Kim Hooper's Blog, page 25

Weekly Roundup: October 16

Quote of the week:
“Everyone is stuck in their lives, thinking about what people are thinking about them, when actually nobody is thinking about them. Only you are thinking about yourself, usually. You and your mother.” — Janice Y.K. Lee, The Expatriates

What I’m reading:
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

What I’m listening to:
Hollywood Park: A Memoir — Mikel Jollett
Everyone’s Happy — Rufi Thorpe (short story; Audible original)

What I’m watching:
“Intervention” (A&E)–binged a bunch of episodes from the latest season
“Catastrophe” (Amazon Prime)–loving it

Writing news:

All the Acorns on the Forest Floor will be officially released ON TUESDAY!All the Love: Healing Your Heart and Finding Meaning After Pregnancy Loss will be out on March 23. We are super active on Twitter and Instagram so follow us there (@allthelovetalk)People Who Knew Me will be re-released on May 12 (new cover reveal coming soon!)My next novel has a release date–June 15! I just saw the final cover and I love it. Will share soon

What I’m talking about:

Pandemic grief (read here) and pandemic meltdowns (read here)This Instyle article that is quite the talk of the town where I live. A quote: “We are truly in a crisis of conscience right now in wellness. We must not allow yoga to be used as a tool for hatred, bigotry, and division, or as a vehicle for the spreading of misinformation and destruction. Our duty in the wellness community, and beyond, is to believe in science — as yoga itself is a science of the mind — and combat these outlandish conspiracy theories with legitimate facts and peer-reviewed research”The baseball World Series that I keep forgetting is happening–Go Dodgers!

Weirdest thing I googled this week:
“Apocalypse predictions.” I feel like with each week I’m giving you clues to my novel-in-progress (and/or my mental state).

What I’m grateful for:
All the years I got with my grandmother. She passed away on October 3, which was especially heartbreaking because I hadn’t been able to visit her since the pandemic began in March. My daughter and I were visiting her weekly before COVID. They had a special bond, and I’m so grateful they were able to have time together. We are celebrating my grandma’s life on Monday. I’m looking forward to the time with family.

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Weekly Roundup: October 9

Quote of the week:
“The American people have had to sacrifice far too much because of the incompetence of this administration.” –Kamala Harris

What I’m reading:
The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee

What I’m listening to:
Hollywood Park: A Memoir — Mikel Jollett

What I’m watching:
“A Wilderness of Error” (Hulu) — Watched this whole series; still not sure what to think about the case

Writing news:

All the Acorns on the Forest Floor will be officially released in 11 days (on 10/20)All the Love: Healing Your Heart and Finding Meaning After Pregnancy Loss will be out on March 23. We are super active on Twitter and Instagram so follow us there (@allthelovetalk)People Who Knew Me will be re-released on May 12 (new cover reveal coming soon!)

What I’m talking about:

The Vice Presidential debate. You guys, THE FLY! THE FLY!Trump’s use of Regeneron to treat COVID-19. Regeneron was developed using cells from an aborted fetus. If you’re pro-life, are you OK with this? (read here)Trump’s complete dismissal of COVID-19 as being a big deal. How invalidating of the experiences of people who have had it or watched their loved ones die from itCompanies offering parental leave during the pandemic (and how working moms are afraid to use it). A good quote: “Companies like to talk a big game about supporting mothers and families, but in the U.S. we still expect workers to be on 24/7” (from here) How parents are drinking and using marijuana more than ever (read here)

Weirdest thing I googled this week:

Alien invasion. No, I haven’t officially lost it. A character I’m writing is interested in it.

What I’m grateful for:

Neighbors who combine their enthusiasm for Halloween with their enthusiasm for Biden/Harris. My daughter was also a fan.

