It’s interesting how, even while going about our daily lives, each one is vastly different with our own schedules, routines, etc. Even though it can be a bit monotonous at times, I truly relish my typical day-to-day life because it allows my mind and creativity to run rampant.

Since I have a 9-5 office job, well technically it's 8-4, my day starts pretty early. I’m usually up around 5:00. Yep, that’s right. Five. O’clock. AM. Sometimes, 5:30-6:00 if I’m feeling ✨EXTRA✨ because, let’s face it, more beauty sleep never hurt anybody!

Well before the sun has risen, I’m already a cup of coffee in, hoping to get my mind right for the day. It takes some coaxing, to be perfectly honest, since my brain likes to try to remember the shenanigans I got myself into in my dreams from the night before. And, fun fact, that’s where most of my stories come from, but that’s another topic for another day!

After feeding the fur children, the hubs and I will listen to either cool jazz or meditation music and just BE. We simply sit and exist and it’s the best thing ever.

Next comes the “fun” part of actually getting ready to go to the office and make that money to fund all the things that come with being an adult, like bills and Amazon Wish List items and notebooks that I’ll be too afraid to ruin by writing in them so they are added to the ever growing hoard that I have…

Anywho, work is work as it’s a typical customer service based industry. It is only 10 or so minutes from my home, so I am pretty fortunate that it’s so close and it allows me to get home with a quickness so I have more than enough time to do what I’m passionate about: Writing!

Once I’m home, the pups get their afternoon walk so they can sniff all the things and then it’s feeding time for us all. Kibble for the fur butts and some variation of “girl dinner” for myself. And don’t you fret, for the hubs has himself a “boy dinner” after working out.

I usually park myself either in my office to start writing, or if I’m too lazy to walk up some stairs (lol), I’ll write at the kitchen island. *By write I mean I scroll on social media until I guilt myself into doing what needs to be done. I will say that if the words just aren’t wording, because that does happen, I don’t force them.

If I need another outlet like sketching or finding inspiration from music, I let it happen. Sometimes creativity has a weird ebb and flow and all I can do is float along with it.

Since I’m up before the crack of dawn, my bedtime (or as we lovingly say “initiate the launch sequence”) starts around 8:00 PM where I do the typical bedtime things: brush my teeth, wash my face, fiddle on my phone for about 30 minutes to an hour with a comfort TV show playing in the background until the drowsiness sets in. 

And, honestly, it’s: Rinse. Wash. Repeat for the work week. The weekend is a crap-shoot because then it’s the weekend and nothing counts! 

With writing what my days are actually like, they seem oddly boring, but with the amount of mental space my stories occupy in my mind, I will say that it NEVER is. I have full cinematic events happening constantly in there along with all of the “non-versations” with myself as I act out different convos as my characters. The daydreaming is constant and it's difficult to not let my mind wander because the characters have A LOT to say.

So, that is a typical day in my life as a “writer”. Most of the time, I’m in my own head thinking of the different scenes, situations, plot points, what-have-yous for all of my works because trying to actually verbalize what I have in my mind makes me sound unhinged and a little cray (but all the best people are!).

All in all, even if I’m not writing, I’m constantly thinking about my stories, characters, and the like in the hopes that I’ll be able to create something worthwhile for others to enjoy 😁

Oodles of toodles,

A.A. Mann