by Jenna | Jan 22, 2025 | Writing Articles
When I first started writing fiction regularly (screenwriting, specifically), our first child was quite young — like 3 ½. I really had to “steal” time to make writing happen, mostly from my own sleep schedule (thankfully he was sleeping by that age so at least I wasn’t sleep deprived anymore and could “afford” it).
I got up every day at 6 a.m. to write for about an hour while my husband played with him and got him ready for the day, then I’d hang out with him for a while and take him to preschool. The rest of the day was for my “day job” (my work as a coach).
Later, during an extremely difficult personal life phase, I wrote a script in 15 minutes a day, often late at night just before bed. It took me about 6 months, but given the adversity I was facing, I was thrilled with the accomplishment.
Despite my progress and success (I was hired to write an original script for a producer-director based on a writing sample), I was longing for longer writing days.
Long writing days, or not?
Ironically though, pre-kids, long writing days did NOT work well for me, not at all.
If anything, they were abject failures.
Before having kids, I used to set aside every Friday as a full writing day.
And then when Friday would roll around I would do ANYTHING ELSE other than write.
Turns out those long stretches were stopping me from writing, by triggering huge amounts of fear and resistance. I didn’t understand that at the time. (The other challenge was the infrequency, but that’s a story for another time.)
I see this same issue come up around long writing days for my clients and community members too, especially for those who are retired, don’t have a separate day job, or who are trying to set aside big chunks of writing time. They often struggle to write.
Big blocks of writing time can trigger big time resistance.
It turns out those big blocks of writing time — as much as we say and believe we want and need them — can spark proportionate amounts of resistance and “blocking energy.”
Big blocks of time (often) => big blocks of resistance.
This is why writing for smaller increments of time can be hugely beneficial when building or rebuilding a writing practice.
And yet, … and yet!
Those big blocks of time are so satisfying! … when they work.
Especially while I’ve been in creative recovery over the last two years, I’ve found I need to write differently. I can’t and don’t want to “write on command” the way I could and had to when my kids were little.
I need and want those long days.
The magic of making space for “sideways drift.”
I especially need and want time for “sideways drift” built into my writing days, so I can get up and wander, ponder, shower, drift, walk, imagine, brainstorm, explore, and journal as needed. I’m also allowing myself time and space to “find” my way to the page each day. Sometimes this looks like goofing off, but it’s mainly about getting myself into the state I want to be in to write. Sometimes I’m listening to music, tidying up, or taking care of distracting tasks (something I used to avoid). The net effect is that I’m shifting from kid-focused morning time over to Jenna-focused writing time.
This helps me move into a potent, liminal space that opens up story ideas and possibilities unlike anything else.
I also want enough time to get something on the page, too, in addition to the drift space.
In order to have both, I’m back to designing long writing days into my schedule now.
My sideways drift approach to these long days means fear and doubt don’t get triggered the same way any longer. Partly this is because I’m not currently using definitive time, word, or page goals (though they can be useful tools at the right time).
Instead I’m focusing on progress wherever I am in the process with a particular story.
For example, with the script I’m currently working on, I’m in the midst of reverse outlining the story so I can evaluate it for a rewrite. I’ll keep working on that each writing day until it’s complete, then move on to the next step.
Taking the focus off specific goals and putting it on making progress overall takes the pressure off me, and makes more space for that magical sideways drift.
So does setting aside long days to write.
It’s a kind of double magic: long days plus space to get into a liminal flow state.
Bliss.
by Jenna | Jan 3, 2021 | Writing Articles
This is the third and final article in our “new year to write” series! This article is about some of the lessons we learned in 2020 about writing all year round even in the most difficult and unexpected circumstances.
In our Called to Write community, it feels like we’ve been through it all together — it’s always an incredible place for learning and growing in a powerful way. 2020 really put our collective writing mettle to the test and I’m grateful for all we’ve learned.
Here’s what we learned at Called to Write in 2020 about how to keep writing year-round, even in the middle of a pandemic, to bring forward with us into 2021.
Writing with others helps TREMENDOUSLY.
Isolation has been a terrible problem for so many people during the pandemic. And since writers struggle with feeling isolated too? Double whammy. What we’ve found at Called to Write is that having a tight-knit community of writers committed to the cause of writing — even on the days when it just, well, flat out sucks — really helps us see it through. And the thing is, the bad days are so much less important when they’re surrounded by better days. Writing regularly in the company of other writers ends that sense of isolation.
