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Can you have a family while studying for an MFA in creative writing? More generally, can you have a family, a dayjob, and still have a writing life?

I discussed that with Paul Malmont in the video interview above, trying to figure out how he managed to write The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril without wrecking his marriage.

It's good advice he gave, but these are tough questions that sink more novels than writer's block. Writing requires a discipline and dedication that can easily be disrupted by children and other family concerns. Then you have to factor in all the anti-social habits encouraged by a writing life, staring off into space, drinking, and solitude.

The Creative Writing MFA blog is debating the issue right now, and Mike had this interesting, sober advice for married couples:

"You need to have really good communication about what each of your needs are. You need to be willing to do things like skip a gathering or a cool event to do something really mundane like vacuum and do dishes. It'll isolate you from other people in your program a bit, but it'll keep your spouse from resenting your busy-ness. You also need to be willing to lose sleep."