You know what I love best about my part-time job? I have the mornings to write.

From when I rise to the time my husband comes home or when I have to get ready for work, I have at least four whole hours to write. I haven’t even lived the day yet, so there’s nothing to upset my groove. And just recently, I’ve learned to use all that time to write. I might go online before I write, to check my e-mail or read my LiveJournal friends page, but that usually takes less than 45 minutes (if I don’t get carried away, of course). After the online stuff is out of the way, I can concentrate on writing. (Once an Internet junkie, always an Internet junkie.)

Several weeks ago, I tried squeezing 2,000 words into 45 minutes or an hour, but that failed. Miserably. I can’t write quality work in such a short time. I can’t properly get into the story, experience the atmosphere, or live as the characters. Besides, the rest of my morning was spent either listening to music or looking up the newest additions to Fail Blog or LOLCats. (Not that there’s anything wrong with those activities, of course.)

So my present schedule is ideal for writing. But my part-time job doesn’t pay well, so I’m looking at moving up in the business world to a full-time job, maybe working behind the scenes, so to speak, in human resources. After all, there’s no guarantee that my novels will get published, and there’s especially no guarantee that I’ll make a decent living from it. Any full-time job I get will most likely be first shift. Which means that my perfect morning writing hours will end.

Many writers have worked (and still work) full-time jobs while writing, so it’s not impossible. What will take work is balancing a job and quality time with my husband in the evenings, and learning to let go of the day’s troubles so I can write. And the only time I’d be able to write is after my husband has gone to sleep.

I’ve had terrible days at my current job. Sometimes all it takes to ruin the rest of my day is a particularly rude comment or an obnoxious customer who insists on remaining ignorant of closing hours. The older I get, the easier it becomes to let go of some of these happenings and think happy thoughts (cartoons, writing that action scene, the picture of the car that backed into the closed garage door–definite fail). I’ve probably also realized that life is too short to stew about things that piss me off.

The alternative is to wake up earlier and use that extra time to write, but it doesn’t appeal to me. Some writers can do it, but either they’re morning people or their bodies can easily adjust to the new schedule. It takes me months to get used to waking up early; four weeks ago, I finally started getting up at 8am without wanting to go back to sleep–except on overcast days. To get up an hour or two earlier to write and then spend nine hours at the job… urgh.

But who knows? I just might be able to tweak my circadian rhythm and make myself stay awake long enough to write, go to work, and have a social life before collapsing in a groaning pile on the pillow. Or I might write late at night when I won’t be disturbed… and still give up an hour or two of sleep.

I’ll find a way, though, even if it means getting to write only 500-1,000 words a day or switching all my writing time to the weekends.