Some of the most frequent questions I get about being a full-time writer is the process and day-to-day of how I work. Or sometimes people just assume a sort of mysterious quality about the methods around writing itself, or the tools that make up the daily routine.

I’ll be sharing more about my “writing life,” hopefully with the understanding is there really isn’t a “usual” day. Depending on the project I’m focusing on (or multiple projects) my daily routine – or at least schedule – looks dramatically different from one day to the next.

Because I write in so many mediums – stage plays, screenplays, books, journalism, opera, essays – the process of what I’m doing constantly changes. And I actually love that.

I thought I’d start with an easy and fun tool I use that is actually a much more new tool in my writing belt. It started as a way to incorporate more NON-work related reading into my life. The irony is that the more my professional life became about reading and writing and editing, the less I read what I wanted to read. I had to do so much reading every day for work I wasn’t doing any for fun anymore.

I started a year ago with the goal of just reading something I wanted to for five minutes a day. If I wanted to read for more I could, but only committing to five minutes. And what a great difference that’s made in my reading for enjoyment! Sometimes I read for hours, many times it’s only that five minutes.

Bonus: While the reading is for “my enjoyment,” my reading in the last year has enormously contributed to my writing.