How to Write When the World is Burning Down
No Kings Protest in Pasadena. June 14, 2025.
Steal your time—because no one’s going to give it to you and you’re never going to find it.
What hasn’t happened over the past two weeks? In my world, my routine was upended by middle school graduation, family visiting from out of town, and protests. Now I’m in a mom-scramble, hustling to complete camp and high school paperwork and packing up my family for our annual summer trip back east. There’s the mundane stuff like getting keys to the dogsitter and confirming the pianist for my father’s 90th birthday party. Unexpected things keep popping up too, like needing to renew my passport. Of course, there’s my current work and the work I’m trying to get. On top of my personal crap is the devastating state of world. Los Angeles, in particular, teeters on the edge with these ruthless immigrant raids, the unwanted arrival of the National Guard and Marines, and Trump’s illegal overreach as he plunges this country into authoritarianism. So what hasn’t happened since my last blog post? I haven’t written.
I know that life takes over—whether it’s within our own smaller sphere of existence (our work, our family obligations, our never-ending to-do lists) or within the world at large. On Sundays, my writing clients check in with me. Moments ago, I heard from one of them that she also did not write last week. She told me she wouldn’t judge her lack of writing, that with everything going on, she had expected her writing to fall off. On my end, I’ve told myself to forgive myself for my absence from writing. Both of these actions are right on: Don’t judge yourself and forgive yourself. Yes yes yes! But even these steps don’t necessarily subdue the bad feeling you might get from not writing. In the same way you might feel physically and psychologically lousy if you had intended to exercise but didn’t, wanting to write and yet not writing can make you feel shitty.
Bad news, good news? A guaranteed way to feel better after not exercising is, you guessed it, exercising. The way to feel better about not writing? Writing.
As I type up this blog post in my home office, my vacuum cleaner rests where I abandoned it, 4 feet away from me. Clean laundry waits in the dryer; wet laundry sits heavily in the washer, needing transfer into that occupied dryer. A stack of paperwork towers beside me, my expiring passport perched on top. The 24-hour news cycle is covering bombings, assassinations, and a military parade. For 20 minutes (more like 40 because I’m a slow thinker and typist, and I revise at a snail’s pace) I’m ignoring it all—including my husband on Father's Day and my kid who is playing video games in the basement rather than engaging in this beautiful summer day—and I’m writing this blog post.
About 8 of you will read this post, so its reach and usefulness is not vast. At a time of such weightiness and urgency in our lives, this blog post is also far from profound. What it is, however, is me honoring my desire to write. This blog post is me saying, “I see you, hellscape of a world. I see you, never-ending to-do list. But right now, I’m going to prioritize my voice, my thoughts, and my time the way I want to.”
On whatever day you’re reading this, I challenge you to at this moment take 20 to 40 minutes to write. Don’t find the time. Don’t wait for the time. Commandeer the time. You’ll get to the laundry. You’ll get to saving democracy (fingers crossed). But you might not get to writing unless you steal the time for yourself. It will make you feel better. I also encourage you to join my community free-writes, Rise + Write On, starting on July 14 at 7:30am. By participating, you will ensure that you write first thing in the morning, before life carries you away.
Look at me now! I feel better, and I get to check “Write blog post” off my list. Now if only I could find the time to exercise…