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Replace Daddy with Mommy on that picture. So, things tend to get screwy when you have kids and summer hits. Camps are so expensive that you might as well mortgage the house or sell a kidney. Not your own kidney since that only nets you one year, so you’d only prolong the inevitable mortgage. For some parents, the only option is to either work from home or bring the kid to work. This is especially true for authors, so what are some things you can do?
- Maintain a list of minor projects and tasks that you can do while the kids are playing nearby. These are things you can easily stop and walk away from such as social media, scheduling blog posts, or even tinkering with other ideas. In some ways, the partial focus could help with the third idea because you’ll be running on subconscious thought to some extent.
- Use your nights and, if possible, weekends to make progress on big projects. A chapter here and there might not be a bad thing. If you can get even part of one finished after the kid goes to sleep then it’s a step in the right direction. A danger here is that you don’t want to pull too many late nights. Young kids get up early and they won’t really care if you stayed up late. Not to mention this can lead to them making breakfast for themselves. Enjoy the emergency cleaning and grocery shopping.
- Set your child up with an art project at a table where you can work as well. You might have to break your concentration a bit, but you’ll know where your child is. At most, you will have to look up to praise their work or get more supplies. Keep cleaning supplies nearby, especially paper towels in case they knock over a liquid that races towards your laptop or manuscript.
- If your child is old enough then let them entertain themselves for part of the day. It can be indoors with toys and you sit nearby to work on your own stuff. Good weather means playing outside, which means you can set up on the patio or bring out a small table. As long as you’re watching your child, things should be fine, but at a certain age, you don’t have to hover.
- Doesn’t hurt to ask grandparents, aunts, or uncles who live nearby if they want to watch your kids for a few hours. You can’t do this very often and it depends a lot on how supportive they are of your writing, but it can’t hurt to ask. Sweeten the deal with a home-cooked meal or store-bought ice cream for all.
- Turn your focus more to reading and reviewing other authors instead of your own projects. While you might not make progress with your own stuff, these things can maintain your activity in the author community.
- Put everything on the back burner, relax, and enjoy time with your kid. Before you know it, they won’t want to play games with you and then another blink of the eye will see them as an adult. Enjoy the fun while it lasts.
Amazon has done a service making self-publishing within reach of everyone. But Alana Semuels’s essay, starting with the subtitle (“The e-commerce giant has finally made self-publishing lucrative”), misleads readers about the true state of things. While self-publishing is a great model for some authors, for many others it is not an option. In particular, journalists, nonfiction writers, teachers, and academics need advances in order to write a book, because they have to take time off from work. Only a traditional publisher gives authors money up front to help them research and write.
