Category Archives for Writing
Staying Motivated as a Professional Writer and Parent
American writer Alice Walker once said that writers should have only one child, because “with one you can move. With more than one you’re a sitting duck.” Yet, with Statista reporting that almost 20 million U.S. families have two children or more, it doesn’t appear that the nation is following Walker’s advice.
Still, if you are a parent-cum-professional writer, it can be difficult to stay motivated to write, regardless of how many children you have. After all, you can’t just pick up your laptop whenever the mood takes you when your kids need bathing, entertaining, or a clean diaper.
But there’s no need to worry! It is entirely feasible to combine parenthood and writing, as long as you know how. This is precisely what this post will help you with.
The tips that follow will ensure that you’re eager to start your new writing project even after a long day of parenting.
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The Price of the Comma Splice
Part of my Master of Fine Arts in fiction offered the opportunity to work as a teaching apprentice and later, an adjunct, in college composition courses. For three semesters, I commuted three hours each way to sit in on, and teach, courses for college students learning how to become stronger readers and writers.
The most common grammatical error I came across was the comma splice. This sneaky devil has appeared outside of academia, too. I’ve seen it on websites, in business publications, and even in a novel.
The instance that stood out the most to me was actually a sentence that was both a run-on and spliced. It had two comma splices. I don’t recall the exact wording, but it went something like this:
It was a difficult time in my life, I learned a lot about change and how to cope with it, I know I can tackle everything college has to throw at me.
A comma splice is when two (or more) independent sentences are separated only by a comma, as in the example above. Basically, it’s an example of glueing the sentence parts together in a way that can confuse the reader.
Comma splices present a unique problem for readers: They make it unclear which clauses or phrases contain the most important information.
You’re probably thinking that unless someone is a grammar guru, they’re not going to care. The truth is that while, yes, some readers might not notice and/or care, there are readers who will notice, and not in a positive way.
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Why Writers Should Learn From the Masters and Take Inspiration From Them
Are writers born to write? It might be true that some have that sparkle of natural raw talent and appear to be a little more articulate or tuned in than others, at the start.
Some might say they’re “quick learners.” Is it genetics? Quite possible.
If you’re one of the slower ones (like I was), don’t be disheartened; both slower and faster learners will end up in the same place so long as they receive the right education, direction, hard work, and mentorship—and that’s in a position of achievement and triumph.
It’s not a race to see who gets there first. The objective is to get there in the end.
There’s a learning process involved before any writer can achieve any degree of success, not only in writing, but in regard to pretty much anything.
Replicating the masters is a great way of teaching yourself and achieving success.
How To Set Writing Challenges to Boost Productivity
When you write for yourself, it is tempting to overlook falling short of your goals. You don’t risk being chewed out by a supervisor or letting down a team, and no one has to know you haven’t produced as much content as you were planning.
The flexibility that comes from being your own boss is freeing and might be a major reason why you chose this path to begin with. But if you take too much advantage of this freedom, you will begin to suffer from a lack of production, leading to a lack of income—which, ironically, restricts your freedom.
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