Between our online writing sprints and our weekly, organized Zoom meetings, we have a sense of being in it together. Thank goodness.
Tip: Find, create, or join a community of writers to help you stay motivated to write.
Creating MORE structure around writing helps with the timelessness we’ve been experiencing.
Yes, some of us believed having tons of enforced time at home under lockdown would result in equally epic tons of writing time (King Lear, anyone?), but quickly found that was NOT the case.
If anything, we struggled with a disorientation of time and place that felt impossible to manage. Whether you were home alone on your own or in a house filled with unexpected constant companions, making a regular writing schedule happen was Just. Not. Working.
Oddly enough, in our community, we quickly learned that adding MORE structure for our writing than we usually use was what solved this problem. We added extra writing sprints (we went from one per day to four per day). We shifted to weekly meetings instead of twice monthly, and switched over to Zoom so we could see each other’s faces. We added Progress Journals to track our work and create extra accountability. And what we found is that adding extra structure and support for our writing made it easier to rebuild and maintain our writing momentum.
Tip: Set up designated writing time and lots of extra structure, support, and accountability to help you see it through (as much as you need).
Your “lights out” and wake times really matter.
Getting enough sleep is so important. But so is getting up early to write. These pandemic days are blurry. They squidge together in the most unpleasant way. Grabbing each workday by the horns and showing up to write, usually early, makes it far less important if the rest of the day goes off the rails with distance learning, weird shopping challenges, or other issues.
This is one reason why we ran a Morning Writing Challenge even in the middle of election week. We knew it was likely to be stressful, incredibly distracting, and possibly upsetting, but at the same time, I was determined not to let the state of our republic stop me from writing. And the big way I’ve been doing that — election week and otherwise — is getting up earlier and earlier to write, and going to bed earlier and earlier as a result.
Here’s the big reason why: Early in the morning, we’re far less likely to get sucked into news, drama, or Other People’s Stuff. Putting your focus on your own work (keeping your eyes on your own paper, so to speak), keeps your writing moving forward, regardless of what’s going on in the rest of the world.
Tip: Figure out how much sleep you need, and design your schedule around it.
Bonus: Get up early to write and reap the rewards of quiet writing time.
Small increments of writing (still) work.
Something we’ve always taught about at Called to Write is the power of working in small increments of writing time, as a way to build or reboot a regular writing practice. And, as Vizzini from The Princess Bride says, when something goes wrong, you go back to the beginning. Well, some things went wrong this year. So we go back to the beginning.
If you got off track with your writing in 2020, use the tool of working in small increments of time — even 5 to 15 minutes — to rebuild your writing practice. You can also experiment with working with small sections of your book or project too, if you’re revising, for example, which doesn’t lend itself as well to small increments of time. I jump-started my script revision by focusing on 15 page chunks; far less overwhelming than imagining tackling the whole thing in one go. It’s just a Jedi mind trick but it works, so I’ll take it. :)
Tip: Use small increments of writing as a tool to help get yourself going again.
Remember why you’re writing.
This has been a rough year. I know I’m not the only writer who wondered whether it was even worth it to keep writing in the face of the massive challenges we’ve been dealing with globally. It’s impossible not to question our actions when faced with life-and-death circumstances, oppression, and political crisis. What’s important? How should we be spending our time? Will our writing even have a place to end up? What will readers, viewers, publishers, and producers even want, after all this?
My perspective is that all writing is needed and has a place (I’ll make an exception for hate speech). As creators, we entertain, heal, inform, and grow through writing, and we do the same for our readers and viewers. And it doesn’t matter what we’re writing. Fiction entertains, comedy lightens hearts, feel-good movies lift spirits. Serious pieces offer food for thought. Non-fiction teaches. Our writing has a place and a purpose, and if we’re called to write, we simply have to trust the muse and seek to fulfill that calling.
Tip: Remind yourself why you’re writing and what’s important to you about it.
by Jenna | Jan 1, 2021 | Writing Articles
Since it’s the first day of the year, and like many writers you probably have goals and resolutions on your mind, I want to highlight a few common mistakes writers tend to make when setting goals for the year, to save you the trouble of possibly making them and stymying yourself or creating unnecessary frustration or disappointment.
