Gentle Writing Books for When Life Gets Rough

It’s no secret that writing in the past few weeks (months, years, 😭) has gotten harder. It's probably all of the fascism and the *makes vague dispairing gestures at the state of the world* everything. And while all of that makes it feel like writing stories is futile, I firmly believe it's stories that will keep us going. That said, times do call for a certain gentleness with ourselves in regards to our writing practice. So instead of the tools article I was originally planning on posting today, here are four gentle writing books I can recommend to you right now to remind you to be kind to yourself and to help you stay sane and stay writing. May you find them as helpful as I have.

List Criteria: These books have a gentle approach and encouraging tone along with specifics about starting or maintaining a writing practice during difficult times whether that's internally or with things happening in the world (or both. It's usually both). 

Never Say You Can’t Survive - Charlie Jane Anders 

I'm only about two thirds of the way through this book at the moment, but it's already a high recommendation. Anders strikes an excellent balance between you-can-do-it pep talk and hey-this-is-hard sympathy. Anders is Trans, and that gives her work a particular bite in reference to dealing with and writing in response to real world events. Never Say You Can't Survive also functions as a pretty good overall primer for the writing process from start to finish, especially when it comes to speculative fiction. If you are looking to bring the fight with your words, or feel like you should be doing something more but don't quite feel up to it, this is the book to read right now.

Gentle Writing Advice - Chuck Wendig

While Wendig is also the author of Kick Ass Writing he readily admits he needed something gentler in the wake of the 2020 election and then COVID19 Pandemic. Out comes Gentle Writing Advice which directly addresses the collective trauma of trying to be prductive during the ongoing global meltdown we are experiencing. Wendig covers topics like The Mythology of Process, Self-Care for Writers, and The Fine Art of Flinging Fucks from Your Fuckbasket in his classic sardonic style but also with great compassion for the reader and ultimately for himself. If you are struggling to write right now or you are beating yourself up for not being more productive recently, this is the book for you.

The Way of the Fearless Writer - Beth Kempton 

This is currently the book on my nightstand and it has been a pleasant way to wind down in the eventings. Kempton is a western scholar of Japanese and Chinese thought, and the author of several other self-help books including Freedom Seeker and Calm Christmas. This book is structured around the three Buddhist Gates of Wisdom and is intended to help you feel more freedom in your writing process. It is a very different take from the first two books on this list, but so far has been motivating in a gentle but insistent way. If you are feeling trapped, exhausted, or afraid of the future and your writing is suffering for it, this is your book.

The Artist’s Way - Julia Cameron

The OG resource for stuck and despairing creatives, Cameron's method is on the touchy-feely side. But her gentle essays on getting back in touch with your inner artist and letting yourself play again are words that work just as well today as they did thirty years ago. Yes this is the “morning pages” book, in which Cameron teaches you to write for 3 pages every morning (along with “artist dates” and “wanders”). It's worth trying if you've never done it before, even if you don't intend to make it a lifelong commitment (or to do it in the morning, I do a truncated version before writing in the afternoons). If you used to write and stopped, feel like you cant write at all, or feel like your creative practice is suffering but can't put your finger on why, this is the book to work through.