Tips for Writing with Children

By Jason Boog 

penparentis.jpgWhen asked for suggestions last week, GalleyCat readers delivered a stream of advice for how to keep writing with children. If you are planning, expecting, or dealing with children in your writing life, read on…

One reader advised literary parents to check out Pen Parentis: “an organization whose mission it is to help writers with kids … We are running a Fellowship for New Parents right now as well as hosting an Author Salon where writers with kids can meet others like themselves.”

Clive Young wrote: “I wrote both my books on my commuter train in and out of New York City. It was just long enough for me to get started, excited, and then frustrated that I was at my destination because I was forced to stop even though I wasn’t done yet. That, in turn, was great for keeping things moving forward, because I always knew when I sat down what I wanted/needed to write next. The other upside was that I was the only person on the train who LIKED the LIRR’s delays.”


Maggie Stiefvater wrote: “I gave my kids two hours of ‘quiet time’ each afternoon. They didn’t have to sleep — they could watch a movie or read books or just play in their room. But that was my work time. And then they went to bed at 8 p.m. and I would write two nights a week until 11 p.m. I finished my first novel that way.”

Adrienne Maria Vrettos had this advice: “I work fulltime, so my weekend time is my family time AND my writing time, so when I’m on deadline I sneak out to a coffee shop or the library and try to ignore the mommy guilt, and the sound of the minutes I have left to write ticking down, and then I text my husband to see what they’re doing, and maybe they’d like to stop by for hot chocolate?”