Are you writing with young children at home? Please come and talk to me!

[Exhaustipated]

I am trying to write my first novel with a preschooler and a baby at home. Madness, I know, but I would love any tips/experiences/general chat with anyone who is doing this or has done this...

I have a few hours a week of daytime writing time, plus when the kids are in bed. But I'm always often exhausted by that time, so it's hard. How do others do it? Inspiring stories and moans equally welcome :)

[TunipTheUnconquerable]

I don't deliberately get up early to write but if I wake up early I usually can't get back to sleep so I get up and write on the sofa with a blanket round my shoulders until a child gets up and disturbs me. I love those times but they're quite rare because often someone will wake up and come down and demand breakfast and CBeebies.

I did once try the getting up early thing after I read Hilary Mantel saying she found 'morning pages' really useful and wished she'd started it before (you write whatever comes to mind and it's meant to be a good way to access the exciting stuff that's going on in your subconscious) but I found it completely incompatible with kids - getting time before a child wakes up doesn't happen reliably no matter how early I get up, and after the school run I'm just not in a zone where I can relax enough to let random words flow.

[TunipTheUnconquerable]

Good luck with the new book BigPaws. It sounds like a long road but it's really only two or three months for the first draft if you do 1000 words a day!

[BitScary]

So many writers say that about morning pages, Tunip.
I find the ones who say that aren't usually the mothers of small children

[Thisisaghostlyeuphemism]

Congratulations bit scary! How's it feel?

Youngest dc started school in sept so I've been writing a lot more - only bizarrely I haven't.

It does feel self indulgent sometimes...

Drink, feck, arse - I'm writing sitcom too - or comedy drama(?) pm me if you fancy exchanging ideas, critiquing moaning etc.

[BitScary]

Thanks! Yeah, lots of people have been asking me how it feels and the truth is that not much has changed. Getting on with the next project is vital, it's move on or die
Wish you lots of productivity now you have some time.

[Thisisaghostlyeuphemism]

Hmm now I have time I have no more excuses left. Eek.

Have you had to do any promotion stuff bit scarey? Have you got a contract for book two?

[BitScary]

Yes to promotion stuff and no to second contract. Mine is a small indie press, indie presses don't tend to do that 3-book contract thing you get with the big publishing houses. More take each book as it comes.

[BitScary]

By the way - Exhaustipated how are you doing? Are you getting any writing done?

[00StoryTeller00]

I do a couple if hours a night, whenever possible, when the kids are in bed. You have to snap in and out of it. If I don't write I get very grumpy+ frustrated. Go through phases when I'm too tired, and leave it a few days e.g. when kids are unwell.

[claudeekishi]

Hello - just bumping to see how everyone's doing. Anybody writing with DC and a job too?

[claudeekishi]

Just going to bump this every now and then in case there are others out there craving a stint at the desk :)

Small child is currently thwarting my attempts to get up early -- no matter how early and quiet I am getting up she seems to have a special radar. Hope there are some of you out there making progress!

[Weliveinabeautifulworld]

I have kept up with my New Year's resolution to write 220 words per day, so I now have 10,780 words of my novel written

[claudeekishi]

Welive, that is brilliant, a really great achievement. My daily word count target was 500 words but that's not quite as realistic as yours. I'm making a bit of progress though, am probably floating somewhere around the 15-18,000 word count at the moment. Don't want to stop and examine things too much.
How old are your children?

[Weliveinabeautifulworld]

16mo and 34mo :)

[claudeekishi]

That must be a handful! You definitely need one of these! Well done.

[Weliveinabeautifulworld]

claudeekishi Hi :) How is your writing going? Do you hand write or compute it?

I use Word so I can find out easily how many words I have written.

I have been so lazy the last 3 days. I should have written 12320 words by now but instead I have only written 11483 ... so I still have 837 words to write by the end of the day to reach my daily target!

[okthen]

Hi, I am out there... 2 kids aged 4 and 1, a part time (full on!) job.... And for some reason now is the time I decide to write the novel that has been brewing for years!

I write for 1-2 full evenings a week rather than little bits daily. Have resolved to finish it by end of year. Am around 40k words in so it is going well! Hard to motivate myself after kids are in bed, toys cleared away, dinner eaten etc tho...