Many people ask what a day in the life of a writer is really like. Everyone will be different.

For me, my day revolves mostly around my girls. I’ll have to work around their naps and their activities. Each day is completely different, so trying to actually go through a day in my life is almost impossible.

I’ll go through the average Tuesday with you, since that’s what I’ve just done today.

6am: The baby is awake and wants feeding. Husband has already left for work so it’s time for zombie mum to take care of the bottle and then the feeding. All through this, the pre-schooler is sleeping still in her bed. I’ll check my emails during this time and reply to as many as possible. It’s all from my phone.

7am: Feeding finished and it’s time for my breakfast. Sometimes the pre-schooler has descended. If she hasn’t, I’ll sort myself out with getting dressed and get her clothes laid out for her. If she has, I’ll have to get her breakfast sorted first—going through a round of “what do you want?” “I don’t know.” “What do you want?” “My tummy not rumbling.” “Okay, no food.” “I want toast…” “I thought you weren’t hungry.” “My tummy rumble fast again.”

8am: Cartoons on for the pre-schooler while I get the baby dressed and ready for her day. Usually, she’s cranky around now and fights off a snooze, promptly falling asleep in her car seat when we take her big sister to nursery.

8:45am: The big one is now at nursery and it’s me and the baby back home. Time for another bottle and I get to finish off replying to emails and get my second (and much needed) cuppa of the day.

9:30am: After a bit of a fight, the baby is back down for a nap and it’s time to get through some work. This will last for an hour at least but I sometimes get two hours of quiet to plow through my workload. If she wakes up earlier, she will usually spend an hour in her bouncy chair, and we’ll pull faces at each other while I quickly get a few things done.

Noon: Time for yet another bottle and for me some lunch. After that, we’ll spend some time playing before she decides she’s tired again. Cue a few more tears (not from me, honest!) as we fight sleep again and finally decide it’s a good idea to just shut our eyes and sleep.

I’m lucky with this nap. This always tends to be a two to three hour one and I get the majority of my work finished in this time. I’ll also sometimes get some housework done if I’m really lucky—usually the bottles are washed and sterilized!

There will be a good three cups of tea in this time!

4pm: Time to pick the big one up from nursery. This easily takes me half an hour to get her out from wherever she’s playing—right now in the mud garden—change from wellies to shoes and get stuff out of her tray. We sometimes also end up chatting to other mums as we leave, especially now as we’re leaving soon!

There’s always a request for Paw Patrol after pickup time. So a few 10 minute episodes of that goes on while I feed the baby again and spend some time replying to a few emails. I’m getting really good at multitasking!

This part of my day can easily take an hour, which is the longest feed of the day. Everyone is starting to get cranky, especially this time of year.

I’ll try to encourage the pre-schooler to go outside for a bit more after this. It doesn’t always happen, though.

The baby goes down for a 30 minute power snooze and me and the pre-schooler get to play in that time. If I’ve not managed to coach her outside, it’ll be a board game or we’ll read stories together. It’s our special time together and I wouldn’t miss this for the world.

Another couple of cuppas are usually drank in this time. In fact, as soon as we get in and I’m sorting a bottle out, the pre-schooler tells me “you have a cuppa tea, mummy!”

6pm: Sometimes the pre-schooler has crashed for half an hour at this time. The baby is awake, but happy exploring the things around her. If the pre-schooler hasn’t crashed, the two girls spend some time together (under my watchful eye!).

6:30pm: Dinner time for the pre-schooler.

8pm: Husband comes home and last bottle of the day for the baby. The pre-schooler admittedly has a later bedtime than she should and all that will change very soon now that husband has finished work (yay!). In fact, my whole schedule is about to change!

8:30pm: Our dinner time and I finish off any last pieces that need doing. Usually, they’ve all been done throughout the day.

9pm: Bedtime for the girls. The baby has usually already crashed out by this time and the big one gets her stories, after (sometimes) a quick bath and brush of the teeth.

It’s baby free time for the two of us now. Well, sort of baby free time. Because of the age of the baby, one of us will be up and down the stairs every now and then just to check on things. This is also our time to catch up on our days and spend some time together.

You’ve guessed it: another cuppa at least.

11pm: Bed time for the two of us. Yes, we both go to bed together and we pretty much turn out the light at the same time.

If I’m having a night where I can’t sleep, I’ll go back and so a bit more work. I don’t see the point in struggling to sleep! Sometimes (I know I shouldn’t) I’ll do the work in bed because husband doesn’t mind the laptop light being on—we’re both happy with that.

And then it’s all ready for the start of another day!

Things are changing soon. I’ll be doing more work and won’t have the kids to get everywhere any more. I’ll share another day in the life of a writer when I get into some sort of routine, as things are changing with my hubby too in the way that we work together.

A writer’s life will be very different to someone else’s writing life. We all work around our own commitments and needs. I hope you’ve enjoyed the insight into mine.