When Do You Write?

I used to have a simple writing schedule. I put the kids in bed by 8pm and would spend the next two hours with a glass of ice water and the computer blowing up things, killing characters, and weeping over edits. It was a good life.

Now things are getting complicated.

A newborn at home means I'm up every 2-3 hours during the night, usually for at least 30 minutes. I rush the older two to school at 8 in the morning and I'm usually home by 9am to feed the baby again, do the dishes, and eat some breakfast. By 10am I'm ready to sleep and the baby is ready for a 3 hour power nap.

Awesome! I love naps!

But it means that I wake up and have an hour before I need to go get the older two. An hour I spend finishing house work, feeding the baby, and eating my own lunch.

Twice a week we come straight home from school and I have three hours to force Eldest to do homework under threat of No Playtime, make dinner, and keep Small and Pink from destroying all the housework I did in the morning. Then comes dinner, whining, baths, complaining, and bedtime.

Now it's 8pm again and I'm exhausted.

Three times a week I spend the three hours dragging kids to speech therapy and piano lessons. That means keeping a small one quiet in a waiting room the size of a matchbox or forcing Eldest to do homework when there are so many more interesting distractions around.

If I skipped the morning nap I could have three solid hours of write time with no kids distracting me.

But then I'd fall asleep while driving or cooking dinner.

So, you tell me, where does writing fit in?

For all the rest of you with work schedules, kids, zombie hordes, and other distractions, where do you fit writing into your day? Do you steal a few hours on the bus ride commute in the morning? Give up a few hours of sleep? Wait until the weekend?

Admit it... you cloned yourself, didn't you?