I can't impress enough upon people that if you tell an honest story that people relate to and people believe and invest in, you can do anything.
You can have all the tools in the world but if you don't genuinely believe in yourself, it's useless.
It's not that I bounce ideas off of my children as much as it is that having children has had a profound effect on the way I see the world. They have mined my soul. They've made me a better person and therefore a more empathetic writer.