This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
by Anna Bell
I’m very excited to announce that I’m expecting another baby. When I first found out the news I was ecstatic, and then, once the news sank in, I started to panic. When would I find time to write my books?
One of the things I’ve learnt over my writing career is that you can fit writing into the tiniest of time frames. Yes, it was glorious when I was a full-time writer for a magical four or five months. I wrote whatever hours I wanted to, staying up into the wee hours if the mood took me, or keeping office hours if I wanted to feel more normal. Before that magical time I had to fit my writing around my day job, and the full-time writing didn’t last as long as hoped thanks to the house renovations and then Baby Bell. Now, I simply have to make the most of every opportunity I get to write. Be gone Buzzfeed quizzes and Pinterest lusting – there’s now no room for procrastination.
I’ve got myself into a pretty good writing routine. I write intensively three mornings a week when Baby Bell is at nursery. That’s when I get the bulk of my work done. I then squeeze other sessions into his nap times and, if I’m feeling very conscientious, I write in the evenings, but that’s a rare occurrence these days. I’m really intrigued as to how the new baby is going to fit into my writing plans, but I learnt just how unpredictable and different babies can be when I had Baby Bell. I’ve just got to go with it, and reassure myself that it will work, but until it happens I won’t be able to plan how.
I remind myself that I’m not the first author to have babies. I’m Facebook friends with a lot of authors who have a lot more kids than me – writers who homeschool their children and writers who have twins and triplets. I even know an author who published two books in five months and had a baby in the middle of them. If they can all find time to write books then so can I. 
When I was pregnant the first time I remember reading a post on Facebook by a real-life friend saying that she wanted to write a book whilst on maternity leave and another of her friends telling her she’d never have time. I remember gulping and thinking that I had a publishing contract and I had to write whilst on maternity leave. But I shouldn’t have worried. I managed to write and edit a book, as well as copy edit and proof read another two. Looking back, I have no idea how I did that with a baby that never wanted to sleep, but I did. I squeezed writing into a few hours when my husband could babysit at the weekend. I wrote more when I finally got Baby Bell to sleep on his own in a cot – leaving me able to work for an hour or two a night – and I even remember standing up at my kitchen island typing whilst rocking Baby Bell in a sling. In short, I coped because I had to.
So, as my family starts to increase, do any authors have any top tips of how to squeeze writing in around the family?
photo via