In January, I was invited to give a lecture and facilitate a workshop for the University of Virginia Cultural Rhetorics Colloquium. My talk, Building a Writing Life: Sustaining Writing Practices, Care, and Creativity, and the workshop that followed focused on questions that have been living with me for a long time: What does it mean to care for yourself as a writer during chaotic times, and what does it mean, in turn, to care for your writing?
This invitation felt especially meaningful not only because it allowed me to share work I care deeply about, but because it brought together many threads of my own life—as a former professor, a writing coach and developmental editor, and someone who is, still and always, a writer. The lecture and workshop emerged from years of thinking, researching, writing, and trying to learn (and unlearn) practices that make it possible to sustain a writing life over time.
I’m grateful to be in conversation about what it means to care for yourself and your writing, especially now. As I shared with participants, this feels like a particularly urgent moment to talk about writing and care. We are living amid intense and competing demands on our attention, demands tied to care, justice, safety, and community. For many writers, the conditions for writing feel unsteady at best. And yet, I don’t believe that caring for ourselves and our writing is separate from caring for our communities or our commitments to justice. Learning how to sustain ourselves as writers is one way we learn how to remain present and engaged over time.
This work for this workshop and the writing I’m doing is shaped by decades of practice as a writing professor at multiple institutions, where I worked closely with students, colleagues, and community members who were often writing within complex, demanding lives—much like many of us are now. It is also rooted in my own experiences as a writer and caregiver, and as someone who has, at times, carried shame for not writing “enough.” Those experiences have taught me, again and again, that writing is never just an individual act. It is relational. It is situated. And it is deeply shaped by the conditions of our lives.
Writing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens inside lives that are full, unpredictable, and often constrained. Most of us do not get to write without limits on our time, energy, or attention.
Writing almost always requires support, especially in difficult times. It depends on structures, relationships, and practices grounded in care that make it possible to return to the page, again and again.
This is why we need to talk about care not as a vague feeling, but as a set of practices that can evolve, change, and grow with us. Taking time to consider how we care for our writing, and how writing might offer care to us in return, requires time, space, and permission to reflect honestly on what we need.
If you’re in need of time to reflect on your writing needs, I offer the prompts and resources below as an invitation to pause and reflect. And if this topic resonates, I’d welcome the opportunity to connect and support your writing through coaching, developmental editing, or customized workshops.
I’ll end with two prompts and additional resources that you might find useful if you’re thinking about how to tend to your writing with more care.
Writing & Sketching Prompts
Set aside a small pocket of time and write about what you are currently hoping for, or holding, for your writing. What do you want from it right now? Try to write without judgment or problem-solving.
Sketch out the supports that currently surround your writing. This might include people, routines, spaces, tools, or practices. Use shapes, colors, or symbols to represent what feels sturdy, what feels strained, and what might need to be added or reimagined.
Additional Resources
Over the past several years, I’ve written about what it means to care for yourself as a writer—especially during seasons when writing feels fragile, interrupted, or uncertain. The pieces linked below offer reflections and some include writing prompts that continue this conversation and invite you to think with care about your own writing life.
Caring For a Writer (May 2023)
Caring For a Writer pt. 2 (December 2023)
Caring For a Writer pt. 3 (August 2024)
Writing with Self-Compassion (July 2025)
You Did More than You Think: Honoring the Hidden Labor We Carry (December 2025)
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