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How to Finish Your Book and Keep Your Day Job: Protect your writing time like a mother protecting her young

How to finish your book and keep your day job?

Protect your writing time like a mother protecting her young

Writing a book is a work of love. However, things get in the way, i.e. work. We all dream of the day when we can make enough money to survive by writing. Until that day comes (if it ever does), we need to keep our full time jobs. We wrote and published our first five books working full time.

Time management is nothing to joke about when trying to write and support yourself or family with a full time job. Find the gaps in your schedule or day and use them to the fullest. Guard them and don’t let anything get in the way of your writing time. This is why scheduling writing time works so well. You can plan around the time.

We write between 6:00- 8:00 every morning. The only thing that keeps us from not writing is a fever of over 102. For us this is the best time because our day has not yet begun and we can focus on writing after a good night’s sleep. Pick a time of day where interruptions are at its minimum and plan it. We also clear our desks and have everything we need to write (on the desk) so we don’t need to get up. So just plan ahead.

Keep up the good writing.

Janet and Will

Chatting with Authors

Will Zeilinger and Janet Elizabeth Lynn created “Chatting With Authors.” This channel features informal interviews with authors of varied genres, produced via Zoom, and aired every Friday. Head over to YouTube and listen.

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Flashback to 1960s by Will Zeilinger and Janet Elizabeth Lynn

October 3, 2020 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as baby boomers, flower children, Hippies, Janet Elizabeth Lynn, The 60s, the Pepsi Generation, Will Zeilinger

Flashback to the 60s Rickie Tickie Stickies

Rickie Tickie Stickies, despite their long association with hippies and flower power, were actually a creation of ad man Don Kracke in 1967. These reusable plastic flower decals adorned many a Volkswagen, hippie bus, and girls’ bedrooms. By 1968, some 90 million had been sold. Literally, hundreds of cars had the bright-colored daisy stickers plastered all over them.

Hippies

Even if you are a Millennial, you’ve probably heard about the hippie movement from your parents or grandparents. It grew out of the “Baby Boomer “ or “Pepsi Generation,” and was one of the biggest and most influential cultural movements of the 20th century. Established in the mid-60s, the hippie generation promoted peace, love, and unity. It was passionately against the Vietnam War, consumerism, and materialism. The movement was preceded by the Beatniks, the intellectual genesis of the mid-1950s to early 1960s counter-culture. Christopher Kiely wrote, “Hippies were the romanticized mass media-fueled movement of the late 1960s. Larger in size but stripped of much of its intellectual counter-culture firepower.

Flower Children

Even so, the hippie culture was well represented in music, movies, and arts, and had its own style of living, fashion, and slang. Ironically, the American urge to turn everything into a commercial success was already at work on the symbolism of the “non-commercial” counter-culture movement. Brightly colored abstracted daisies that symbolized the hippies or “flower children” had become a worldwide craze…and fifty years later, they have never really entirely gone out of style. Take a look at the Internet, and you can find daisy stickers or genuine “Rickie Tickie Stickies.”

The Skylar Drake Series

SLICK DEAL

GAME TOWN

STRANGE MARKINGS

SLIVERS OF GLASS

DESERT ICE

STONE PUB: An Exercise in Deception

Chatting with Authors

Janet and Will have a brand new YouTube channel, Chatting with Authors where they do casual thirty minute Zoom interviews with a variety of authors. Below is their recent video with author Linda O. Johnston.

There will be a new authors featured each Friday. Check out Chatting with Authors for more interviews.

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What Is a Writing Partner and Why the Hell Do I Need One?

September 3, 2020 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as writing partners, writing process

A writing partner or co-writer should be an actual writer—and someone you trust, respect, admire, and support, because two heads are better than one.

Writing is a lonely profession, and many times ideas get stuck in our heads. Having someone you can contact who knows you and the project.

Co-writers and/or writing partners are there for early feedback, bouncing ideas, critique, story direction, moral support, and so much more!

Some of the greatest writing, from novels to screenplays, to music, has been done by partners. Why is this so? Collaborative writing is one of the most productive and successful ways to write—If you find the right partner.

A question many writers have asked us is “How exactly does that work?”

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but there are some strategies that can help, whether you need someone to co-write a project or someone to share a writing career… and maybe even life.

