Scheduling: Two Points of View

Lenore: I work from home and I set my own schedule. This is usually a mix of advertising copywriting and my creative writing. If I need to concentrate more on writing my novel, for example, I can take less advertising work. If I need to pay the rent, I can take more advertising work.

Lenore’s cats: Lenore spends too much time sitting in front of her computer. She’s either typing or moving around cards on a green background. We think she should either be playing with us or lying in bed so we can lie next to her. That’s why we jump on her keyboard, knock over her books, chew on her photos, and meow incessantly.

Lenore: When I’m drafting, it really helps to promise my critique partner that she’ll be getting a chapter from me at a certain time. I like having the structure of deadlines. Then I’ll sit at my computer until I’m done – sometimes I even have to pull an all-nighter to pull it off.

Lenore’s cats: Play with us! Pet us! Feed us! Let us sleep on you!

Lenore: Sometimes, to get anything done, I have to close the doors of my home office to keep the cats out.

Lenore Appelhans is the author of LEVEL TWO (Simon & Schuster BFYR/Fall 2012), a dystopian afterlife thriller. Visit her blog and/or follow her on twitter.