139: Not Enough Hours in a Day
3/1/2025
I finished transcribing Siona’s Song last night at 11PM. So, the final metrics for that chapter are 15 pages, 4,443 words. Also, it takes a minimum of 25 minutes to read (using the tablet’s text to speech feature) and took 5 ½ hours to transcribe to paper by hand. I skipped my shower and dinner in order to get it done by 11PM. Because of my going to work three times a day for three shifts, I only have six hours and fifteen minutes of waking time at home to do any work from my tablet. The spare 45 minutes in my day yesterday was spent going to lunch, folding my laundry, eating an apple for dinner, and getting ready for work three times.
Not enough hours in a day. Four days to create the chapter, and one day to copy it to paper. Two more chapters to write and I’ll be officially done with the first book’s first draft.
Present-Day Reflection
10/11/2026
I worked at a desk back then with a lot of free time to write even while on the job. This isn’t the case with my current job where I’m on my feet all day with no desk and constant movement. Good exercise but not a chance for getting any writing done. I just have my mornings and evenings at home. My mornings are barely enough to keep up with this author’s journal. My evenings allow for only a couple hours of administrative work – managing the endless deluge of self-publishing details.
I’m not complaining, just explaining.
My life is much better these days, but I also have less time and energy. I knew that would be the case back when I first wrote these journal entries, and that I had to make the most of it while I could. Which is how I got my first two books written.
My goal now is to have the best of both worlds – my current homelife combined with the free time I had back then. This can only be achieved through retirement from my day job to become a full-time writer. Which can only be achieved through the sales of my first book, Wings of Providence.
Transitioning now from publishing to marketing.
