How do you keep writing when other family members are home, potentially interrupting you?
It takes a lot of discipline to maintain a regular writing routine.
Yet most writers manage it. We have to. In the end, it’s the only way to get the words on the page.
Sometimes, however, the task becomes extra difficult.
Spouses and partners may be working from home. Kids may be home schooled. Or parents may be sharing a living space with adult children.
What to do?
Below are five ideas that may help you continue to get your writing done even when your living situation isn’t optimal for it.
5 Ways Writers Can Keep Writing
1. Find New Ways to Escape
Head out to your favorite café or the library to write. Get in your car (if you have one).
I’ve gotten a lot of writing done in the car. You can take off, park somewhere, and write away with no one bothering you.
It’s also a good way to write quickly because the isolation is total, which encourages focus and concentration. You can drive somewhere nearby, write, and return within 45 minutes or less.
Other options for escape include nearby parks or any other outdoor location where you can get some space. Simply take along a folding chair and set it up when you arrive. Even if it’s a little chilly, this option can work, as the chill will get you writing quickly so you can finish!
Get creative with your escape options. Sometimes getting away is the only way you can get any work done.
Keep Writing Tip 2. Take Shifts with Your Partner
If you and your partner are at home and you have kids, try scheduling shifts throughout the day so that one of you can work while the other keeps an eye on the kids.
Most of us can’t work intensely for longer than a few hours anyway, so give each other about 1-4 hours at a time, then swap.
You may find that you get quite a bit done in that time—there’s something about knowing you have only a short amount of time that stimulates the brain to higher levels of productivity.
Even if you don’t have kids, this can be an effective way to trade off quiet time in the home office with your partner. Particularly if you have only one computer setup that you’re now having to share, this can make that process a little easier.
3. Wear Everyone Out Early On
Exercise is good for everyone, and parents (and partners) know that it’s easier to get people to sit down, relax, and be quiet after they’ve finished a vigorous workout.
You may not be able to go to the gym, but you can take a fast walk or jog, go for a bike ride, pull on your inline skates, or engage in a game of basketball with your family members.
If you live in an area where you can’t exercise outside, get creative. Everyone can do an exercise video or a video game exercise routine. Set up a game of badminton in the basement or pull up some kid-friendly routines on YouTube.
Use nerf balls and trashcans to create your own game in the living room, or simply time some running relays back and forth to see how fast everyone can go. As long as you participate too, everyone can have a little fun.
Once the group is tired, fed, and ready to relax, set them up for a nap or a movie and go get some writing done. You may be tired too, but studies have found that sometimes a little weariness promotes creativity, as it gets the editing brain out of the way.
Keep Writing Tip 4. Set Up Daily Quiet-Time Boxes
We talked about the importance of setting up a daily routine in a former post, “How to Avoid Completely Wasting Your Time When Trapped at Home.”
In that routine, it’s also wise to set up a daily quiet time—a time when everyone knows they will be expected to engage in some sort of quiet activity, adults included.
If you set up this time early on, it will become an expected thing, and everyone will grow used to it. Particularly if you do something active early on in the day, it will be easier for all to accept a quiet time later on.
You can use real cardboard boxes or plastic storage ones. The point is to provide a place where everyone can store the materials they need for their quiet time activities.
It’s up to each person what to include, but here are some ideas:
- Yarn and needles for knitting or crocheting
- Coloring books or sketch pads and pens, pencils, crayons, markers, or charcoals
- Legos or other building toys
- Puzzles
- Models—airplanes, trains, ships, cars, anything that requires building
- Whittling materials
- Books and magazines
- Playdough
- Various arts and crafts projects
- Pen and paper or your laptop for writing
- Journals
Adults can also simply write down some of the activities they’d like to do during quiet time and drop that list in the box. It’s best if everyone creates a box so that the quiet time feels equal for all members of the family.
Keep Writing Tip 5. Create At-Home “Do Not Disturb” Rules
If everyone is home, it can be helpful to communicate as a family about your “do-not-disturb” rules.
Everyone is likely to need some time now and then to be by themselves, whether to work or write or simply to get away from everyone.
For a fun family activity and to cement your new rules, get together and make signs to hang on your bedroom doors.
Let everyone get creative doing it, then go over what it means when a sign is hanging on that door. When is it okay or not okay to knock? Discuss how everyone’s right to individual time should be respected, and what the consequences will be for breaking the rules.
By the way, if you’d rather not make your own sign, here’s one on Amazon that may work for you. There are many other options available as well that can give you some ideas for how you can have fun with this.
How do you manage to work at home with partners and children?
Thanks! My suggestion is to write something that is simpler to write. If you normally write long complex emotionally charged novels, just write some non-fiction.
Some authors have blogged about a year of no waste or no clutter or no internet, this might be another time to use well by removing plastic or junk food from your family’s life. And when you have enough posts you can consolidate them into a book.
Non-fic is a great deal more straightforward to write, even if you’re writing a history, and your editing skills will be kept sharp.
Nice suggestion, Clare. Thanks! As you say, non-fiction is more straightforward to write, and may be easier for some to churn out in short periods of time.
Great post. I love the suggestion of getting in the car–I might try that. My kids are older (the youngest is 17, and all three of them are at home now), so I find what works best for me is simply a pair of headphones and some instrumental music playing quietly. That way I don’t hear what everyone is doing and I get the words in.
Ah, the blessed headphones. Thanks, Amy! And yes, I love the car escape–really works!