The Atomic Writer
A redirect on the No Fear newsletter: Searching for ways to keep writing despite the stress of a busy life, the drag of the distraction economy, and the demoralizing rise of AI.
A new name and intention for this newsletter: Atomic Writer.
Atomic Writer is for people who are still writers — even when life in 2026 keeps trying to steamroll them into something else.
You have a job. Maybe kids. Or both. That’s plenty. Now pile on the trillion dollar algorithm machines feverishly working through all available channels every second of every day intent on seizing your attention and personal data and emotional energy and selling it all for mind-boggling amounts of money.
I’m determined to not give up or give in. And while we know that hanging out at a cafe for a few hours to write up a storm every day isn’t going to happen anytime soon, there are options. Tactics, habits, and strategies that we can test out with the intention of opening up enough time here and there to keep the writing going.
It feels worth the effort. For one, because it’s a good feeling to be a writer. Another: I can’t help thinking the world needs human writers more than ever.
Consider how the AI machines are joining the fray, administered by the super-companies. Even when you’re trying to write a simple email, the agents are seeping through your software like horror-film slime, intent on relieving you and me and everyone else of writing another word.
We know how to write. We know we love it and we know it’s part of our individual identities. Writing is characterized as a solo pursuit, but the truth is we are all in this together. I witnessed this fact about the writing community in person. I was editor of The Writer magazine when COVID finally let up and I was able to join in at the AWP Writing conference in Seattle a few years ago. Thousands of writers were there, having left the the solitude of their home offices and libraries, obviously thrilled to be together. It was electric. Walking around the conference and through the workshops, everyone was generous to each other, smiling and kind. I witnessed one writer dropping a folder full of notes, and without hesitation people rushed from all sides to help her pick it all up. There was an unmistakable connection between everyone.
The purpose of this newsletter is to be part of the fight for the writing life — to keep making our writing happen despite the obstacles and modern-day stress.
The name Atomic Writer borrows from James Clear’s idea in Atomic Habits: that identity precedes behavior. You don’t “try to write more.” You are a writer — and writers write. Even in 20-minute windows. Or 10-minute windows. Whatever. Make the time happen and write in your journal in the predawn (before anyone else is up) or on your laptop during your lunchtime or tapping away into your phone when you’re commuting home on the subway. You’re staying connected to writing even when AI is carpet bombing the whole profession and nobody knows what’s coming next.
Every issue of The Atomic Writer deals with one or more of the things that are actually in the way and searches for ways to work around them. Or break through them.
I’m a former editor of The Writer magazine, a published author, and someone who has been inside the writing profession long enough to know what it actually costs to stay in it. I’m an old dad with two young kids. I’m always in the fight for some time and space to write something down on paper or into a computer. Making that more difficult is I have my share of executive functioning issues — and if you’re a writer with any of those, well, maybe we can figure some stuff out together in this channel. It’s another headwind for sure and maybe there’s a way to turn it into a tailwind.
In other words: If writing is serious to you but life/tech/news keeps getting in the way or trying to get in the way — you’re in the right place.