How to Write Amid Chaos

[This article originally appeared in the July/August 2025 issue of Writer's Digest magazine.]

Under the best of circumstances, it can be hard to clear space—literal and metaphorical—to write amid responsibilities and commitments, busy schedules, and the many distractions and unpredictability of life.

These are not, by most people’s measure, the best of circumstances.

Divisiveness is on the rise; wars are being waged around the world. Our newsfeeds, inboxes, and TVs report growing political unrest, the increasingly dire effects of unchecked global warming, and a future so uncertain that many people no longer expect to enjoy more stability, freedom, or economic well-being than their parents’ generation.

Add to that the personal challenges and struggles that are a regular feature of being alive, and it’s hard to clear away all the noise so you can sit down and write. Hard to focus on the worlds we want to create when the one around us may feel stifling or frightening or bleak. At times like this, writers may even wonder if there’s a point in creating our stories or sharing them, if they may have any meaning or impact at all.

But this is when your writing is more important than ever.

Why Does Your Writing Matter?

It may not seem as if it makes any difference when you’re dragging yourself out of bed early after an unrestful night from doomscrolling social media feeds till the wee hours or trying to shut out all the noise and headlines to crank out your 500or 1,000 or 2,000 words. Especially if, like most of us, your stories aren’t directly speaking to or about any of the critical issues raging on around us. Spinning the tale of your charming cozy or sizzling romantasy or introspective memoir might seem like waltzing while the world burns.

But here’s why your writing and stories matter:

Stories offer solace and hope. In times of unrest, struggle, and uncertainty, people reach for the comfort of story. When the world around us may feel bleak or overwhelming, stories offer us not just an escape from our troubles and worries, but a version of life that may remind us of what’s most important, what we value and what is worth striving and fighting for, and the kind of world we could create if we do. It’s no accident that amid profound polarization and fear in 2020, viewers stuck at home during a deadly pandemic tuned in by the millions to watch the sweet, optimistic “Ted Lasso.”

Story connects us in a divided world. We see ourselves and the people around us in story—it offers insight about the human condition, alternative perspectives and universal longings and struggles. In the pages of a story, we might understand what motivates even those we disagree with and see them not as a faceless “other” but as whole people—complex, flawed, and wounded, just as all of us are. And the shared appreciation of story can surmount even the most powerful differences, offering common ground to bring people together. When the U.S. hesitated to offer desperately needed aid to Ukraine in the early days of the war launched by Russia’s unprovoked attack and invasion, it was UkrainianPresident Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s impassioned stories about his underequipped people valiantly defending their sovereignty and their lives that finally moved the U.S. to take action and send weapons for their defense.

Story makes sense of the senseless: The world we live in is messy, mind-meltingly complex, and often outside of our control. Story can help clear the chaos. It offers logic and cohesion that we may lack in real life. It offers a bigger-picture overview with perspective we may not have in the present moment. And it can help us—writer and reader—process pain and turn it into something positive and constructive.

Story gives voice to the voiceless: Story has the power to heighten awareness of injustice and oppression that may suppress the voices of its victims. The Diary of Anne Frank put a profoundly human face on the more than 6 million Jews killed by the fascist Nazi regime. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin vividly showed the horrors of enslavement. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle exposed the meatpacking industry’s unsafe conditions and abuses of often-immigrant workers.

Story changes the world: Because story can broaden and deeply impact people’s views, it can help spark needed change. Uncle Tom’s Cabin fueled the abolitionist movement that finally put an end to slavery in America; The Junglehelped lead to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act; and the TV show “Will & Grace” is often cited as a major factor in legalizing marriage equality. Even if your work doesn’t change society as a whole, it might change the individuals in it. How many of us have found life-changing inspiration, insight, or illumination in the pages of a book?

Books and stories matter so much and wield such power in the world that nearly every oppressive regime starts by banning them. Sharing knowledge, expanding people’s worldview, and encouraging them to think for themselves is exactly what those who seek to manipulate and control others don’t want.

But perhaps the most important reason to persevere in your writing despite the chaos around you is for yourself and your own well-being. Creative souls wither when deprived of their creativity, and when the world is in flux around you is when you most need its nourishment. For most of us, writing helps us understand the world and ourselves; it helps us process and work through pain; it gives us comfort and joy.

Those potent side effects are never more welcome or important than when chaos rages around you. Writing offers that calm, still center that allows you to bear up and push through—and help others do the same.

How Can You Write When the World Is on Fire?

Chaos is wrought by destruction, by forces and people who tear down. Artists and writers and other deep thinkers are the ones who do the job of building up, of finding and making order and meaning where none may seem to exist. In the words of author Toni Morrison, “Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge—even wisdom. Like art.”

Chaos is potential.

Those are pretty thoughts, but amid what may feel like constant chaos, externally and internally, on a world stage as well as personal as we grapple with an epidemic of anxiety, how can creators access the wherewithal to tame it?