Know in advance that I *am* a fan of goal setting when it comes to writing (and that’s what we’ll be doing with our Make This Your Year to Write process), while at the same time I also know it benefits from forethought.
Here are some considerations to take into account as you plan your goals and resolutions.
7 Mistakes Writers Commonly Make With Goal Setting & Writing Resolutions
Mistake #1: Setting page count or word count goals in a vacuum.
It SOUNDS great to say you’ll write 250 or 1000 words or 3 script pages a day (I’ll write a book/3 scripts a year!), but is it really that great?
When you set a goal for the entire year’s worth of writing focused on a word or page count goal, you’ll most likely be neglecting the reality that writing projects typically also require all kinds of OTHER work that is critical for moving a writing project forward (and counts as writing), like research, development, editing, revising, plotting, structuring, character development, and more.
What happens when you set a word count goal but you’re at a place in your book where you need to edit and revise? Do you end up writing “new words” even when they aren’t relevant to your book… and end up feeling like you’re spinning your wheels?
What happens when you set a page count goal but you need to restructure your script in order to move it forward? Do you work on two scripts at once… and thwart your forward progress as a result?
The issue I have with word and page count goals set in a vacuum is that they have the potential to create an inherent conflict with yourself; if you focus on meeting the goal, you’re not doing the work you actually need to be doing to move your book or script along. Or if you go ahead and ignore the goal and do the work you need to do, you create an uncomfortable tension within yourself and feel like you’ve let yourself down.
👉 Antidote #1: Design SMART goals that reflect what you’re currently working on and the stage you’re in.
Mistake #2: Focusing on don’t break the chain resolutions.
I gotta be honest, I’m not a fan of “don’t break the chain” resolutions and strategies. I’ve seen too many writers triggered into an obsessive, uncomfortable place trying to keep their streak going. These kinds of goals and resolutions don’t account for days when life goes sideways on us, like getting sick or even just needing to take a day off.
Plus I find that often writers using these streak maintaining methods can end up feeling rebellious and grouchy being locked into something, not to mention a horrible feeling of “losing” all their progress if they miss a day. If anything, breaking a streak, accidentally or otherwise, can quickly become a major deterrent to writing. Once the streak is broken, writers sometimes use it as an excuse to give up on themselves and their goals.
👉 Antidote #2: Set goals that match your life, are flexible, and allow you to pick yourself up and get back to work if you miss a day here or there or get thrown off track for whatever reason.
(I focus my writing time on weekdays and take most holidays off, and take vacation time off as well.)
Mistake #3: Not setting realistic, achievable goals.
Another common mistake is not setting goals that are actually attainable. I love Jon Acuff’s advice in his book Finish, where he recommends either halving your goal or doubling the time you give yourself to accomplish it.
All too often writers set “high” goals that don’t allow for real life to happen or put so much pressure on themselves that they more or less implode, giving up on their goals entirely and feeling discouraged and disappointed.
Having said this, sometimes I see writers who only seem to be able to give themselves permission to write when they are under pressure or in special circumstances (think of binge writing to meet a deadline, only writing during a writing intensive, during NaNoWriMo, or on a writers’ retreat). If you’re wired this way, you might want to consider working with a coach to identify the underlying reasons you’re afraid to write the rest of the year. It’s extremely likely that some level of resistance is getting in your way and that designing a regular schedule with small increments of writing will be a bridge to a regular writing habit and a path to making writing happen more consistently and productively, without the associated burnout that binge writing usually produces.
👉 Antidote #3: Make your goals so easy they’re pleasurable to fulfill.
Mistake #4: Not studying your past lessons.
One of the greatest disservices we inflict on ourselves is not giving ourselves time and space to learn from what has worked for us and what hasn’t.
If you set writing goals, and didn’t achieve them, rather than chalking it up as failure and resolving to push through a second (or tenth) attempt, instead reflect on where things went awry.
It usually isn’t what you think it is.
You’re not lazy, or too busy, or don’t have enough time (common myths that stop people from writing).
