Creating a Writing Schedule
How I create a writing schedule for working on multiple projects at once while maintaining a full-time job.
Hey friends! I hope you had a great time over the holidays and that you’re ready to ring in the New Year with your friends and family. I got to reconnect with friends of mine this past week and do a creative recharge after hitting multiple deadlines by December 20th.
I’m currently working on four comic book series at the same time. None of them have been announced yet, but all of them should be released in 2022. Working on so many things at once reminded me just how important it is to have writing routines and schedules, so I wanted to share mine as a helpful guide to anyone trying to work on multiple things at once.
Keep in mind, I still have a day job, so I have to make sure to balance that Monday-Friday with comic book work. It’s hard having a full-time job of 40-50 hours a week and balancing writing, but I think I’ve found a pretty good pace.
Here’s a little sample of what a typical writing day looks like for me:
6:30am - Wake up and feed the cats
My little black cat Noodle wakes me up by licking the top of my shaved head. Which is quick motivator when you have a tiny sandpaper tongue working away at your scalp.
6:45-7:30am - Reading / Coffee
I try to get into the headspace of writing by reading first thing in the morning. This past year I was working my way through all of One Piece, but now I’ve been reading old Daredevil comics.
7:30-8:00am - Pre-Writing
I do my first bit of writing just before starting my day job. This is where I outline all of the pages that I have to write that day or start figuring out the panels on each page. Generally, I try to shoot for four pages of script a day when I have a deadline. Sometimes I get more done, but I always get at least four.
8:00-Noon - Day Job - Part 1
I tend to have a lot of meetings in my day job as well as content creation, so I start before my main meeting and work up to lunch.
12:00-12:20pm - Lunch
I eat pretty quickly, usually while listening to a podcast.
12:20-1:00pm - Writing - Part 1
This is where I do my first major bout of writing. Sometimes I go a little over 1:00pm or I find the words quicker. It varies. I just try to get quality, not quantity.
1:00-5:00pm - Day Job - Part 2
Again, usually a lot of meetings and then some content creation.
5:15-7:00pm - Dinner / Free time
This is the time I use to have dinner with my wife, decompress for a bit, or go to the gym. I make sure to take time to reset to get into a creative headspace again.
7:30-9:00pm - Writing - Part 2
This is where I get the rest of my writing done. A lot of times, I don’t need the whole block. But having that much allows me to take my time. If I get more than four pages, that’s great. I don’t push it, because I don’t want to just put out pages that aren’t quality for the sake of hitting a larger page count.
The rest of the night is usually left open for reading, watching movies/TV shows, or playing video games.
I try to take Saturday and Sunday off, but when there are strict deadlines and life events, I’ll sometimes write on Saturday and Sunday morning, or even Sunday night.
Is it glamourous? No. But honestly, I always have fun when I’m writing. I’d write scripts even if no one paid me to do it or if they didn’t get published. So finding a way to put something I love into my schedule wasn’t hard for me.
I think finding those little moments in time that you can steal to write more is always great. I don’t think people should hustle and overwork themselves, but if you look at what you do in a day there are plenty of moments where you could be writing instead of playing on your phone. Nowadays, if I’m stuck in a drive-thru or waiting in line somewhere, I can usually open my phone and bring up a script document I can work on for a bit. It’s definitely better than doom scrolling Twitter or Facebook.
Let me know if you’d like me to cover more writing schedule ideas or tips in the future!
In the meantime, I’ll keep everyone posted on the new projects once they get announced!
Happy New Year!
- Kenny