Face it, there’s a reason you’re not getting an agent: it’s not because your writing sucks. If your writing sucked, you wouldn’t be getting encouraging emails from agents saying they are sure it will find a market at some point. You would be getting only standard boring-as-hell, form-rejection letters that probably don’t have your name […]
[ Read More...]Want help? Give it. Part 1.
Authors in grad school often make pacts like the ones in dweeby marriage movies “whichever of us gets published first will pull the other up by our coattails” (okay marriage movies have them swearing they’ll marry each other, but just go with the bloggish half-metaphor….) – point is, once one of the pair gets their […]
[ Read More...]Can you transition well?
Transitions. I can’t do them. How the heck do successful writers who are parents manage to transition from working on their novel to being the person who has to pick up the kid at school on time? Here’s the scenario: I’m hard at work on a section that has been impossible, a scene in which […]
[ Read More...]Freelance Writing with Kids, Pros & Cons
Cons of Freelance Writing with Kids • Children interrupt: whether intentionally or not, if they are around, they will need you every 5-10 minutes, or when they’re older, every hour. And when they are not there, often you’ll catch yourself wondering what they are doing. Or worse, school calls. Your writing may reflect these constant breaks. […]
[ Read More...]Writing as a Parent
So I’m often asked whether Pen Parentis is for people who write about parenting. Our mission is quite the opposite: we want to encourage writers to continue on the creative track they were on before they had kids. That said, parents need to build college funds – or just pay rent! – and in a […]
[ Read More...]Pen Parentis theoretically enters the blogosphere.
Hello! Walking back from kindergarten drop off today, I spoke with a doctor/mom whose husband is an award-winning journalist. “It’s hard on him,” she told me, “because of course he could theoretically volunteer at the school all the time.” And isn’t that the crux of being a writer/parent? Working at our own pace, we theoretically […]
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