I Asked AI to Give Me a Writing Routine as a STAHM

One of my very favorite author tubers is Kate Cavanaugh because she always tries the most interesting writing challenges. And the one that I watched recently was where she asked AI to give her a “crazy” writing routine. Which it definitely delivered. It told her to get up at three or something and eat a handful of chocolate chips for breakfast hahaha.

So I was certainly curious about this. Obviously, I wasn’t going to try to ask it for “something crazy” like Kate did. I am a stay at home mom with three kids. Ages 6, 4 and 1. So when it comes to writing routines… I have to have a regular babysitter or else there just is no routine at all. And that was something that Kate doesn’t have to work around, so I thought I would ask the all-knowing AI and see what kind of advice it would give to a stay at home writer person such as myself.

Basically what Chat GPT came back with was a writing routine where you do thirty minute sessions throughout the day in between caring for your kids. One before they wake up, a mid morning session while they “play quietly”, an afternoon session while they nap or have “quiet time” and an evening session after your kids go to bed.

Seems feasible, but at the same time they’re little kids. Nothing is feasible hahaha.

At the end of the writing routine, the AI told me to be flexible and it’s okay to adjust as necessary. I responded back a thank you and also asked it to please remember me if it ever takes over the world. To which it said this:

Concerning. That little wink. Is that a threat? I can’t tell.

So the next day I set an alarm for an hour earlier than my kids usually get up and got to work. And of course, my four-year-old woke up an hour earlier than he usually wakes up. (How did he know?) I wrote anyway and was okay productive. I did have to stop once or twice because my son asked me to open his yellow popsicle at 6:30 in the morning.

Gosh I hope he naps today.

Mid Morning session turned out to be later than I thought but worked fine. I settled my four year old with Blippi on my phone and gave the baby her favorite puffs in her high chair. I had only gotten a couple of minutes in when my son wanted to play “ghost” with me, so I had to get him a sticker book to entertain him. Then I found myself immediately texting my husband about work and dang. The morning session sure was easier. Sad for me because I don’t like getting up early. But also had I followed Chat GPT’s advice and done a mid-morning session while my baby was asleep instead of almost falling asleep myself I would have been more productive altogether. Oh well. Plan for exhaustion if you’re a parent. Just pencil it into your schedule.

Afternoon session I opted to try to squeeze in while waiting to pick up my son from school. I usually get in the pick up line super early so I thought it would be a nice natural break to try it out. I also slowly drove around the neighborhood so the four year old who woke up ridiculously early would pass out. He did. But then the baby was complaining of course. I brought extra toys. All of which were really loud, so that was dumb of me. I wrote as best as I could in the awkward, hot car. It was okay. So far I had a total of 1400 words by the time I had done the three half hour sessions, so honestly that wasn’t too bad!

During the evening session I put up this blog post. So you’re welcome haha.

Super Quick Life Update: WE ARE BUYING A HOUSE!!!

NEW HOUSE:

Sorry, I’ve been MIA this month. Things have been super crazy since we’re BUYING OUR FIRST HOME!!

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I seriously am in love so hard. Sometimes when I think about it, I feel all blubbery and teary-eyed haha. It’s everything I wanted and then some! We are signing all the closing paperwork TODAY and I honestly couldn’t be more STUNNED/ECSTATIC.

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THE KIDS:

Has everyone else been like non-stop sick? Because holy moly. This month has been the WORST. We’re just barely getting over the flu and thanks, it only took us A COUPLE OF WEEKS.

 

THE WRITING:

Things have been slow as hell. This is the slowest I’ve written in years. I remember when I proudly wrote a breezy 2k a day. Now when I write two sentences, I have to stop to wipe my brow and binge watch a horrible reality show because my fingers are so tired. It’s been some rough stuff man. In November alone, I wrote 50k words. Then it took December, January, February to wheeze out 20k.

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And it’s not without a reason… House hunting and house buying has become like a full-time job almost. It’s so much work and time! One other hilarious thing that has slowed me down, is I can’t get myself to stop reading my own book. Usually, when I draft I have a strict no-reading-back policy, but with this one, I’ve been pretty naughty. I’ll try to refer back to a scene ‘real quick’ and ‘hey this is kind of funny’. Suddenly 100 pages later, I’ve been sucked in and I just wasted my designated writing time. That’s a good sign though, right? I mean, I don’t know if anyone else will be turning pages, but I LOVE THIS RIDICULOUS BOOK OF MINE. AND GOSH DARNIT I AM DETERMINED TO FINISH THIS FREAKING DRAFT BEFORE I MOVE! AND I WILL! JUST YOU WAIT NAYSAYER!

(I can’t tell you too much about the book yet, but what I can tell you is that it’s a dark-comedy time-travel story about The Beatles.)

Stay tuned for more updates, book announcements, videos of the new house, so on and so forth.

Why is House Hunting Exactly like Dating?

So, I mentioned in my last post that Dan and I have become serious about house buying. Woo hoo! But also AAAH scary!

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I’ve always loved looking at houses, browsing floor plans, perusing open houses and so I thought that the process would be a lot of fun.

Nope.

Guess what it basically was.

Dating.

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I’m serious. It felt the freaking same dude. Every weekend you’re going out to see them and getting to know them and trying to figure out if maybe there’s a future there. And hi! It was just as stressful. To be completely honest.

One guy would have a great kitchen, but kind of a horrible backyard. Another guy would be like not great curb appeal, but wasn’t looking for cookie-cutter anyway I could give him a chance. Ooh, this guy has a lot of what I’m looking for… Woah, never mind, no way I can afford this guy. It was basically exhausting.

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We had the long-distance relationship thing. Perfect house, great looking, big lot, kid-friendly. But he was just too darn far away. Like out in the middle of nowhere far away. As much as we loved him, we couldn’t figure out how to make it work between us.

We even had the toxic relationship thing…

One day I swiped right on Zillow. And wow, this house was really attractive. I mean, everyone was going after this house. I tried to set up a private date with my realtor but when I got there, everyone else and their literal dog were there. Like busier than an actual open house.

At first, I was insecure, like should I offer? He’s way too handsome! But he accepted MY offer! Out of everyone! And I was SO stoked!

And then we got the inspection done.

And I was like, wow dude. You need some work. Your AC unit is 30 years old. You need new paint and your pool is trashed, bro. But no, our relationship was AS IS. So OKAY FINE. I’ll just deal with it. Whatever. We can still make this work.

And then the appraisal came in.

20K LOWER than our original deal. He wasn’t going to change. He was seriously NOT GOING TO CHANGE A THING ABOUT HIMSELF, NOT EVEN HIS PRICE. So we were like BOY BYE!!!

And I swear to you, this ex house was pending another girls offer like not even a week later. WOW.

So glad to be out of THAT situation. Not worth it.

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Things kind of lowkey sucked for the next couple of weeks. I just couldn’t feel a connection with any other house. I was even thinking about stopping the house hunt for a while and like hunting myself. You know? Just to slow things down and figure out what I really want.

BUT… I have to tell you…

Dan and I have been dating a house and it’s pretty serious. Like seriously serious. Like accepted offer serious. We still have to go through the whole inspection/appraisal snafu again. But, I really actually think this one is THE ONE.

Updates to come later!