitchen, on car rides. Sorry, Raffi, we don’t have time for you. Luckily for my son, his mommy’s an author.
Christine Meade’s second novel, The Moon, Her Crown, will be published by Rosewood Publishing House in spring 2023. Her first novel The Way You Burn was published by She Writes Press in 2020 and won a National Indie Excellence Award, A Reader’s Favorite Award, and was a finalist for the American Fiction Awards. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from California College of the Arts. She works as a freelance book editor and creative writing instructor for Gotham Writers Workshop and Grub Street. She has also been published in The Boston Globe, Writer’s Digest, and HuffPost. She lives with her husband and three kids just outside of Boston.
A Day in the Life of an Author (and Mother): A Guest Post by Christine Meade