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Weekly Roundup: October 2

Quote of the week:
“Shut up, man” — Joe Biden 

What I’m reading:
Same books as last week (been a slow reading week):
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

What I’m listening to:
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

What I’m watching:
“Unwell” (Netflix) — I would like to see an entire film on the essential oil cult family, please
“American Murder: The Family Next Door” (Netflix) — I should really stop watching these disturbing true crime things (I won’t, but I should)

Writing news:

All the Acorns on the Forest Floor will be officially released on October 20 (I just got my final copies and they are gorgeous)All the Love: Healing Your Heart and Finding Meaning After Pregnancy Loss will be out on March 23. We are super active on 
Twitter and Instagram so follow us there (@allthelovetalk)People Who Knew Me will be re-released on May 12 (new cover reveal coming soon!)



Final copies!

What I’m talking about:

Trump testing positive for COVID-19. Hey, karma, heyThe presidential debate that made the United States of America look like a total shitshow (Merriam-Webster clarified on Twitter that “shitshow” is one word)How women worldwide are 3x more likely than men to report mental health impact from COVID-19 (read here). Good quote: “We’re seeing many of the same challenges and many of the same factors for women in high-income countries and in middle-income countries that we’re seeing in very poor places. The fact that there is so much commonality really tells us there’s something critical there about the systems and the way they are not responding”France’s decision to extend paternity leave (read here). Another good quote: “When a baby arrives in the world, there is no reason it should be just the mother who takes care of it” (President Macron)

Weirdest thing I googled this week:

End-Permian Extinction. Also known as “the Great Dying” because 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species went extinct. This is related to a new book I’m writing, FYI.

What I’m grateful for:

THREE YEARS with my daughter. She turns 3 on Sunday and I am so thankful to be her mom. Motherhood is exhausting and humbling and hard, but it’s so rewarding. Everyone says that and I wish I could think of more unique words, but it’s Friday and my brain is fried from my day job and I need a beer. I’m also grateful for beer.

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Weekly Roundup: September 25

Quote of the Week:
“Alone is a feeling you can get used to, and it’s hard to believe in a better alternative.” — Akwaeke Emezi, The Death of Vivek Oji

What I’m reading:
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

What I’m listening to:
That’s Mental: Painfully Funny Things That Drive Me Crazy About Being Mentally Ill by Amanda Rosenberg

What I’m watching:
“Love Fraud” (Showtime) — the end of the last episode was…WHOA
“The Social Dilemma” (Netflix) — very thought-provoking (and a little scary)
“My Octopus Teacher” (Netflix) — yes, I am one of the people who cried during this
“All-In: The Fight for Democracy” (Amazon Prime) — eye-opening (and more-than-a-little scary)
“RBG” (Amazon Prime) — Ruth Bader Ginsburg was awesome. The end.

Writing news:

My newest essay is now up on Scary Mommy: “My Against-the-Odds Pregnancy Losses Impacted the Way I Think About Luck”All the Acorns on the Forest Floor will be officially released on October 20All the Love: Healing Your Heart and Finding Meaning After Pregnancy Loss will be out on March 23. Follow us @allthelovetalk on Twitter and InstagramPeople Who Knew Me will be re-released on May 12 (new cover reveal coming soon!)

What I’m talking about:

The police shooting of a homeless Black man 10 minutes from where I live. He was confronted for jaywalking and killed a few minutes later. Apparently there is an investigation underway, but I don’t know if the public will ever know the full story (read here)The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg ( is great). I feel bad that my first thought upon hearing of her death was, “Oh crap.” That’s not the nicest way to honor someone. So I’ll say here: Thank you, Justice Ginsburg, for everythingThe failure of the justice system for Breonna Taylor (read here). I have to admit, the world is very depressing right nowHow personal changes in the face of climate change are great, but we need larger policy changes (SO GO VOTE!) (read here)The 2020 National Book Awards Longlists. I haven’t read all the books yet, but I would love to see The Vanishing Half win

Weirdest thing I googled this week: 

This is a new category that I had to add because, as a writer, I google very weird things. This week’s winner: “Who invented the kitchen whisk?” This one wasn’t related to research for a novel. I happened to be using a whisk and marveling at its abilities, which made me wonder if there was some whisk-creating family still earning royalties on every whisk purchase. I think the answer is no. According to Wikipedia, the wire whisk was invented sometime before 1841, but it gained popularity in the 1960s when Julia Child used it in a televised appearance.