Your Writing Partner Might Be Right Under Your Nose

Because writing, like collaboration, is an intimate relationship, it’s best to begin looking at people you know. If you’ve figured out how to be together, you’ll have a better chance of successfully writing together. So, it’s no surprise that most successful writing teams have grown from close personal relationships—friends or family or lovers.

But what if you don’t have a friend, a spouse, sibling or lover who is “partner worthy?” If you can’t find someone you can collaborate with among the people you know, go meet more people. As the circle of writers you know expands, so do your chances of finding a compatible partner for your writing.

If you’re a college student, enroll a writing class, or take a drama class, or join a comedy group. Alternatively, attend writers’ conferences. Join writers’ organizations. It may sound overwhelming, but you have to get out there . . . socialize.

Remember, it’s crucial to find someone with qualities that lend themselves to a good partnership. Look at these for example:

Similar Tastes and Sensibilities

Have the same sense of humor. This is a key factor for a human connection and a good collaboration. You may share inspiration, like what makes you laugh, or what keeps you on the edge of your seat. You can even consider what bores you.

Yin and Yang—Complimentary Strengths

Partners in any creative endeavor should have strengths that help the other, and each should be able to buoy up the other’s weaknesses. You need to understand your own strengths and keep this in mind as you search for a co-writer or writing partner.

Must Play Well With Others

Even the most compatible, peace-loving co-writers or writing partners will, on occasion, argue, and that’s not a bad thing. Different points of view are an integral part of collaboration. It is precisely the reason for getting together. Sharing differing views of the same project brings life to the final product.

Have Some Respect

I’ve emphasized the importance of knowing yourself and your prospective co-writer or writing partner, but it’s equally important to know their work. If you don’t, read something they’ve written. Request a writing sample and offer one of yours. If you don’t have respect for their writing (or vice versa), run don’t walk to the next candidate.
In the end, no one can know if writing together will work until they’ve tried it.

So choose the most promising co-writer or writing partner and see if it clicks. You just never know.

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VINTAGE 1950s: Around the World in 80 Days

August 3, 2020 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as Craft, creativity

The movie was based on an adventure novel by Jules Verne written in 1873. The movie had an all star cast with David Niven, Cantinflas, Shriley MacLaine, and Robert Newton, with cameo appearances of many others. It was released October 17. 1956 in the US.

To win a bet, a British inventor, his Chinese valet and an aspiring French artist, leave on a trip to explore the world where they experience adventures and danger as they travel around the world in exactly eighty days.

The movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won five, beating out critically and publicly praised films like Friendly Persuasion, The Ten Commandments, Giant and The King and I.

Many of the balloon scenes with Niven and Cantinflas were filmed using a 160-foot (49 m) crane. Even that height bothered Niven, who was afraid of heights. Tom Burges, who was shorter than Niven, was used as a stand-in for scenes where the balloon is seen from a distance.

Added note:

In 2017 Mark Beaumont, a British cyclist inspired by Verne, set out to cycle across the world in 80 days. He departed from Paris on July 2 and completed the trip in 78 days, 14 hours and 40 minutes.

For a waltz down memory lane, Here is the trailer to the movie. Enjoy!

Published authors Will Zeilinger and Janet Lynn had been writing individually until they got together and wrote the Skylar Drake Mystery Series. These hard-boiled tales are based in old Hollywood of 1955. Janet has published seven mystery novels, and Will has three plus a couple of short stories. Their world travels have sparked several ideas for murder and crime stories. This creative couple is married and lives in Southern California.

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HOW TO FINISH YOUR BOOK. . .AND KEEP YOUR DAY JOB

July 3, 2020 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as Craft, time management, writing craft

When do you write? This is a common question people always ask us. And it all comes down to time management and what you can do working around your family and work schedule.

Both of us use to go into work 1-2 hours early each morning just to write. We brought our lap tops and clicked away until it was time to start work. Egg timers are great for working an hour at a time. Don’t forget to bring your breakfast. Some people prefer to stay later at work which may work better for you. Be sure to plan at least an hour or more at a time.

Look for gaps in your day, including breaks, waiting for the mail, or meetings. Basically anytime you may have a few minutes, i.e., typing, or writing a note for characterization, dialogue or sub plot in a writing notebook, on a napkin/piece or scrap paper/paper towel and pocket it. You never know when inspiration will hit. Nothing is more frustrating than coming up with a fantastic idea, telling yourself you’ll remember and when it comes down to writing…forgetting.

Keep up the good writing.

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