Odds are you instead set goals that weren’t achievable or didn’t have a workable action plan to help you write all year round or didn’t know how to handle the natural and common resistance that emerges when you’re pursuing a big dream like writing. Or maybe you hadn’t actually picked a clear project to work on yet! There are many, many reasons why writers don’t follow through on their goals, and taking time to learn from those experiences helps you set goals that actually work this time around.
👉 Antidote #4: Review what worked and what didn’t this year and see what you can learn from it (and yes, you get something of a pass because of the pandemic — and — I’m sure there’s still something to be learned.)
Mistake #5: Setting goals you can’t control.
Another common mistake writers run into with goal setting is choosing goals they don’t have control over. “I’m going to sell my book (or script) this year!” isn’t an outcome you can control or predict. You can, however, set a goal to send out 50 query letters. Or to make a list of 100 possible publishers for your book. Or vow to submit your script to a specific contest deadline or make 50 pitches. These are goals you can set and control.
👉 Antidote #5: Put your focus on goals and outcomes you can take action on by yourself.
Mistake #6: Not reverse engineering your goals to create an action plan.
Related to mistake #3, not setting realistic, achievable goals, many writers neglect to reverse engineer their goals and make sure they actually work. Often this involves a fair amount of fantasy thinking around how long it actually takes to fully develop a story, do a read through of a script while taking notes, design a full revision plan, or assess how much work there actually is to revise a draft.
So if a writer says, for example, “I’m going to revise my NaNoWriMo draft by the end of January!” when they haven’t read through their November draft yet and don’t really know what they have, or what it’s going to take to get through a revision, it can be pretty discouraging to realize that revising the draft chronologically isn’t going to get them very far, and almost certainly not by the end of January.
Plus, if you don’t have a plan, you may find yourself procrastinating well into your completion timeline because you haven’t properly assessed all the steps required to get you from A to Z.
Want to finish a book revision by September 1st? Or write two screenplays by December 1st? Work backward from your intended deadline and map each stage of work to a calendar and writing schedule to see what seems doable. Adjust the goal as needed. Then pad the heck out of that schedule so you’ve got some flexibility for real life to happen along the way.
👉 Antidote #6: Map your goals to your calendar so you know what to do when, and are motivated to see them through.
Mistake #7: Not setting goals that align with your bigger vision.
From my Make This Your Year to Write course: “It’s important to start with a long-term vision before setting goals, because [you] want to make sure that your shorter-term, year-long goals are in alignment with your long-term vision.
“Think about it. If you set goals for the coming year that have nothing to do with where you want to ultimately end up, you can end up in an entirely different place than you intended. That may sound obvious, but I can’t tell you how many writers I’ve worked with who set goals that take them to the wrong place, often because what they think they should be doing or what someone else wants for them isn’t necessarily a match with what they want for themselves.”
Antidote #7: Design your overarching career vision first, then create your goals. (Hint: we’ll be doing this in my Make This Your Year to Write course.)
It’s super important to me to help writers set goals that work so we can make regular, consistent progress toward finishing all our writing projects and getting them out into the world where they belong.
by Jenna | Dec 30, 2020 | Writing Articles
I’ve got a special exercise for you today. As we begin working through the Make This Your Year to Write process in my Called to Write community, we start by completing the current writing year.
To give you a taste of what we’ll be working on (and give you a jump-start!) here’s the first step of the Make This Your Year to Write process:
Complete Your Writing Year
We start first with reflection to establish the foundation of where you are right now.
This is important because most of us have a tendency to focus purely on the goals and resolutions we’re setting for the new year and what’s next, but skip over the realities of what’s happened for us over the last year and what our current writing life looks like. (And yes, this HAS been a highly unusual year, but there are still insights to be gained from what worked and what didn’t.)
Without learning from what is, we create a recipe for pie-in-the-sky goals we are less-than-likely to succeed with. And we want you to succeed, right?😉
So first, to begin this process, we’ll look at where you are right now, and where you’ve been, before we move on to what’s next.
I call this completing the year.
We’ll do this by answering a series of three simple questions:
1. What has your writing given you over the last year? And in your writing career so far?
First, we’ll start by having you look at what your writing has given you. What gifts has it brought to your life, and what opportunities?
While you consider this, think back over the preceding year, and also your writing career as a whole.
