A lot of people ask us how we can work
together being that we are married? It is not as hard as it seems
from the outside and is much like any other working relationship
other then that we see each other at the end of the workday as well.
Of course we’ve been working together for more than a dozen years
now so we’ve had the time to figure out who is good at what.
The key is really finding out what your
co-writer is good at and what he likes to do, along with his favorite
hours to work (Is he a morning person?) and how he likes to work
(Does the work environment have to be absolutely silent?). And the
same goes for you – and then with that information you can figure
out if you can work in the same space or whether separate office
space is the key for your situation.
For the first 6 years we shared a
single computer, in one small office – but that only worked because
Lillian is a morning person who burns out by 3 or 4 in the afternoon,
and she likes to go to bed between 9-11 PM. Whereas Dave likes to
stay up until the wee hours of the morning – this is when he is
most productive in the office. So we work with our natural time
clocks.
We’ve learned that Dave is very good
with face-to-face and group situations, whereas Lillian is a bit shy
that way and doesn’t like being the center of attention. Instead
she is better at dealing with the media and one-on-one situations.
Dave has great skills in editing, proofing, layout, and graphics. He
also has talents in website maintenance, handling the tax book
entries, book cover design, conception development, and setting up
technological upgrades in the office. Whereas Lillian has strong
typing, record keeping, organization, manuscript development, and
research skills. She enjoys communicating with the media, handles the
queries and marketing, hosts the Conscious Discussions Talk Radio
show and manages the daily blog: Brummet’s Conscious Blog.
So we split off where we can to do our separate things, but then meet
up again in the middle.
Quite often we break away from the
office and the home, go out for a hike or clear our minds by a river
or lake and then come back to the office with a better understanding
of where we are at and where we hope to go. Having brainstorming
sessions is very important, and just plain talking about what we are
doing can reveal things one of us hadn’t considered.
It can also be a challenge to let go of
some things, to understand that the other person can’t get to
something at the moment, or that they are unable to complete a
project right now due to some delay, or that they are having a grumpy
moment and need to yell at the walls for a moment. Co-writers have to
realize that each person works at their own pace, they have their own
strengths and weakness, and their own ideas as to what is a priority.
But there are technological challenges and ‘things we’d love to
get to but don’t yet have the time for’ that rise up as well. We
find the best thing to do is to list these and then in the next
meeting have a discussion about them – even if all we do is confirm
they are still on the agenda.
The most important aspects to getting
along all these 22 years we’ve been together is common courtesy and
mutual respect. You see, it doesn’t really matter “why” the
other person wants something done a certain way – if they need it
to be that way, and we care about them – then, what’s the big
deal about making the adjustment for them? Too many of us become
hardened and expect more from the other than we are giving of
ourselves.
As human beings we can also come to
rely on another person, and they perceive this as ingratitude – so
we make sure to let the other person know they are appreciated and to
give them credit for the things they’ve accomplished or
contributed.
There is no doubt that without these
collaborative efforts we’d never have accomplished so much in so
little a time.
~
Award winning authors Lillian & Dave Brummet produce and host the
Conscious Discussions talk radio show where they frequently highlight
world of writing genre topics, and manage the Brummet’s Conscious
Blog, where they occasionally feature Q&A interviews with other
authors about their experiences in the realm of writing. To date they
have written 5 published books including the guide for authors:
Purple Snowflake Marketing – How To Make Your Book Stand Out In A
Crowd. They have another poetry book coming out in late 2013/early
2014, and have 2 more manuscripts in the works. Visit their site to
learn more about everything the Brummets do: www.brummet.ca
