A day in the life of a "working" writer
I'm doing my best here, guys
Greetings, Bizzy friends, fans and fam,
Welcome back to BIZZY IN YOUR BOX, the decades-long saga of all things Bizzy.
Delivered to you on a monthly basis with the same unrelenting regularity — and mystery — as the tides. (The tides are still a mystery, right?)
A day in Bizzy’s life
I share this “day in the life” not only to satisfy your basest curiosities about your favorite person, me, but also for the benefit of Future Bizzy.
One day, Future Bizzy will look back upon this schedule and marvel. “What was I thinking?” she’ll say, her voice tinged with nostalgia, and perhaps regret. “What a silly schedule! My life is so much more organized now!”
A woman can dream.
Anyway, here’s a fairly typical weekday at Camp Coy, my creative country compound.
4:30AM
I am awake against my will.
My 14-year-old, 20-pound poodle mix Henry decides it’s time to get up and go outside. I try to explain this is a bad idea, but he whines at me, and here at Camp Coy, whoever whines, wins.
This blurry hour does have a certain magic. The shadows of tall trees, the starry skies already beginning to fade.
I feed Henry, and take a fistful of pills from a comically oversized medication organizer that makes me feel every day of my forty-one years, and then some.
5AM
This is the most pivotal moment of the day. I debate: DO I GO BACK TO BED? OR DO I WRITE?
I would love to get some more sleep, as I am goshdarn exhausted from getting up so early and from grinding my teeth all night.
However, my favorite writing often happens in the wee hours, when I feel free of the expectations (or imagined expectations) of the waking world.
I sit down to write on the sun porch. During the summer, Henry and I basically live on its blue plaid couch.
I prop my feet up and write on my tiny, grimy MacBook Air. I twist myself into an ergonomically inadvisable position that I am sure I will pay for physically the rest of my life.
What am I writing these days? Short fiction. A play. A screenplay. Cartoons.
I dive into whatever project I feel like. I’ve learned over the years there is very little use in forcing or tricking myself into working on something I’m not excited about.
I am also learning that some of my projects take years to unfold, and they require long breaks in between drafts to let my unconscious do some necessary shuffling. It is okay to put them away and come back later.
7AM
It’s cottage cheese time. I am obsessed with cottage cheese and peaches this summer, making me feel like a lady in a diet-plan commercial from the ‘90s.
7:15AM
I crank out my most pressing freelance assignment of the day. Today I’m writing a short event description / “about copy” for a famous comedian.
I write approximately 120+ such blurbs annually for one of my longtime freelance clients, New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC). I love crafting these descriptions. It’s like a puzzle in a paragraph. I get a lot of satisfaction when I figure it out.
8AM
I begrudgingly perform necessary human maintenance, such as tooth-brushing, hair-washing and bra-donning. As a lady who lives alone in a rural area, I have to force myself to not walk around naked and unbathed all the time. (Only most of the time.)
8:30AM
Take a peek at my little garden. Assess the rabbit damage. Water a few things. Spray a few things with deer repellant. Pull a few weeds. Stand there with hands on hips, trying to see if plants have grown since yesterday. Spoiler alert: I have no idea.
8:45AM
Henry and I drive (well, I drive, he doesn’t have his license yet) to a lovely little path that runs along the Delaware River. We take a nature walk. I say hello to my bald eagle friends.
Once a week, we drive to a different trail to walk with our friend Elaine. Walks with Elaine are peppered with treats, making this the verifiable “Henry Highlight of the Week.”
Here’s another recent walking companion:
10:45AM
Early lunch. Watching old reruns of Judge Judy is a must. Television justice is the key to proper digestion.
11:30AM
I am tempted once again to go back to bed. To prevent this, I sojourn to one of our fine local coffee shops.
I get a cold brew and plunk down at a table. I prioritize my most procrastinatory tasks — the annoying stuff I would find an excuse to avoid if I was sitting at home. In public, I feel compelled to get it done. The ambient noise and bustle keep me focused.
Send a client invoice.
Submit a short story to a few literary magazines.
Prep for a community event.
Dip back into my writing from earlier in the morning.
Familiar faces pop in and out. Chit chat is exchanged. Our rural area is a haven for writers and artists, and I love running into them and catching up. They motivate me to keep going.
1PM
Zoom with a remote freelance client. They get me up to speed on a new marketing project and we discuss my part. Sometimes I’m in a creative leadership role, other times I’m there purely to execute the copywriting. I like doing both — they stretch different muscles.
2PM
Take a road trip to the grocery store. My preferred store is (ugh) 35 minutes away. Fortunately, it’s one of my favorite drives — down the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway, a rural highway that hugs the curves of the Delaware River.
I soak up the scenery and keep an eye out for eagles in the pines. I often get good ideas while driving, and try to dictate them on my Voice Memo app before I forget. I am pretty much always talking to myself or singing in the car.
5PM
An early dinner. I get fixated on certain foods and make them over and over. I’ve been on an oven-roasted cauliflower kick for a solid three years. Maybe longer? I can now break down an entire head of cauliflower with my bare hands, a skill that has (thus far) failed to attract me a mate.
7PM
I have a call with my New Yorker cartoon collaborator Lia Strasser. I’m a big phone call person. I often arrive at my best ideas and solutions while talking them out.
Other than Lia, my most-chatted person is probably my brother — comic book artist, writer and musician Evan Coy. We both enjoy philosophizing about the creative process and our ongoing projects.
8PM
This is my multitask moment. I watch some garbage while I noodle around with New York Times Games (correct order of play: Spelling Bee, Strands, Connections, Wordle) and try to write at the same time. This inadvisable attention-torture can be surprisingly pleasurable.
10PM
Double check my to-do list for tomorrow. Preemptively cross off all the household chores I know I won’t do. Take Henry outside for one last pee. Marvel at the stars in the sky and the dew on my toes and the cacophony of the night: crickets, frogs and the neighborhood barred owl echoing across the lake.
10:30PM
I consume approximately 100 hours of TikTok before bed. This is a bad habit I can’t indulge much longer. Someday, it will break me.
Goodnight! See you at 4:30AM!
Hey, what’s your daily schedule?
I’m so curious about other folks’ day-to-day, especially writers, freelancers, artists and creators of all stripes.
How do you manage your time?
What’s your favorite day of the week?
Your favorite hour of the day?
When do you feel most creatively invigorated (however you define it)?
Please share some tidbits in the comments for me, and others, to enjoy.
Bizzy in the wild: Upcoming event
Tusten Social Happy Hour: Connect the Dots
Free! Tues. August 5, 2025 from 5:30PM – 7:30PM
The Tusten Cup, 8 Main Street, Narrowsburg, NY
Get to know your neighbors! I’m sitting down with one of my favorite local writers — memoirist and storyteller Bill Fellenberg — for a casual convo and community happy hour.
According to my strict schedule, this is the time I stop working on BIZZY IN YOUR BOX.
So it shall be done.
Thank you, as always, for subscribing to this newsletter, opening it, reading it, engaging with it and sharing it. I appreciate you!
xoxo
Bizzy
P.S. Enough about what I want to talk about. What do you want me to talk about? Any suggestions for future newsletters? Questions you’d like answered? Topics upon which you’d like me to opine? Leave a comment or reply to this email. I’m curious what you think.
Love these in my box! You are an inspiration and you're doing great Bizzy!!
Rivergram. Bizzy, I love your new look!