by Julie Le Blanc
All you need to get back to writing is one sentence a night.
Let me explain.
When my baby arrived, I wish I could say I had a stash of stories ready for that first round of edits once I’d emerged, moth-like and ethereal, from my maternity cocoon.
Instead, it felt like stepping out of a nuclear bunker.
What is this random page?
What does this note mean?
Never mind fear of the white page. I couldn’t even get near a laptop. Setting up my laptop felt too difficult when I didn’t have enough hands. Also, who was that person who wrote before? They didn’t feel like who I was now.
But what I did have—playing soft, dreamy music in the darkness of my baby’s room—was my smartphone.
The Parent Toolkit
I’ve tried all of these at one point or another postpartum. Some of them I use all the time, and others I pick up and set down as needed. Please feel inspired to do the same. That’s the first piece of advice.
Tell yourself, I am allowed to try.
And unlike what Yoda says, I can promise you that if you try, you will succeed. One sentence at a time.
1. The One Sentence Wonder
Open the notes app on your phone. Find a good spot to nestle near enough to hear your child breathing but not so close that light would wake them.
The best time for me ended up being just after I breastfed, but before I jumped into a quick cup of tea and/or chores. Alone with them sleeping sweetly next to me in the dark, I’d write one sentence.
That’s it. That’s literally the only step.
The magic of this approach is that you will always write at least one sentence.
I say “always,” but you know what I mean. It’s hard to think you can’t write just one sentence. Even if it’s just:
“Really?” she asked.
The magic comes right after that. You’ve jump-started your brain into thinking about the scene.
Sometimes, I’d do my one sentence and call it a day.
But often, I’d write more than one sentence.
You will forget what happened sometimes, and you might benefit from a quick reread before you write. But you’re a writer. Reading’s pretty fun too.
With just one sentence a night, what do you have to lose?
2. Voice Memos
Maybe typing takes too long, so if the baba is eating or playing and something comes to mind re: your writing, it’s easy enough to (secure the child with duct tape and a safety harness and) leave yourself a quick voice memo.
This is especially good for those who are breastfeeding and might have only one hand available, or those with monster work commutes. Call yourself. Leave a message at the tone. Because that idea will most likely have disappeared by the time you get home.
3. The Art Supply Thief
Raise your hand if you are the crafting parent.
That doesn’t mean you have to be good with crafts, only that you have access to colored paper, wax crayons, and the key to the safe that contains the scissors. And the sticky tape, for some reason.
I find investing in a small notebook, a good cardigan with enormous pockets, and whatever colorful marker your toddler last tried to use as a teething ring works wonders to ensure you have the bare minimum to take some notes for yourself.
None of the elements in this toolkit are meant to be silver bullets. It’s more about how you can get out of your own way, while still giving yourself the dynamic, amorphous time-eating space you need to parent your new human. And having 24/7 access to a pen and paper? Priceless.
4. Sleep Brainstorm when the Baby’s Sleeping
Ah, that sage little walnut. Sleep while the baby’s sleeping.
You know what I like more than sleep?
Writing my first draft.
It must be said that some babies might not sleep well at night, and that makes every aspect of parenting harder, never mind finding a moment to be creative. So please, be kind to yourself if the best way to refuel your writing tank is to follow that age-old advice. Get what sleep you can and consider coming back to this advice once your little one enters a period of more regular sleep.
If you’re too tired but also incredibly stubborn, the next best thing is to lie down beside them and brainstorm. If your fantasy world really does use live snakes as currency, what would that mean for other aspects of their world? If you have a pen and paper or a tablet around, you could even write down your ideas for later.
You might drift off, which is no bad thing; you might also get a bit of worldbuilding sorted out. Win-win.
5. Doe-a-Deer Mnemonics
Listen, Ms. Rachel’s songs will be stuck in your head anyway: Let’s take the reins here and use them to help us remember things when all other methods have failed us.
Perhaps today you don’t have any pockets. And you forgot to plug in your phone. And the baby skipped their nap.
Kids love music, and mine loves it when we make up songs together. This piece of advice is more for parents of toddlers than babies, but if that’s you, tell your kid you’re gonna sing a song about a mermaid, mentally bring up the backstory of your character, and start trying to rhyme on the fly. They’ll think it’s hilarious, and they don’t need to know that it’s from your sea-shanty-themed WIP. And if you both collapse into giggles, it’ll just stick in your mind even easier.
A Final Note
In the end, I promise you, you’ll have something.
But please be kind: Know that any inevitable imperfections don’t mean your work is garbage. Heck, the first draft is always the hardest.
I’ve managed to complete the first draft of a short story this way. It took me about two months, and it’s now ruminating quietly in a drawer for me to return to it and start the process again.
Is this strategy perfect?
Would I rather be able to sit down and do hours of creative work at a time, in the flow-state, on a sunny afternoon with zero commitments?
Well, sure. But I wouldn’t trade that for being a parent in a million years.
So I do what parents have done for millennia. I adapt. I drink my tea lukewarm-to-cold. And I find new ways to catch that creative spark.
I know you can do this too.
You’re a writer, after all.
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Julie Le Blanc is a speculative fiction writer living in the west of Ireland. Her stories have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Diabolical Plots, and Cast of Wonders. Her nonfiction about Old Irish literature and mythology has been published by Wiley-Blackwell and Brepols. She also once wrote a PhD about the Irish war-goddess, the Morrígain, and got away with it. You can find her drinking lukewarm tea and crocheting while the baba sleeps at www.julieleblancwrites.com.