For example, when you think about the trajectory your writing career has taken, are you enjoying it? Are you happy with the track you’re on or feeling dissatisfied? What has being a writer brought to your life that you would not have otherwise had the opportunity to experience?
2. What are you most proud of?
While you’re contemplating your relationship with your writing, also ask yourself, what are you most proud of?
Here again, look at both this current year and your writing career so far.
And please don’t be hard on yourself. If you have a hard time coming up with something you feel proud of, see where you can stretch your awareness. There is always something to be proud of, even if it’s something like, “I always kept my goal to be writing at the forefront of my mind.” Or, “I am crystal clear that writing must be a high priority for me in the next year.”
3. What did you accomplish with your writing over the last year? Make an inventory of your writing accomplishments.
One of the biggest mistakes we tend to make as writers is to keep our eyes only on how much further there is to go, without remembering to take stock of what we have accomplished and completed.
We want you to examine what you accomplished, regardless of how big or small.
How many words, pages, books, scripts, blog posts, days of morning pages, queries, etc., did you write? What did you put out into the world with your writing? Are there intangible things you accomplished with your writing?
Take the time to look back over the last year and make notes about what you’ve accomplished.
If you don’t have any tangible progress, make some notes for yourself about what you DID do this year you feel proud of.
Writing Prompts
Here are your writing prompts for Step One, assembled in one place for your writerly convenience. Remember, you can write out your answers privately in a notebook or journal, or on this page in the comments section below — whatever feels and works best for you.
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What has your writing given you over the last year? And in your writing career so far?
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What are you most proud of? (This year and career, both.)
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What did you accomplish with your writing over the last year? Make an inventory of your writing accomplishments.
by Jenna | Nov 20, 2020 | Writing Articles
This week I’ve rounded up a collection of my favorite Called to Write articles for you, designed to inspire your writing life, offer guidance and support for times you might be feeling stuck or overwhelmed, and even help you stay on track with your writing during the coming holidays.
Enjoy!
“Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things”
Feeling burned out?
While you might feel like you “should” be rested from staying at home so much this year, the truth is, this has been an exhausting, tumultuous, and difficult time, so giving yourself time to recover is important.
Here are two of my past favorite articles with suggestions about how to recover.
7 Steps to Recovering From Creative Burnout
When you have nothing left
Wondering if you should be pushing to write when you’re sick, exhausted, or grieving?
Here’s one of my favorite articles about when to write, and when to take it easy:
When to Write and When to Call It a Day
What counts when it comes to writing?
On a lighter note, when it comes to writing regularly, sometimes writers twist themselves into knots thinking they have to be writing “new words” every single day of the year.
My opinion? Not so.
Hint: This article will help you adjust your mindset about what “counts” as “real writing,” and is critical when it comes to setting goals and resolutions for the coming year.
What “Counts” as Writing?
Having trouble staying motivated to write in these uncertain times?
Here are two articles designed to help you navigate these choppy waters and keep writing.
Living and Writing In Uncertain Times
7 Mindset Perspectives to Motivate Your Writing — On the Final Draft Blog
Want to keep writing through the holidays?
Here are articles to bring holiday cheer and practical strategies to help you keep writing.
What has writing given you that you’re grateful for?
10 Tips to Help You Keep Writing Through the Holidays
I hope you enjoyed this collection of articles and I’m wishing all the best to you and your writing in the coming days and weeks.
by Jenna | Mar 26, 2020 | Writing Articles
We’re living through an unprecedented event in our modern era. Life has changed, radically, in what felt like over night. The word “unprecedented” feels wholly inadequate, honestly. Surreal? Unholy? Disastrous? LIFE ALTERING. Nothing will be the same after this. At least I very much hope that will be true, in the sense of the many broken systems in our world improving for the better as a result of all this.
I’ve been watching this virus since January, feeling like Cassandra, but hoping I was wrong (usually my fears DON’T become reality). And yet, here we are.
I (fortunately or unfortunately?) just read two books about pandemics right before all this started. So. There you go. Lots of swirly bits of fear, dread, terror, hope, and love all twirling around together in an angsty pile of … angst. It’s not like I didn’t already have a full soundtrack of existential dread playing in my mind, what with the state of our government and climate crisis already in play.
