Writing and Self-care
April 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the World Health Organization, and this year their focus is on public health and “Health for All.” This led me to consider the intersection between health and writing, particularly as it pertains to women writers and women’s health.
Authors like Laura Hillenbrand, Octavia Butler, and Agatha Christie all suffered from disabilities that were not immediately obvious to an outside observer, such as dyslexia, autism spectrum disorder, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Yet these women managed to not only produce seminal works within their genres, but they also had an impact on the larger writing arenas as a whole. In some cases, they wrote not in spite of their health challenges, but because of them. In the words of Hillenbrand, “I'm looking for a way out of here. I can't have it physically, so I'm going to have it intellectually.”
Butler turned to reading and writing as an escape from the bullying produced by her struggle with dyslexia. She was encouraged to keep writing when she shared her work with trusted teachers. The hugely successful American science fiction writer produced over twenty novels during an award-winning career. She credits her success to routine. “First of all, forget inspiration,” said Butler. “Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories.”
Perhaps the best way to care for ourselves as writers is to be kind to ourselves. Consider these words of advice and tips from other women writers:
“This is a tip given to me by Margaret Atwood. When you sit at the desk all morning looking at the page and you don’t write anything, that’s writing too.” —Valerie Martin (2003 winner of The Women’s Prize for Fiction)
“Writing is about resilience and faith. Writing is hard for every last one of us—straight white men included. Coal mining is harder. Do you think miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine coal? They do not. They simply dig.” —Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
“Your day’s work might turn out to have been a mess. ‘So what?’ Vonnegut said, ‘When I write I feel like an armless legless man with a crayon in his mouth.’ So go ahead and make big scrawls and mistakes. Use lots of paper. Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist’s true friends.” —Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird
“Instructions for living a life: / pay attention / be astonished / tell about it” —Mary Oliver, author of Devotions
I hope that you continue to engage with the natural world and the people around you, and that you are kind to yourself in the process of writing. Whether you struggle with illness or you are healthy, suffering or thriving, it is important to remember that your writing matters. Let reading and writing be the safe spaces in which you can explore other worlds and experiences.