Quiet the noise. Shutting out the world around you isn’t possible, and it isn’t practical; awareness is necessary as a creative, as a citizen, and as a human being—but be careful how much poison you take in. Arsenic in small doses canhelp treat cancer and save a dog from heartworm, but in larger ones, it will kill. Minimize your news and social media doomscrolling, and find reputable and objective sources that help you remain aware of important community and world events. Set aside time for your writing—even if only a few minutes when you can snatch them—and hold it sacrosanct: no phones, no internet, no interruptions.

Focus on the step in front of you. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed by the welter of worries. For whatever time you allot to your writing—and it can be as little as two minutes, anything that gets you in front of your WIP with regularity—let yourself shut out everything outside your keyboard. Write down the heart of your story in a single line—what made you want to write it—put it on a Post-it Note on your computer, and laser in on that intention every time you sit down to write. Just take one step at a time, one word at a time. You cannot fix everything wrong in the world. But you can do one thing, write this one sentence. And then another. And then another. Action is empowering.

Lean in. Creatives are often uniquely sensitive and uniquely attuned to the world around them, so we may feel chaos and uncertainty even more keenly. Use your painful, uncomfortable, unpleasant emotions in the writing. Put your concerns into your stories—let your characters wrestle with the things you fear most, the worst-case scenarios you imagine, the anxious uncertainty or overwhelm you may be feeling. Not only is there narrative power in giving your characters great challenges but facing them head-on in your writing can help mitigate and control your own fears and concerns. The monster under the bed is only scary until you look underneath it.

Or take a breather. But story can also be a welcome tonic for what ails us, a way to imagine a better world or situation. Use your stories as escape from the chaos to create the reality you want to live in if the one around you feelsoppressive, to show what’s possible, to offer hope—to yourself and others—for a brighter future.

Be kind to yourself. It’s almost impossible to write when you’re stressed, anxious, or run-down. Care for yourself and your psyche the way a violinist cares for her instrument. Rest. Meditate. Take time away from your writing, your work, your responsibilities, and nourish your soul and your body. Get out in nature. Exercise. Take time to prepare and enjoy healthy meals for yourself—and the occasional decadent treat. Engage with the people—and animals—you care about. Focus on the small immediate good around you: a beautiful day, a kind gesture, the rich scent of your coffee and the comfort of your hands wrapped around the warm mug. Even amid the worst kind of chaos, there are moments to appreciate, things to be grateful for.

Fill the well. Remember that taking in other people’s stories is also part of the creative process, even when you can’t write, and it’s food for the creative soul. In times of inner unrest, be careful with the books, movies, and TV showsyou consume. This may not be the time for dark, dystopian tales. Reach for stories that let in the light—tales of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, like The Small and the Mighty, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Pursuit of Happyness. Stories that uplift, like A Man Called Ove or Remarkably Bright Creatures or The Alchemist. Or those that offer pure escapism or silliness or joy: rom-coms and bromances and comedies; “Shrinking” and “Schitt’s Creek” and The Princess Bride.Especially when you may feel overwhelmed or hopeless, you can find fortitude, insight, and strength in story.

When the world around us feels chaotic, we crave a return to calm and order and predictability.

But the truth about chaos is that it’s not an anomaly—it’s the normal state of the world. Everything in nature is in constant flux, growing, evolving, changing: Seasons come and go; creatures live and age and die; civilizations rise and fall; the very earth is constantly shifting underneath us, slowly reshaping the planet.

It was ever thus.

So often, the discomfort of chaos and change arises from our resisting it, longing for things to “get back to normal”—but there is no static baseline normal. Everything, every moment, is a new normal, and waiting for the chaos to die down—especially in our ever more polarized times of upheaval and unrest—means you may never find the peaceful, chaos-free window for your writing that you long for. You have to create and claim it for yourself.

As Toni Morrison says in her now-famous 2015 essay in The Nation, times of dread are exactly when artists must go to work: “There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear.”

Artists are the visionaries of the world. They are the accountability of the world. They’re the historians and the documentarians and the chroniclers of our lives and our times.

And, so often, artists are the conscience of a people—and the torchbearers of truth. Shine your light into the darkness, even when things feel bleak. Especially when things feel bleak.

That’s when your words and your work matter most.

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Tiffany Yates MartinAuthor

Tiffany Yates Martin has spent nearly 30 years as an editor in the publishing industry, working with major publishers and New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling and award-winning authors as well as indie and newer writers. She is the founder of FoxPrint Editorial and author of the bestseller Intuitive Editing: A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing. Under the pen name Phoebe Fox, she's the author of six novels, including the upcoming The Way We Weren't (Berkley). Visit her at FoxPrintEditorial.com or PhoebeFoxAuthor.com.