So. Mostly, I’m working to stay as calm as I can (which is entirely variable from moment to moment), take care of myself and my family, look for ways to help, and write as I can. And “can” sometimes means “can’t.” Sometimes it means writing articles like these, just to keep putting words on the page.
And speaking of writing, writers everywhere are suddenly facing new circumstances. Some of us have kids at home, for an unknown duration (my guess is the fall start of the school year). Some of us (like in California) have been under a “shelter-in-place”/”stay at home” order for some time already (thank goodness). Some of us have more time on our hands than we’re used to because we’re working from home or unable to work. Some of us have less time than usual to write because of all the other external impacts on our time, plus the internal stresses we’re managing.
It’s easy to think we “should” be writing and writing and writing. But it’s not like this is just some kind of global vacation. There’s a lot going on, constantly, much of which we can’t see.
In some ways this could be a writer’s dream. Lots of forced time at home, with potentially lots of time to write. But that’s only a percentage of us. If we’re homeschooling and working from home, things are actually more complicated, not less.
So what do we really do about writing during times like these?
On Writing
Here are some thoughts on writing for you in this current period of uncertainty:
- Please don’t feel guilty if you’re not writing (yet). This is an entirely unusual situation and we’re all grappling with a massive reorientation of how life even works on this planet. Give yourself space and time to be, rest, think, and process. If the moment arises when you’re struck by the urge to write (anything), go for it. Some are pointing out that Shakespeare wrote King Lear during the plague. That’s lovely. Did he have his kids and family home 24/7? Who was getting him food? You don’t have to be Shakespeare. Everyone’s circumstances are different.
- It’s okay if your pre-pandemic writing projects change or hold less interest for you mid- or post-pandemic. Your interest may return in a few weeks, months, or never. Your projects may change. (Stephen King tweeted about this recently.) Regardless, it’s okay to trust yourself and see what comes. Intense times result in massive shifts in culture, consciousness, and creation. We are likely to have epiphanies about what we want to write mid- and post-pandemic. I expect an entirely new wave of creativity to explode as a result of this period of time.
- It’s also okay to keep working on what you were working on before. If you’re able to keep writing, go for it! Writing is a sanctuary for writers. A place to escape, as well as our job as professionals. In many ways this can be an incredible opportunity to hunker down and focus. (I’ll be sharing an article on the Final Draft blog soon about some tech tools to help.)
- It helps to hold writing as your important work in the world. Even if you’re not working professionally as a writer, thinking of writing as your calling, vocation, and/or profession can help you remember — even in the middle of a pandemic! — who you are and what you were put here to do. Of course, if the house is literally burning down or you’re sick, you won’t be thinking about writing. Of course not. But assuming you’re healthy, safe, and have your basic survival needs taken care of, writing becomes more possible, and sticking to your work is your job.
- If you’re writing with kids at home, get really creative. I’m doing most of my writing while my husband takes care of the kids (a rare treat since he can’t go in to work and he can’t work from home) as well as getting up before the rest of the family to write when I’m alone. For other writers, we might have to write later in the evening, or at lunch time, or while the kids are having some screen time. (And yeah, we’re letting our screen time rules be looser, while also having them do their homeschooling work.)
- On the hard days, write from bed, do “ebb” writing, or write morning pages. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with grief or fear, it’s hard to be creative. I’m finding that sitting in my bed with the covers drawn up, the cat on my feet, and my laptop on a bed table helps create a little cocoon of coziness that’s easier to write in. You can also focus on the easy stuff (that’s the “ebb” writing, hat tip to Naomi for that one) and work on formatting or continuity checks. And sometimes morning pages or love letters to yourself are the way to go. Writing is writing.
- Even if you suddenly have tons of time on your hands to write, you’ll be dealing with resistance, maybe even more than usual. Writers often fantasize about writing in isolation (cabin in the woods, anyone?). But the reality is that suddenly having lots of time can trigger more resistance. And especially when fear and uncertainty take hold, it’s super hard to focus on ANYTHING, let alone write. Remember that writing also involves a high level of decision making, also difficult in times like these. However, you CAN make small moves and take small actions to move forward, even now.
- Reach out and connect. Writers are often used to working from home, but we’re not used to being limited in our interactions quite this much. There are lots of lovely ways to connect with other writers at this point, including on social media. In my Called to Write community, we’ve switched over to meeting on Zoom so we can see each other’s faces. We’re also meeting more frequently, and the turnout for our daily writing sprints is high. It’s SO nice to write together. (Please come join us if you’re looking for structure, support, and community for your writing.)
