7 Tips to Keep Writing Now and 7 Ways to Stay Sane (and a Bonus 2 Happy Things for Writers and Readers).

Here we go again, this time far worse than before. Dear Leader and his people are flooding the zone and Project 2025 is, unsurprisingly, his rulebook.

How to write? How to do anything that requires focus and creativity, which is a function of calm and hope, to some extent?

Below are seven (more) tips to keep writing even it seems futile or impossible. Some of these tips can apply to anything, though, not just writing. It’s crucial that we hold onto joy right now. If it’s painting or music or cooking or even down time with your pet, just substitute that for writing below.

1. Get up a little earlier and squeeze it in before everything else, before the kids wake, before you check the news. Tap into that rare moment we get every day when things are new and promising. Start small if need be—half an hour, an hour. Every moment matters.

2. Meet a writing friend at a cafe or a library for a few hours and vow not to socialize, only to help each other stay focused. Or meet at each other’s houses, or wherever you need to be that feels like a break from your routine go-to place.

3. Play with it. Take a break from that scene you don’t want to write or that research you’ve been putting off and give yourself a fun and random prompt, like: What does Character A eat for breakfast? What makes Character B the most irritated and why? For memoir, what would you never include, ever ever? Just write for 10-15-20 minutes. This will give your mind a break from the higher pressure writing.

4. Instead of asking your person or friend to read something, get together and read some of it aloud. Pay attention to their reactions. Even if they wince. (Especially if they wince.) Often the face and body reveal more than kind and tactful criticism. Be sure to bring something to eat or drink as a thank you to this person.

5. If you’re feeling too despondent even to put fingers to keyboard, find a favorite passage and write it out longhand. Rinse and repeat until you feel the need to write your own words again.

6. Reading is writing, to my mind. If reading seems hard right now (who can focus?), make it an experience. Take your favorite (physical) book into the bath. Or bring your favorite blanket to the couch. Light a candle. Put on slippers. Open book.

7. Go somewhere new to write on your own. A library you’ve never visited. A cafe you’ve wanted to try. A different town. I once went to the library in Concord, my hometown, and granted, this is one gem of a historical place, just the switch in location itself had me glued to that desk.

   And here are seven (more) mental health tips for writers and others right now. Please forgive this weird formatting that I cannot seem to fix:

   1. Dose the news, but don’t check out altogether. We need all hands on deck.

   2. Rest. Nap when need be. Eat the chocolate, diet tomorrow. Or don’t diet.

   3. Get something on the calendar for this weekend with someone you’ve been meaning to see or someone you haven’t seen in a while.

   4. Find some mindless/mindful activity like word puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, knitting, anything not on the computer to help you numb out offline. Keep a few of these handy for rough moments.

   5. Find hopeful news like this or this about the resistance, and spread it far and wide.

   6. Do one small thing that is loving for yourself or someone else every day. Buy yourself a beautiful pen or a new book or new tea. Listen to songs you loved as a child. Go for a walk. Pick up the tab of that frenzied mom behind you at the coffee shop. Tell an elderly woman she is beautiful. Let two people go ahead of you when driving.

   7. Read The Onion. Watch “Career Day,” Check out The Reductress. Laugh. Share things that laugh with loved ones. (And if they don’t laugh as well, let it go. Laughter is subjective, of course.)

And here are 2 bonus points for writers and readers:

1. Bookshop.org is now selling ebooks! Support for them is support for authors and indy bookstores, something hugely important right now.

2. Adult fiction deals (books sold by agents) grew 10% last year. Ignore the haters who say that no one reads anymore.