What I’m grateful for:

My kid. She’s awesome. She turns 3 on October 4 and, at the risk of sounding like every patient who ever existed, I CANNOT BELIEVE IT. She has become so funny. The other night, as I started singing a lullaby to her, she said, “That’s enough, Mom.” She very often says, “Mom, you’re so annoying.” Whoever invented the term “threenager” wasn’t kidding.

I could say “my kid” for every one of these “What I’m grateful for” posts. I’ve been trying to be more creative than that because my gratitude for my daughter feels like such a given. But, today, I just had to say it. I’m so, so, so lucky.

This photo sums up her personality.

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Weekly Roundup: September 18

Quote of the Week:
“You needn’t berate yourself for failing to do it all, since doing it all is structurally impossible. The only viable solution is to make a shift: from a life spent trying not to neglect anything, to one spent proactively and consciously choosing what to neglect, in favour of what matters most.” — Oliver Burkeman’s last column, “The 8 secrets to a (fairly) fulfilled life”

What I’m reading:
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

What I’m listening to:
Far From the Tree by Robin Benway

What I’m watching:
“Love Fraud” (Showtime) — one episode left; highly recommend
“Unpregnant” (HBO Max) — cute movie that sheds light on the serious topic of women having to go out of state for abortions
“Challenger: The Final Flight” (Netflix) — I was only 6 when Challenger exploded, but it’s one of those things that stays in the collective psyche

Writing news:

All the Acorns on the Forest Floor was sort of released on Tuesday. My book was affected by some #pandemicpublishing snafus (read here), so the audiobook is available, but the hard copies won’t be available until October 20All the Love: Healing Your Heart and Finding Meaning After Pregnancy Loss will be out on March 23 (I think?). Follow us @allthelovetalk on Twitter and InstagramI have a new essay going live on Scary Mommy next week

What I’m talking about:

The impassioned Trump flag brigade. They are out in full force where I live (read here)How I now wear my mask for two reasons–COVID-19 and bad air quality from wildfires. In all seriousness, these fires are devastating. THIS IS CLIMATE CHANGE, peopleThe difficulties California is facing (read here)The alleged mass hysterectomies being performed at an ICE detention center (read here). Um, this is horrifyingHow the pandemic is a mental health crisis for parents (read here)How “the system” was not designed for working moms (read here)

What I’m grateful for:
Friendship. On Tuesday, when my book was supposed to release, my good friend sent me beautiful flowers. Of course, when she sent them, she had no idea what would happen with the book’s release. She also had no idea that I got a flat tire taking my daughter to preschool that morning, among a few other annoying things. Her flowers made my day so much better. 

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All the Acorns on the Forest Floor is out today (kind of)

So, today is supposed to be the big release day for All the Acorns on the Forest Floor but, alas, things don’t always go as planned. The short of it is that the publishing world is a bit chaotic right now. Many books that were supposed to be released in spring got pushed to fall (because of COVID). That means fall books are being pushed too. My publisher and I did not know my book would be part of this situation until TODAY. In fact, I got the news right after getting a flat tire on the way to drop off my daughter at preschool. It’s been a day.

The official “release date” is now October 20, but I’m putting that in quotes because the book IS available as an audiobook TODAY. I haven’t listened myself yet, but I’ve heard the narrator is great. 

Thank you to all the early readers who have been so supportive on social media. And thank you to the early reviewers on Goodreads for your kind words. This book is very close to my heart. I’m so sad about the delay, but if this pandemic has taught me anything, it’s that we must go with the damn flow.

Happy reading (or listening) to everyone!

