My Struggle With Grit During Motherhood

Cambri Morris
2 days ago
3 min read

A mother holding her baby close and smiling — Becoming a Mother

If you’re a stay-at-home parent, you probably feel like I have. Even though you love your kids so much, and you wouldn’t trade them for the world, you repeatedly find yourself exhausted, overwhelmed, and hopeless when it comes to pouring time into your goals.

I had a baby six months ago, and since then, I’ve struggled to work on my writing career. I’ve found that my desire to write increased, but my time and energy did the opposite. It became really frustrating, and I’ve considered giving up, or at least putting my career on hold until my son is in school.

Those were not happy thoughts.

I needed to change something to give myself more time and energy to write. We can’t afford childcare, so I can’t take time off from being a mom. How on Earth could I squeeze writing (and marketing, and rewriting, and editing, and querying, etc.) into just a few hours of nap time?

Surround Yourself With Media That Will Make You Want to Write

I started by increasing the amount of writing content I consumed. I started listening to “Writing Excuses” by Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells. At first, it was just educational and entertaining. However, as I binged my way through the episodes while walking, breastfeeding, and playing with my baby, I started to feel something. Something hot and active.

A neon sign that says, "You are what you listen to"

I was jealous. I was jealous of these successful authors who have what I want. I started spiraling: I’m never going to get an agent. I’ll never be able to be a mom and an author at the same time. I’ll have to wait until my kids are grown before I can achieve my dream.

Then, I listened to a “Writing Excuses” episode where they edited Brandon Sanderson’s first-ever book. The few short paragraphs they read were so much worse than my own current writing level (sorry, Brandon, I love you). It was a huge boost in confidence that I could someday become as successful as those authors.

If You Want to Be a Full-Time Writer, You Need to Treat It Like a Full-Time Job

I’ve heard many times that if you want to be a successful author, you have to treat writing like your full-time job. I thought that this meant working from 9–5 (impossible, in my situation), but I recently learned that isn’t the case. After all, not every job is 9–5.

To treat your writing like a full-time job, you need:

Consistent, dedicated writing time multiple times a week
Support from those you live with so that they will respect that time
The grit to get your butt in that chair, as if doing so will put food on the table
Sacrificing some of your hobby time

Making Time Instead of “Finding” Time

Okay, so you need to treat writing like a full-time job. Great. But how do you find the time? That is the wrong question, my friend.

A day planner — Create a Writing Schedule

My sister, who is a life coach, walked me through my day-to-day routine and helped me set aside time for both writing and exercise. Neither of which I was doing much of. It’s actually insane to me how much extra time I have now. Somehow, I couldn’t see it before.

If you’re struggling to make time to write, I suggest that you write out your current routine. Then give it some serious thought and circle places where you could spend 30 minutes or more writing. If you’re like me, you’ll find that you spend a lot more time on your phone or watching TV than you thought you did.

Battling Exhaustion and Lack of Motivation

Even if you treat writing like a job and set aside time for it, that doesn’t mean you feel like writing when it’s time to write.

This is where grit becomes really important.

Somehow, you need to dig deep enough into yourself and your reason for writing in the first place. You need to force yourself to get started. Steve Backley said, “It is action that creates motivation.” Once you start writing, you’ll probably find that you feel more motivated to do so.

For me, the motivation came from a combination of listening to “Writing Excuses,” feeling depressed about my lack of progress toward a lifelong goal, and getting excited about a new daily routine (I’m weird about planning and schedules).

Stop Making Excuses

I started my new daily routine today (August 27, 2025), and I got so much writing done. If you really want to be a writer, stop telling yourself that you don’t have time. Carve time out of your schedule and force yourself to show up for your dream every day.