Writer With a Day Job
In Writer With a Day Job by Áine Greaney Learn how to balance a day job and a writing life Find exercises, inspiration, and techniques you need to build creative expression into your daily life. Get quick, practical tutorials to help you master scenes, point of view, characters, settings, dialogue, and more
Writer With a Day Job:
Inspiration & Exercises to Help You Craft a Writing Life Alongside Your Career
by Áine Greaney
Writer's Digest Books, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-1-58297-996-0
ISBN-10: 1-58297-996-0
$17.99 paperback, 240 pages
Find out how to use your lunch break to build your writing life in this excerpt from Chapter 4: Writers, Take Back Your Lunch Hour.
About the Book
Don’t let the daily grind drain your creative energy! Many writers waste time waiting for the day they can finally quit their day jobs and live the so-called writing dream. Don’t wait. You can do both—and your writing will be the better for it.
Balancing a full-time job and a productive writing life is no easy feat, but author Áine Greaney gives you the exercises, inspiration, and techniques you need to build creative expression into your daily life and establish the productive writing life you’ve always wanted.
- Make the most of your writing time early in the morning or late at night.
- Harness the power of your lunch hour for writing, editing, and revising.
- Use your commute—driving or riding—to power your writing.
- Plan the perfect writing getaway.
- Set goals, revise your work, and share your writing with coworkers.
You’ll also get quick, practical tutorials to help you master scenes, point of view, characters, settings, dialogue, and more.
Writer With a Day Job gives you the strategies and motivation you need to work 40 hours a week (or more!) and achieve writing success.
About the Author
Áine Greaney (www.ainegreaney.com) is an Irish-born writer (from County Mayo) now living on Boston’s North Shore. She has published mostly fiction, including the novels Dance Lessons and The Big House and the story collection The Sheepbreaders Dance and Other Stories. She also writes personal essays, features, and wellness and travel articles. She teaches and lectures at various schools, wellness programs, libraries and arts locations.
Her work has appeared in numerous publications (Creative Nonfiction, Natural Bridge, The Larcom Review, The Literary Review, Under the Sun, Stone Canoe, The Sunday Tribune New Irish Writing, Merrimack Valley Magazine, Cyphers, andThe Sunday Boston Globe Magazine) and anthologies (The Fish Anthology, Irish Girls are Back in Town, From the Heart of Ireland, and Lost and Found: An Anthology of Teachers’ Writing).
Table of Contents
Introduction
Section 1: Getting Started
Chapter 1: Setting Goals And Objectives
Tutorial 1: Writing Scenes
Chapter 2: Attitudinal Shifts
Tutorial 2: Point of View
Section 2: Let’s Go! Start The Habit Of Daily Writing
Chapter 3: Build Your Daily Writing Stamina
Chapter 4: Rise 'n' Write: Writing In The Morning
Chapter 5: Journal Writing
Chapter 6: Writing At The End Of Your Day
Chapter 7: Writers And Dreaming
Section 3: Integrating Writing Into Your Work Day
Chapter 8: Drive-time: Thinking Out Loud On The Road
Tutorial 3: Creating Memorable Characters
Chapter 9: All Aboard! Turn Your Train Or Bus Ride Into Writing Time
Tutorial 4: Writing Great Settings
Chapter 10: Before, During And After Work: Grab Your Writing Time When You Can
Chapter 11: Writers, Take Back Your Lunch Hour
Tutorial 5: Writing Dialog
Chapter 12: Truth And Fiction: Writing About Other People—including Your Colleagues
Section 4: Making Your Writing Better: Reviewing And Revising
Chapter 13: Going Back In There: Revisit And Rewrite
Chapter 14: Reviewing And Revising Your Own Work
Tutorial 6: Editing for Creative Writers
Chapter 15: Enlisting Others To Review Your Work
Tutorial 7: Giving and Taking Feedback—and Making those Final Choices
Chapter 16: Writing Away From Home: Writers Retreats And Conferences
Chapter 17: Writing 101: It’s Right There On The Candy Wrapper
Section 5: Author Interviews
Chapter 18: 20 Author Interviews
Jane Friedman is a full-time entrepreneur (since 2014) and has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. She is the co-founder of The Hot Sheet, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and is the former publisher of Writer’s Digest. In addition to being a columnist with Publishers Weekly and a professor with The Great Courses, Jane maintains an award-winning blog for writers at JaneFriedman.com. Jane’s newest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press, 2018).