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Weekly Roundup: September 11

First off, I want to take a moment to acknowledge 9/11. It’s hard to believe it was NINETEEN YEARS ago today. For many of us, it was such a turning point in our lives, and left such an imprint on our psyches, that it will always feel like it “just happened.” I think of the people who lost their lives often, and I think about their loved ones and how they have had to move forward, forever carrying their grief.

Quote of the Week:
“If we make the vulnerable choice to connect with empathy–to be vulnerable, excruciatingly so, in order to access that in me which has suffered as you are now suffering–we bring compassion alive by communicating that bond, so others know they are never alone.” –Sarah Krasnostein, The Trauma Cleaner

What I’m reading:
Tangerine by Christine Magan (finished this one; really enjoyed it)
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
How We Love by Milan and Kay Yerkovich

What I’m listening to:
A Star is Bored by Byron Lane (finished it; loved it)
The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein (excellent so far)
Nice White Parents (New York Times podcast)

What I’m watching:
“Class Action Park” (HBO Max) — documentary about a no-rules-all-mayhem amusement park in Jersey…spoiler alert: it gets kind of dark
“Love Fraud” (Showtime) — documentary series about a psycho narcissist who cons several women into marrying him before running off with their money
“How It Really Happened: Siegfried and Roy” (CNN) — I didn’t know this was so shrouded in mystery; pretty interesting

Writing news:

All the Acorns on the Forest Floor comes out ON TUESDAY (9/15)All the Love: Healing Your Heart and Finding Meaning After Pregnancy Loss will be out on March 23. Follow us @allthelovetalk on Twitter and InstagramI just saw the new cover for the People Who Knew Me re-release and I cannot wait to share it

What I’m talking about:

The wildfires on the west coast. People, this is global warming in action. Six of the 20 worst fires in California history have happened THIS YEAR (and we’re not even in the worst of the fire season yet). I just finished Uninhabitable Earth last week and the statistics in that book are (sadly) already outdatedThe Indonesian government’s plan to move its capital before it is completely under water (a climate change response strategy called “managed retreat” that some think needs to begin in US cities)Jesmyn Ward’s beautiful piece in Vanity Fair about the sudden death of her 33-year-old husband during COVID-19How some companies are pushing employees to return to the workplace (great article here)How going back to work, in general, continues to suck for mothers in this country (great article here)How gender reveal parties are stupid (even when they don’t start wildfires)The “Letters from Writers of the Black Literary Community” piece in this month’s Poets & Writers magazine (I found Shanay Bell’s essay particularly moving)Racism in sports (this article in the latest Runner’s World magazine was so eye-opening)The COVID-19 vaccine: Is it really coming as soon as November, or is that buzz an election ploy?

What I’m grateful for:

My family’s new BBQ. We took advantage of a Labor Day sale and finally got a BBQ for our deck. It’s nice to change up the meals a bit (and my daughter is very intrigued by it). Pay no mind to my husband’s face. He loves it.

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Weekly Roundup: September 4

Quote of the Week:
“The pattern of ordinary life, in which so much stays the same from one day to the next, disguises the fragility of its fabric.” –The Dark Mountain Project manifesto

What I’m reading:
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells (finished this; not for the faint of heart, but highly recommend)
Tangerine by Christine Magan
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

What I’m listening to:
A Star is Bored by Byron Lane

What I’m watching:
“Love Life” (HBO Max) — finished it, loved it
“I Am A Killer Released” (Netflix) — meh (one episode was enough for me)
“Amy Schumer Learns to Cook” (Food Network) — continues to make me giggle

Writing news:

All the Acorns on the Forest Floor comes out THIS MONTH (9/15)All the Love: Healing Your Heart and Finding Meaning After Pregnancy Loss will be out on March 23. Follow us @allthelovetalk on Twitter and InstagramI just saw the new cover for the People Who Knew Me re-release and I cannot wait to share it

What I’m talking about:

