WRITING in a PANDEMIC

By Sharon May

Some people are hurriedly drafting works about living in a pandemic. You may be one of them. Occasionally, the thought crosses my mind. Then, I remind myself a few weeks experience isn’t enough to write about. Best to keep a journal and consider writing about it when it’s over, assuming we survive it, and when I have had time to reflect on the “so what” of the experience.

Regardless of what you like to write, I do hope you’re writing something. It obviously can be difficult to do so in times of personal and world turmoil. In 1991, I was supposed to be drafting a thesis for graduate school, and the Iraqi war began. You may remember it: a “live” broadcast on the news, the first time for a war and, so far, the last. My classmates and I couldn’t stop watching, ignoring the fact that we should have been writing. Fortunately, the live battles didn’t last more than a few days, and we returned to our work.

Despite knowing better, I am, at times, more interested in COVID-19 than I am with the hard work of revising a novel. I try to limit how much news I watch, which helps me not to become obsessed. Doesn’t mean I am devoting my spare time to writing.

A fellow writer, and coincidently a classmate who watched the war with me, says the pandemic could be a gift to writers: a mandate to stay at home, lock oneself in a room, and produce reams of work. A wonderful gift if you have the ability to distance yourself from reality and lose yourself in your writing.

But how many of us have that luxury? Some of us are too distracted by the pandemic, too worried about their health. Then there are those tracking down toilet paper, home schooling, cooking meals for the first time in years, sharing space with family that used to be theirs exclusively. Children and animals may want more time and attention, and after all, who can resist that? Then, there are those who are working more hours than ever as “essential employees.”

Even stuck safely at home during a pandemic, we truly do find ourselves with the same daily demands that we must, or can, choose over our writing. We struggle to juggle schedules, to find a quiet time to write regardless of what is going on around us. That is the life of writers. A pandemic just magnifies the demands on artists.

But now is the time to write and create. Consumers are turning to the arts as entertainment while safe at home. And, you could probably use the distraction.

If the muse has left the room, as I’ve said before in other blogs, the key is to write something down on paper (or keyboard as the case may be). Doesn’t matter what you write at all. Eventually, the muse will join you.