By Tosca Lee
I get asked a lot what my daily routine looks like. Do I write every day—a certain amount of time or words a day? I have friends who do, who are very disciplined (and probably more prolific) than me. My answer is: some days I write all day. Some days, depending, I don’t write at all. If I’m on a deadline, writing is about the only thing I’ll focus on. That might mean getting up early, writing late, maybe even pulling an all-nighter. If I’m not on a deadline, it might mean writing a few hours or however long I can squeeze in to write. It might mean editing what I did the day or week before.
Other activities that regularly take up my day, and the days of other writers like me:
- Regular family, kid, chore, and errand stuff, lunch with my farmer husband, or taking lunch to the field if my husband is planting or harvesting. House stuff. Family stuff. Life stuff. The most important stuff.
- Social media to interact with my readers—which might include sharing upcoming events, friends’ new releases, book news or trivia, pictures of life at the farm where I live, of my dog Timber (who is more popular than me) or other fun information or funny life observances. I really like staying in touch with my readers and making sure they feel we know one another.
- Visiting a local library or book club—in person or via Zoom—to discuss one of my books or the writing process or both. This year I was privileged that my home state chose The Long March Home as 2025’s One Book One Nebraska program. What that has translated to is a lot of wonderful visits to libraries and book clubs throughout my state in person and via Zoom when I can’t get there in person for me and via Zoom by my coauthor, Marcus Brotherton (who lives in Washington).
- Hosting events like Rogue Women Writers’ Rogue Reads!
- Meetings or other work on behalf of professional groups I’m a member of. This includes International Thriller Writers, where I serve on the Board of Directors as the VP of Awards.
- Writing blurbs for the covers of upcoming novels by other authors.
- Meetings with producers who are working to develop my books into TV or movies.
- Meetings with the producer with whom I co-wrote a pilot script based on one of my books that we soon hope to pitch.
- Consulting on other script or writing projects for other production companies—this is new-to-me work and lots of fun to be part of such a collaborative process!
- Reviewing edits or other comments from my in-house editor or my longtime freelance editor friend who reads all my stuff before I send it in.
- Reviewing comments from my early beta readers.
- Traveling to conferences to teach or keynote and catch up with author friends.
- Teaching on the staff of Drexel University’s MFA program, where I am adjunct faculty.
- Sending book donations to libraries, auctions, and other charitable events.
- Updating my website and website calendar as I commit to new events.
- Podcast, Zoom, or written interviews.
- Jotting down and filing new ideas—which come all the time.
- Calls and communication with my agent, publicist, or assistant.
- Writing and sending out newsletters to my readers—I have two, actually, one for my readers and one for writers.
- Research for new projects.
- Answering mail from readers.
- Signing and mailing books to those who order them directly from me.
- Accounting and keeping track of things like book sales and stats when royalty statements come in.
- Filing everything from contacts to receipts.
- Continuing education for myself about everything from the craft of writing to new kinds of writing such as children’s’ books.
- Reading for pleasure when I can!
Every now and then part of this job entails other random but less regular items such as…
- Photo shoots.
- Promo videos.
- Radio and TV interviews.
- Book tours.
- Traveling for research.
- Speaking or appearing at fundraisers for great causes.
- Meeting with a new co-author for a project.
- Meeting with aspiring authors locally who want to ask for advice.
- End-of-year accounting.
- Planning and goal setting for the coming year.
Now that I see this list I remember why it’s so easy to get sidelined with the writing-adjacent stuff! At the end of the day, though, I remind myself that my most important of my job is to write the next story—in life and on the page.
Phew! Talk about some side projects! Rogue Readers and Authors, did any of these catch you by surprise? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Tosca Lee is a New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels including The Long March Home (May 2023, coauthored by Marcus Brotherton), The Line Between, The Progeny, Iscariot, and The Legend of Sheba. Her work has been translated into seventeen languages and optioned for TV and film. She is the recipient of two International Book Awards, Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion, ECPA Fiction Book of the Year, and the Nebraska Book Award. Her work has finaled for the High Plains Book Award, the Library of Virginia Reader’s Choice Award, the Christy Award, and a second ECPA Book of the Year, among others. Lee earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Smith College. A former first runner-up to Mrs. United States, she lives in Nebraska with her husband and two of four children still at home.
‘Exhausting’ is the word that comes to mind!!
Amazing that you have time to eat with your husband and post on Facebook, and everything else. You are a dynamo.
Seems impossible, really. I’m so impressed ( ;
I felt overwhelmed halfway through your list. Amazing what you do! What a lot of writers do. I felt compelled to start me own list, but then got overwhelmed halfway through!