Vertigo. My husband has it and it’s not going away Whether or not Donald Trump will go gently into that good night if he loses the election (I think not)Returning to the workplace (my company is requiring it starting this month and I’m having big feelings)California’s recent landmark decision to require all new trucks and vans to be electric beginning in 2045 (New York Times)The Vatican’s urging of Catholics to divest from fossil fuel companies that perpetuate climate change (CNN)

What I’m grateful for:
A little trip out to Joshua Tree with my sister and her kids. It felt strange to leave home for a few days during this pandemic, but it was also nice. My daughter got to make some good memories with her cousins, and I got some quality sister time.

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Weekly Roundup: August 28

Quote of the Week:
“We are all migrants through time.” –Mohsin Hamid, Exit West

What I’m reading:
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells (truly, truly terrifying)

What I’m listening to:
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (finished this week)
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

What I’m watching:
“Love Life” (HBO Max) — still enjoying this one

Writing news:

My website redesign is LIVE!Just a couple weeks until All the Acorns on the Forest Floor comes out All the Love: Healing Your Heart and Finding Meaning After Pregnancy Loss will be out on March 23. Follow us @allthelovetalk on Twitter and InstagramI just started working on edits for novel #5–it releases next summer. Details coming soon!

What I’m talking about:

The terrifying reality of climate change (reading The Uninhabitable Earth is blowing my mind and scaring the shit out of me; you can get a taste of it by reading this New York magazine article by the same author)The shooting of Jacob Blake (WSJ article here). I do not understand how these killings keep happening. It’s abhorrent The American Medical Association’s recommendation that meat and diary be listed as optional in the next iteration of official dietary guidelines (Forks and Knives)

What I’m grateful for:
I got this print for my office a while ago and it’s been making me smile. I’ve been demoralized by a few bastards lately (maybe the fact that several planets are in retrograde is to blame?). Life is too short to feel demoralized by bastards. 

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Why We Write: Pandemic Edition

Photo by KaitlynBaker on Unsplash

A few weeks ago, I did something very strange. I started writing a new novel. I say “strange” because we are in the midst of a pandemic and I have felt completely consumed by working a full-time job (now from home), managing the stress of hearing my husband’s booming voice on his work calls every day, caring for an almost-three-year-old who shares her father’s booming voice, and tending to my books that are either already in the world or on their way there.

Over the past five (five?!) months, I have often fallen back on tired cliches like “at the end of my rope” and “at my wit’s end” and “hanging on by a thread” to describe my emotional state. So, when I got the urge to commence a new book, I gave my subconscious the side eye and said, “Are you f**king serious?”

When the pandemic first began, I could not imagine writing a new novel. It wasn’t just the time it would require—though that was a big enough obstacle—but the mental energy too. Like many writers, I’m highly sensitive, and the onslaught of news about what seemed (still seems) to be the apocalypse was enough to make me want to curl into the fetal position for the foreseeable future. I channeled my anxieties into publishing short essays about childcare and the burden on women during the pandemic, but I had no interest in a big, long-term project that would require vast stores of creativity.

Until I did.

But why? Why now?

Poet Ada Limón summed it up like this: “I think creating during these unfathomable times is both impossible and necessary for me” (Poets & Writers magazine). Yes, that’s it: Impossible and necessary. In a way, writing is always like this, but a global pandemic dramatically exacerbates the feelings of impossibility and necessity. As Zadie Smith says in her recent essay collection, Intimations, writing is “a psychological quirk.” And now, perhaps more than ever, psychological quirks abound.

We write for escape.

When I asked Mary Kubica, bestselling author of six novels, about writing during COVID-19 she said, “For the most part I’m not feeling the urge to write. But every now and then the urge does strike and it’s the greatest feeling—to be able to slip into the world of my characters for a while and step away from our current reality.”

Steven Rowley, author of Lily and the Octopus and The Editor, shared a similar sentiment: “I feel very fortunate to have a job that allows me to escape into other times and places where some of our current stressors don’t exist.”

