My Drafting Summer
Or, how I'm going to write 40K words with 2 kids home all summer
I have 40,000 words to write in order to finish this draft.
I just received some new client work to finish before the end of the month.
My husband, a fellow teacher, has taken on 3 big projects to prepare for next school year.
And we have 2 kids under 10 at home, newly freed from school and facing down 10 weeks of summer vacation.
A few weeks ago I was panicking. How would we make it all work? Our previous summers have been a haphazard pastiche of half-day camps, swim lessons that require intense preparations, and babysitters cobbled from an increasingly narrow list of former students still in town. Sounds promising, right? I’d typically start each summer dreaming of all the writing I’d accomplish, and then reality would set in. Those precious few hours of camp or babysitting would fly by. Work while the kids are playing? Forget it. I don’t know about your kids, but mine have a sixth sense for when we’re sitting down comfortably with a book or a laptop. We become homing beacons for them and their burning questions and phantom pains. If I got any work done at all, I felt like I was failing both to devote myself to my writing and to pay attention to my kids.
By the time August rolled around, I was lucky if I’d drafted 10,000 words.
But this summer will be different.
Back in February, I chatted about family dynamics with friends on a writing retreat. Specifically, how to get creative work done while juggling the demands of school-age kids. My friend had a gloriously simple idea. So simple I was shocked we hadn’t thought of it already. But that’s been part of my own parenting journey; I get so stuck in my routines that I can’t even imagine another routine until someone bonks me over the head with it.
Her suggestion: if you have a co-parent, alternate days of childcare and childfree work. So on Monday, Parent A is responsible for all lunches, drop-offs, pickups, and activities with kids, while Parent B is working. On Tuesday, swap.
Parent A is kid-focused on Monday. Parent B is work-focused. And then it all switches the next day. Rinse and repeat as needed.
Because both my husband and I teach on an August - early June schedule, this works perfectly for us. This week, due to external obligations, we each get one day of solitary work, plus a babysitter for a few hours in the middle of the week. Next week, we’ll each get more time.
I realize this solution works primarily if you have a cooperative co-parent or spouse, and you both have the flexibility to manipulate your schedules accordingly. But this could be a jumping-off point for your own situation. If you’re solo parenting, maybe you can team up with a friend who also has kids and do a childcare swap, so each of you gets some time alone and some time watching the kids. If you co-parent but have a rigid schedule during the week, consider swapping days (or even half-days) on the weekend. A few solid hours of focused, creative work when you know you’re not the parent responsible can do wonders for your flow state.
As I write this, I’m smack in the middle of Week One of our summer experiment. So far, so good (although that may be because my work day came first, and I’m feeling refreshed and accomplished after a day of drafting). I’m excited to see what impact this has on both my and my husband’s projects.
If you’re struggling to get your creative work done with school-age kids home for the summer, what are your plans? If you don’t have kids at home, how do you balance obligations with your creative work? Let me know in the comments!
…and the Kitchen Sink
Reading
Little One by Olivia Muenter - I’ve been listening to the Bad on Paper podcast, co-hosted by authors Muenter and Becca Freeman, for a few months, and I finally decided to listen to one of their books. Man, I’m glad I did. Little One explores what happens when Catharine, who grew up in a hyper-restrictive society (cough CULT cough), is forced to reckon with her past as a journalist asks uncomfortable questions. I flew through this. Bonus: the audiobook is narrated by Helen Laser, who does a fantastic job with unreliable protagonists and seems to be everywhere these days.
Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser - Recommended by a friend. You’ve probably heard about this one, and it is every bit as good as everyone says it is. Lady Tremaine is THE wicked stepmother, but this time we’re hearing her side of the story. She’s a sympathetic and thoughtful protagonist, and Hochhauser beautifully constructs the lush, gritty world she inhabits.
Watching
I’m in the middle of two early screeners for shows coming out on BritBox this summer/fall. I can share that one is a new adaptation of A Woman of Substance, premiering in the U.S. on June 24, and it’s JUICY. I never saw the original 1980s miniseries, but this feels like Downton Abbey and Bridgerton had an illegitimate child. So, so fun.
We’re also rewatching Gravity Falls as a family. It’s the quintessential summer kids show for me, with bizarre supernatural occurrences and plucky kids navigating it all. It’s just spooky enough to feel thrilling, but my six-year-old doesn’t find it scary.
Cooking
I’m having fun trying out vegan recipes, and the Ethiopian red lentil stew from Nisha Vora’s Big Vegan Flavor did not disappoint. I went lighter on the berebere spice but it was still plenty hot for us, perfect to scoop up with warm bread.