Can you successfully write while also being a parent? NaNo Participant Desiree S. Brown confidentially says yes, you can do both. Desiree offers heartfelt words of inspiration to other author-parents out there.

My eyes were heavy with sleep as I plodded over to my son’s crib. I remember holding him in a state of awe, but I was also terrified. I hadn’t written in months—not from lack of trying—and had just emerged from a digital rabbit hole.

Desperate for pointers from seasoned author-parents, I asked Google, “How do authors write while raising kids?”

I expected encouragement, but found Lauren Sandler’s essay The Secret to Being Both a Successful Writer and Mother: Have Just One Kid and Cyril Connolly’s famous quote: “There’s no more somber enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.”

You can write and be a parent.

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