Right now things are pretty easy. I read while my son is taking his nap or watching Barney, and I read before I go to bed (usually a short story), and I write 4 pages each night when I get home from work (so even if I took 65 days off a year, I'd still write 1200 pages -- 300,000 words -- a year!). This means I get about six hours sleep Mondays through Fridays and a little more on Saturdays and Sundays (my wife gets up with our son in the morning). Once the baby comes, I'm sure things are going to change.

But what I think your real question -- which you already asked -- is this: how do you do it all, work, live, and write?

That's the trick, isn't it? But I have some principles that help me.

1 -- I do not waste time, which means that I carefully consider how I am going to spend it (such as writing this post, which I think is important).

2 -- I set serious but not unrealistic goals (e.g., reading a novel a week, writing 4 pages a day)

3 -- I do not stress out when I don't meet these goals.

4 -- A little is better than nothing. So if I can read only for twenty minutes instead of two hours, then I'll take the twenty minutes. And if I can only write two pages instead of four, then I thank God for those two and call it quits

5 -- Housework is a great time to think about a writing project or storytelling in general because housework, by and large, is a mindless activity.

I hope this helps.

That year is turning into two years. By now my goal was to be published. The International move (from Germany back to the states) took a chunk of time, more than we thought. Finding the agent made it into the year bracket--if you count from when I first contacted them. So now I am on to another year--waiting for the phone call that says we have an offer.

I wrote the book while still teaching, though.

I slept only about 5 hrs or less a night---that's how I found the time. Now I home school, still work for Wild Child Publishing, and I am a Girl Scout leader. I do the yard work and the car repairs and most of the housework.

Hubby works long hours, he cooks, and helps with the housework.

Right now, since he is deployed, I do everything; writing time is still in the wee hours of the morning.

quote:

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How does one come to work for UPS?

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But that's not your question, is it?

As far as I know, UPS isn't hiring anyone right now because the economy is so bad. The drivers (those who deliver the packages) are either being sent home until they're needed or they're being put back into the hubs (at a severe pay cut) until they're needed. So right now, I don't think you can get a job at UPS.

But in better times, all you need to do is to contact the main UPS hub in your area, fill out an application, and you have the job (unless you're a felon -- that's not a joke, either). But don't expect to be a full-time employee or a driver for at least 3-5 years. Most UPSers start in the hub working part-time. The union still has its hand in UPS, so UPS cannot hire drivers off the street; all drivers must come within the company. Once you're a driver for a year, you can move on to management. That's the way it works. UPS's current CEO was once a driver.

But for those of you who are single and want to devote serious time to writing, working part-time as a unloader for UPS isn't a bad job. UPS offers great -- and I mean great -- benefits. My wife, son, and I all have full medical, dental, and vision (well, my son doesn't have the last two), and we pay--are you ready--$0.50 a week for insurance!!!! I think the starting salary (at least in Dallas) is $9.00/hour, and each shift is between 4-5 hours, 20-25 hours a week. You get 2 weeks paid vacation (3 weeks after 5 years), eight paid holidays, and I think 9 personal days a year. So if you can live off of $720-900 a month, you'd have a lot of time to focus on writing.

But then, I'm going off of the rates I know of at the UPS hub were I work in Dallas. I can't imagine that starting salary in LA, or De Moines, or DC, or Tampa Bay would be any different.

The only foreseeable problem with this is if you live in a small town or even a small city. That might make things difficult. But if you live in a big city or close to one, I don't know why you'd have any problems. When they were hiring, the UPS where I work was hiring 15-20 new employees a week (primarily because it's hard work and the turnover rate is high).

Good luck.

My problem is that since I'm a computer jockey, the last thing I want to do in the evenings is sit on my butt in front of a computer. So my writing suffers a lot. Anyone else have this problem? How do you deal with it?

you know, the old fashioned way.

I am not at all consistant in my writing, but I usually end up doing it in the evenings after the kids are in bed, or on one of the rare days where I'd rather write than do database development AND feel like I can afford to get away with it.

I write finished stuff at about 500 words per hour. Not flying, but I'm working on that, and part of it is invention. Anyway, with 10 hours per week that's 5,000 words which is a chapter a week.

I am the sole provider for my family. I work as a software education designer and trainer. My evenings and weekend are slammed with family and church stuff.

This really is the only schedule I've found that works. I read during lunch and if I get a few minutes in the evening. My most important goal is to write my little bit each day and not let it take over my life. It's a part of my life, NOT my life.

I would love to make a living at it. I've sold one short story to WOTF. I'll finish a novel a year until something sells. Maybe a few short stories to see if I can fully break into published status to help sales of novels if I have time.

I'll keep my day job until then. It's madness to do otherwise. I suspect it will take 3-4 published novels before I can go to part-time. And then a while after that before I switch fully to writing.

[This message has been edited by johnbrown (edited May 02, 2003).]