My writing routine

I’m almost a month into my novel rewrites, and I think I’m getting into quite a good routine. Every day this week has begun with a five kilometre jog on the treadmill in the shed behind my office. When I say shed, it’s actually pretty cool for a shed. It’s a log cabin that we built last year in the corner of the garden. 12’ x 18’, double-glazed windows, power, lighting, aerial and phone sockets. This is a picture of its interior when I was lining the inner walls with insulation and then covering it with tongue-and-groove.

Unfortunately that job was abandoned half way through because we had to use the shed as a dumping ground for furniture while the house was being renovated, but I’ll get it finished eventually. The plan is for it to become a luxurious, soundproof and well insulated gym. At the moment one corner has been set aside for the treadmill, so at least I can do some exercise there, but when it’s finished it will have a rowing machine, cycling machine, a ‘wobble’ machine and space for aerobic and floor work. It could, equally, be a fantastic writing room if I feel I need a change of scenery from the converted garage. As you can see, the garage has become a pretty smart office. And I really do need all those computers and machines to write with, of course…

Back to my routine, the next daily task is the language course which usually takes half an hour each morning. At this rate I expect to get through 60% of the course before I go to Brazil, and I don’t know if that’s enough to be able to communicate in any meaningful manner. Having got those things out of the way (plus breakfast and a shower etc) I’m awake and ready to start work.

This morning I had a meeting with a business partner: we decided to go for a drive to a nearby motorhome dealership, and we sat in the back of one of their camper vans for part of our meeting. Cheeky, but cheap. Then I showed some prospective tenants around one of our rental properties (they seemed utterly underwhelmed), drove home and buried the dead pigeon in my garden, booked some British Airways flights to Brazil, and, finally, started work on my novel.

It’s good to have a routine, even if the novel gets pushed to the back of the queue much of the time. But at least it gets done, it moves measurably forward, and it feels good to tick off a nice long list of things each evening. Although I hope not to be burying pigeons every day.