Author Jean Henry Mead On Writing Schedules

It’s my pleasure to welcome author Jean Henry Mead as the special guest blogger here today as she makes a stop on her virtual blog tour with her latest release.

Jean’s current release is MURDER ON THE INTERSTATE. Here’s a brief blurb about it: Two feisty 60-year old women sleuths encounter murder, homegrown terrorism, kidnapping and disasters as they travel Arizona in their motor home. The third novel in the Logan & Cafferty mystery/suspense series, MURDER ON THE INTERSTATE will leave you breathless.

Jean stops by today to talk about a steady writing schedule, no matter what.

When I sat down to write this morning, I thought of my long ago interview with bestselling romance novelist Parris Afton Bonds for my book, MAVERICK WRITERS. Parris emphasized the need to write every day. The mother of five lively sons, she wrote between diaper changes as well as on the job, which cost her several secretarial positions before she decided to write full time.

“I write when I’m sick,” she said, “and even as I shove that turkey into the oven on Thanksgiving and Christmas. There are no legal holidays for [professional] writers.”

A steady writing schedule is one of the most important aspects of publishing one’s work. Whether you rise two hours early to write before leaving for your day job, or at night before you go to bed, it needs to be done at least five days a week. Women with small children can schedule their writing time when the young ones are down for a nap, if only for an hour, but the same hour each day until it becomes a habit. But if you only have a few minutes now and then, use that time to jot down notes or bits of dialogue as late Don Coldsmith did on the backs of prescription pads during his daily medical practice.

Marlys Millhiser echoed Parris Bond’s work ethic. She begins writing at 10:00 a.m. and continues until 4:00 in the afternoons. Both writers stressed the fact that you must stay at the computer (or note pad) no matter how difficult the writing is going that day.

“My first draft is pretty bad,” Marlys said. “But no matter how difficult it is, I hang in there. Sometimes you have to backtrack and begin again, but don’t stop to polish a chapter until the first draft is finished. When I’m on a run and the plot floats along, the characters take over and it’s wonderful. But most of the time, I’m just sitting there and sweating it out. And I’ve found, I’m sorry to say, that the stuff I sweated out and got three pages by working my pants off, was about the same quality as when the story just flowed along and I’ve gotten ten pages.”

Brian Garfield, author of “Death Wish” and countless other novels and screenplays, said, “I took up writing partly because some of the stuff that was published seemed so awful and so easy to do, and of course it isn’t easy to do, as you find out when you sit down to try to do it. And it took a long time—a lot of apprenticeship practice before I could write anything that was worth publishing. But you don’t know that until you try. At the time of the interview, he wrote five hours a day, from 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. He could write no longer because of back problems.

I’ve found that if you set your pace, it becomes a habit and before long you’ll feel that you must write during those hours. It becomes as important to those who want to succeed as breathing.

I'm at my computer by eight in the morning, with few exceptions, and write until three or later in the afternoon. A half hour treadmill break gives me a chance to loosen up and recharge my brain cells.

When do you write and how often?

Jean, thanks so much for guest blogging today. You make an excellent point that a steady writing schedule is important. It does help to keep one focused on the task at hand.

Now for a little background on Jean. She is a mystery/suspense and historical western writers. She’s also an award-winning photojournalist and former news reporter and editor. Her 14th book is MURDER ON THE INTERSTATE, the third novel in her Logan & Cafferty mystery/suspense series. Jean also writes a mystery series for middle grade children. MYSTERY OF SPIDER MOUNTAIN was recently released.

You can visit Jean at her website: www.jeanhenrymead.com/ and her blog sites: Mysterious Writers: http://mysteriouspeople.blogspot.com/
Writers of the West: http://writersofthewest.blogspot.com/
Murderous Musings: http://murderousmusings.blogspot.com/
Make Mine Mystery: http://makeminemystery.blogspot.com/
She also has four Facebook pages and is on Twitter.

Now share your writing schedule with us.