Five and a half years ago, my writing career finally seemed on the verge of taking off. I’d just published my first novel, I’d finished writing Publishing E-Books For Dummies, which was to be published by Wiley, and I’d launched an online membership site for writers.
Then I got pregnant.
This was, of course, a lovely and joyous occasion. It was also – as you might imagine – the start of my writing career grinding to a halt.
A couple of years on, with a nearly two year old daughter and a newborn son, a great writing day involved 15 minutes of writing while their naps (briefly) overlapped.
If you have young children, I’m sure you know what it’s like. Kids take up a huge amount of your time and energy – not just with feeding, changing and playing, but also all the extra laundry and food prep. Not to mention the broken nights.
I’m someone who likes to move fast, and it’s been hard to realize that I simply can’t write and work in the same way as I could pre-kids. It’s also been tough to watch other writers, without kids, zoom on ahead of me in their careers.
If you’re fairly new to parenthood, I’m sure you’ll have been through many of the same emotions. Some well-meaning friends or family members may tell you to “enjoy every moment” of your kids being young, or that the most important thing is to just focus on your children right now.
Please don’t let that sort of advice become a massive guilt trip.
Don’t give in to writers’ guilt
When I’ve surveyed the writers I know, or looked at the discussions cropping up in writing-related Facebook groups and forums, there’s often a lot of guilt associated with writing.
Writers feel guilty for taking the time to write…and parent writers can be particularly prone to this. It may seem self-indulgent, even selfish, to take the time to write when you could be playing with your kids (or putting on the third load of laundry that day).
On the other hand, many writers also feel guilty for not writing – even when things are really hectic. They feel that they should be writing a certain amount per day, or per week, and they berate themselves for not achieving that.
Today, let go of the guilt. You’re not just a parent – you’re a person in your own right, and there’s nothing at all wrong with taking some time for yourself to do something that you find fulfilling.
At the same time…if you need a break from writing, don’t feel at all bad about taking one. There’s honestly no “rule” that says you should write every day, or write a certain amount each week.
Three crucial steps for carrying on writing when you have kids
If you do want to keep up at least some writing while your children are young, here are three crucial things to do:
1. Negotiate with your partner
Unless your partner is also a writer, they won’t automatically know what you need. Tell them!
Be explicit about what you want: “I’d like to spend two hours every Saturday afternoon writing. Could you take the kiddo out to the park?”
(In return, of course, you might make sure that your partner gets a couple of hours every week to focus on something they really want to do.)
If you’re parenting on your own – first, I salute you; I can’t imagine how hard it must be. Can you rope in a friend or family member to help, even once a week, so you can get some time to write?
2. Make the most of the writing time you do have
I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it, but I’ve actually written more fiction since having kids than I did before!
Because I now have to schedule in my writing time, I find that I’m more likely to actually do it – before kids, it was easy to wait for “a free Saturday” or “a whole afternoon” to write.
When you sit down to write, write. You might want to switch off your internet connection and silence your phone.
Short writing sessions can actually be an advantage here: most of my fiction writing happens in 30 minute chunks, and it’s easy to tell myself I can focus for 30 minutes!
3. Don’t be a perfectionist
Writers, I’ve noticed, can have a tendency towards perfectionism. While this can be helpful at times (like when editing), it can also be seriously detrimental.
A couple of sayings that I find useful are, “Good enough is good enough” and “Finished is better than perfect.”
This doesn’t just apply to writing. If you’re struggling to find enough time to write, maybe you need to lower your standards when it comes to chores – or your children.
It won’t do any harm to use ready-made meals or to let them watch a bit of extra TV, if that means you can free up some more time to write.
If you’re about to start a family, or if you have young children, you can absolutely keep writing. You may even find, like I did, that you’re more efficient now that you have less time available.
If, however, you want to take a break from writing while your children are young – then do. It doesn’t have to be one-time decision, either: you might decide to have a year off, but if you change your mind, you can always pick up writing again.
Whatever you decide, remember that you are an important part of your family (just as much as your kids are) and you are absolutely entitled to arrange family life in a way that makes you happy too.