- Know that writing and art have a huge role to play in survival and recovery. Art, entertainment, fiction, and non-fiction are needed right now, and will continue to be needed as time goes on. How we deliver and receive writing and movies may change. It may not. We don’t know yet. But as writers and artists we have a role to play in the emotional well-being, mental health, and recovery of our global community. The world needs us.
On Self-Care and Grounding
And a few thoughts on self-care and grounding:
- STAY HOME and take care of yourself and your loved ones. At some point or another, we’re all likely to confront this virus personally, somehow. Above all else, your health and well-being must come first. This means doing all the things we’re reading about online, like washing hands, wiping down surfaces, staying home (please stay home, no matter how low risk you might be, in order to help flatten the curve for everyone), using social distancing if you must go out (and making sure it’s a “must” not a “want”), touching faces only with clean hands, staying hydrated, eating healthy food, getting as much sleep as you can, exercising in creative ways, and resting.
- Do things that feel good to you. At my house, with the kids home, in addition to homeschooling, we’re playing games, working on a garden project, baking, exercising, and watching movies together.
- Acknowledge the grief. This is a massive change and loss we’re all experiencing right now, together. We’re grappling with hardcore survival fears right now and seeing the world change in a way we’ve not experienced in our lifetimes. This means we’re grieving. Grieving the restrictions we’re facing, grieving the future, grieving personal losses. So much. And the sensitives and empaths among us will be particularly affected by the collective energy of grief, fear, anxiety, and sadness right now. IT’S OKAY to be having a hard time right now. Grief is heavy, and hard. It helps to acknowledge what we’re feeling. This is grief.
- Remember that things will change, eventually. Elaine Aron mentions this in a blog post written for highly sensitive people (many writers are HSPs). Things may change for the worse before they get better, but they will change. If or when you can, notice that we may see some positives ultimately coming out of this situation. I hope already that voting by mail could become the norm, which will help so many more people be able to participate in our democracy. Carbon emissions are dropping, and we may realize we can make more radical changes to protect the climate. We now have a much, much better understanding of what it means to share a planet and be in this together. There are dolphins in Venice.
A few things helping me right now…
- Liz Gilbert’s “Facing Fear With Compassion” meditation on the Insight Timer app. This is a free offering inside the Insight Timer app as well as on their website, in which Liz offers a love-focused practice to help deal with fear.
- ScreenwritingU’s “Screenwriters Survival Kit” article for writers about managing during this time. My mentor Hal Croasmun put together this guide to help writers stay safe, sane, and productive.
- Chuck Wendig’s article, “It’s Okay That You’re Not Okay”. Chuck is someone I keep turning to and I find his thoughts on our world are often aligned with mine, and reassuring. He swears, so if that bothers you, heads up. He’s also the author of one of those pandemic books I mentioned. ;)
- “Cutting Through Fear” by Tsultrim Allione (audiobook). Chapter 2 is a guided meditation about releasing fear I’m finding helpful though it will feel very out there to some.
- “Pandemic” poem by Lynn Unger on Steven Pressfield’s website. I’ve come across this one in a few different places and love it.
- “Kiwi Virtues in a Time of Trouble” by Steven Pressfield. I loved this article from Steve about the value of patience and skills for hard work. It felt real and grounding.
- “In the Time of the Pandemic” on Kitty O’Meara’s website. Also love this one.
- “I Spent a Year in Space, and I Have Tips on Isolation to Share” by Scott Kelly. Who better to advise us about how to navigate isolation than an astronaut?
- “That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief” on the Harvard Business Review, an interview with the world’s foremost expert on grief, David Kessler, about the grief we’re all feeling right now.
- Naomi’s new blog. My pal Naomi Dunford has a new personal blog about her own quarantine, which I’m loving.
- “Making Art In a Crisis” by Dong Won. Another piece about the illusion of time and space for art that’s permeating the zeitgeist right now and the pressure to perform.
Your turn
How are you? Are you able to write? What are you challenged by right now? What’s making it easier to write?
Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you right now, and I’ll happily answer questions in the comments if you have them.
