On Fridays, Evan Peterson offers five stories from across the Web that scribes of all stripes should check out. It’s the Week in Writing:

Writers with no power: With lots of writers being based on the East Coast, this week, a number of columns, blogs, and assignments were put on hold as everyone in the storm’s vicinity attempts to recover from Sandy. Among them:

• Government workers: Washington, D.C. very likely employs more speechwriters than any other city on earth. Most of them work in the government. Not much speaking will be happening as the storm recovery continues.

• TV Writers: David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon hosted their shows without a live audience. Letterman claimed that he was without some of his writers, too. Even telecommuting is only as good as a strong Internet connection.

Sandy inspires a reflection on words: Robin Hardman, a communications professional in Queens, contemplates how she came to view the word 'disaster' quite differently this week, and how we might better understand the power of a word if it's something we live through.

What to do when the power goes out: On the other hand, more writing of a different kind may be happening. Number five on BuzzFeed's list of entertaining things to do when the power goes out is to write a hand-written letter to someone special. Writing down ideas or stories on paper would probably work well, too.

A Sandy-inspired guide to working from home: An editor at The Atlantic writes about his 48 hours as a nomad in the wake of the storm, and things you need when working from home—or from a friend's home. Not surprisingly, the first one is strong coffee. Some great ideas are also offered in the comments section.

Advice for National Novel Writing Month: I covered this event here last year, as well. It's a contest and large-scale participatory event where people try to finish a novel in one month—sort of like a marathon. The challenge is to write a 50,000-word piece of fiction in November. GalleyCat has a lot of tips here.

Evan Peterson is a writer based in Chicago, and the editor of OpenMarkets magazine at CME Group. He's on Twitter at @evanmpeterson.