We are living in a time when escape from reality is a requirement for sanity, and fiction offers the escape that we cannot get from trips we had to cancel due to COVID-19 restrictions. Personally, I have always preferred escape within the confines of my home—much less hassle and cost (hashtag introvert).

During the emergency mode of the first few months of the pandemic, I did not realize that this would be a long-term thing that would require long-term escape. It’s not surprising that, as that became more apparent, I started a novel. When the world feels overwhelming, I can turn to my novel. If I don’t have time or mental space to write, I can think about my characters. As author Adam Haslett said, “Writing is a form of dissociation. In the hours of real absorption, you leave behind your room, your body, even the mind you imagine as your own.” Dissociation, for many of us, is a survival strategy right now.

We write to make meaning.

It is common for artists to create in times in crises—not just to escape, but to process our discomfort and grief, and, ultimately, make meaning.

John Milton wrote Paradise Lost after losing his wife, his daughter, and his eyesight. Van Gogh created some of his most celebrated paintings while in an insane asylum battling anxiety, depression and possible bipolar disorder. Virginia Woolf wrote To the Lighthouse while grieving the loss of her mother. Frida Kahlo started painting after a near-fatal bus accident that left her with chronic pain, and she created one of her most renowned self-portraits after a painful miscarriage.

Carolyn Gregoire, co-author of Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind, wrote recently, “Art seeks to make sense of everything from our smallest sad moments to the most earth-shattering tragedies. It helps us to process and come to terms with the things in life that we can’t control and can’t really explain.”

Right now, there is so much we
can’t control, and even more we can’t explain.

It goes without saying that COVID-19 is our generation’s collective crisis. We are in touch with our mortality in new and intense ways. We are grieving the loss of the world as we knew it. In “That Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief,” Scott Berinato interviews David Kessler, the world’s foremost expert on grief, who says, “We feel the world has changed, and it has…The loss of normalcy; the fear of economic toll; the loss of connection. This is hitting us and we’re grieving. Collectively.”

We write in the face of this grief, in the face of our mortality. We write to try to understand what is happening in our world, and in our inner selves. We write with urgency because the brevity and fragility of life has been revealed so clearly. Many have thrown around the word apocalypse and I find it interesting that the Greek meaning of this word is not all doom and gloom. It means “revelation” and “an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known.” As author Tracy Barone told me, “We’re in a bit of a glass bottom boat where you can now see everything, and I personally find that inspiring. It pushes me to see deeper into myself and lean into the uncertainty as I’m writing.”

The novel I started writing has nothing to do with current events on its surface, but it does have to do with trauma, loss, and living with uncertainty and fear. Somehow, fiction is always slightly nonfictional in that it represents the author’s unique psyche—hidden within the pages of the books we write, our inner demons lurk. This generation of writers will be processing the pandemic via their stories for years to come, in ways that may not be obvious to readers (or even the writers themselves).

In 2019, Kessler identified a sixth stage of grief—finding meaning. Art is part of this stage. As Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl said in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, “In some ways, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.” As writers, we create stories because it’s the way we know to ease suffering—personal and collective.

Ultimately, this meaning-making is a form of asserting control over the uncontrollable. As Zadie Smith writes: “Writing is control. The part of the university in which I teach should properly be called the Controlling Experience Department. Experience—mystifying, overwhelming, conscious, subconscious—rolls over everybody. We try to adapt, to learn, to accommodate, sometimes resisting, other times submitting to, whatever confronts us. But writers go further: they take this largely shapeless bewilderment and pour it into a mold of their own devising. Writing is all resistance.”

We write for, or because of, a sense of purpose.

