TO BE a writer is to spend time writing—along with reading, observing, and finding novel ways to color-catalogue one’s books—but traditional rules about what’s required of writers often assume able-bodied, neurotypical individuals without caretaking responsibilities. Stephen King’s iconic On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2000) is one popular source of these rules: “The sort of strenuous reading and writing program I advocate—four to six hours a day, every day,” writes King without a hint of irony, “will not seem strenuous if you really enjoy doing these things and have an aptitude for them.” According to King, the only things that could possibly prevent one from taking his prescription would be a lack of interest or talent.
Had I never read , I likely would have still picked up on the long-familiar baseline assumption that writers, if they’re to be taken seriously, will be sure to write daily. After all, my professor of advanced writing in college had us physically submit a document that stated the exact time of day we’d commit to writing, without fail, every