For me, writing has always been about connection. On the page, through my characters, I can share my innermost thoughts and feelings and fears. As a reader, I get access to others’ innermost thoughts and feelings and fears. As Madeleine Watts wrote in a piece for Lit Hub, “Literature can do one thing that no other art form can do: It can let you experience what it is like to be inside the consciousness of another human being.” In other words, literature facilitates empathy. And, what the world needs desperately is empathy. “Storytelling has never been more important,” Tracy Barone told me. “We can choose to see our human connection through this global situation and writers’ voices can channel this.”

For others, writing is a way to contribute to the greater good, to offer people much-needed escape. Mary Kubica said, “I feel compelled to produce more because it’s one way that I can give back during these dire times.” Michelle Gable, bestselling author of several novels, echoed this: “A few times, I’ve felt pretty bleak, like fiction is pointless, why am I doing this, who cares? On the other hand, I’ve done a lot of reading during this pandemic and I get so much out of these books.”

Fred Venturini, author of The Escape of Light, also mentioned how it’s easy to wonder “why bother?” as a fiction writer when global issues make stories seem insignificant. But, he said, “I keep coming back to the idea that our universal language is stories, that is how we best learn, remember, and engage. To be a translator of that important language is a gift not to be wasted.”

A gift not to be wasted, but…

I return to Ada Limón’s words: “impossible and necessary.” For many of us writers, there are days when creating is truly impossible, no matter how necessary it feels. These are unsettling times. The anxiety can feel crippling. Some days, due to childcare responsibilities or work or whatever else, I cannot manage to take a shower let alone write 500 words. And that’s okay. This is not the time for writers (or anyone) to compound their feelings of overwhelm and stress.

Author Kathleen Kaufman told me, “I’ve had to meditate on the idea of impermanence, the concept that attachment to things you think are vital, are nothing more than illusion. In terms of my writing, that translates to a lack of urgency, the ability to forgive myself for not being superwoman. If you wrote your King Lear during the pandemic, great. But it’s equally great if you simply managed to respond to your email.”  

For some writers, there are practical explanations for stalling on writing projects. Steven Rowley said, “The world is changing so rapidly and there is such a long lag time between starting a novel and when (or if!) it is published. I feel it’s important to address current events, at least tangentially, but what is it I want to say about the human condition in 2023, 2024 or beyond? It’s almost too much to think about.” Fred Venturini shares this concern: “Are we firmly in a world now where you have to wonder how to write a scene in a bar? If you set something in 2019, are readers just going to think you’re dodging the pandemic?”

There are a number of reasons—all of them valid—for slowing down the writing process right now. As Carolyn Gregoire wrote, “Real creative growth happens at its own natural pace, which can’t be forced or rushed. Creativity thrives with mental breathing room, wide-open inner spaces to roam, and unstructured time to dream and reflect.”

Many of us do not have “wide-open inner spaces to roam” right now. Most of us do not even have wide-open outer spaces to roam.

Even writers who are not actively writing are likely in the mysterious pre-writing phase—listening, absorbing, processing. Author and screenwriter Hollie Overton told me, “I’m not churning out pages right now. I consider it a good day if I get a thousand words in, or if I have a new idea. But I remind myself that the best writers recognize when something needs to be written and when it’s a time to take a beat and listen and absorb what is happening around you. There’s no race to the finish line for artists. Our job is to create and, pandemic or no pandemic, that’s what I’m going to do. It just might take me a bit longer right now.” Steven Rowley shared similar thoughts: “These things can’t be rushed. Right now, so much of my job is listening. And that’s a good thing.” 

I will continue to work on my novel, knowing it will probably take me three times longer than normal to complete. I expect there will be entire weeks when I will not be able (or willing) to write at all. It is comfort enough to know that I have writing in my life (in addition to Zoom therapy sessions). The words of poet Victoria Chang stay with me: “I think writing is a form of protest…I write now to tell off the pandemic, in a way. To prove that writing as an act can and will endure. It might not ‘save’ us, but I do know it will always be here for us.”

Yes, it will always be here for us—for us writers, for us readers, for us human beings in need of escape, connection, and meaning.

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