COVID-19 and writing

With the coronavirus spreading around the world and more and more things shutting down, how has all this affected your writing? I'm pretty much living in a lockdown situation right now. And focusing on writing can help get my mind off the end of the world. Just wondering how you all are doing. Are you reading and writing more? That time you never have, do you have it now? Also, does what's going on in the world with this virus come into your writing at all in any way? Sometimes it's really hard to ignore the real world no matter how deep into our fiction world we get. Just wanted to check in with you all. I hope you're writing up a storm from somewhere inside and safe.

 

I'm definitely reading a lot more. I was lucky enough to visit the library before it shut down and stock up on a pile of books.

With regards to writing, I have been experiencing a serious case of the blah-blahs.....nothing I write is really clicking right now. Frustrated. I know so clearly what I want but I can't make the words flow properly.....sigh.

That said, I have steady work that brings in money, toilet paper, books to read, paper and about 20 pens to write with.....maybe inspiration will strike? Fingers crossed.

 

I haven't been doing much writing at all. A few weeks ago I had a craze and wrote many, many thousands of words. Now nothing. Not much has changed for me, was pretty much isolating myself before Corona, now I just have a good excuse to not go outside at all.

 

I know the feeling (on a much smaller scale). I have a short story that's been on submission for awhile. I was thinking of pulling it. It's a little too timely even if I wrote it way before all this and like you said it feels a little bit in poor taste. Where I live life is very different now. I feel like I'm living out some doom's day senecio. Life feels like fiction.

I don't know if the publishing world is completely shutting down and for how long, but magazines and books do still need to come out. Will the reading world want more zombie stories? Or more end-of-the-world type stories?

 

I was in a productive period even before my place of work shut down, and now that I'm free practically 24/7 I'm getting a lot of writing done. I'm even finding some time for my art. I don't read much, but I should, now that I have the chance to really sink into a book.

 

My writing hit a bit of a hitch before covid - life - . So I'm trying to get back into the groove. One thing I hate is trying to recapture that mood. It's like for months I was dancing - and now I have to pick up those steps with no background music. I have to find the rhythm all over again. And I'm right on the edge with just a few more chapters to go.
Maybe with the force of having to face it I'll have a breakthrough.

 

I am not in lock down (yet) so I haven't had an opportunity to write more. If anything, I write less now due to new concerns and priorities eating up my spare time. But I'm sure if the government puts us into a mandatory lock down (like in Italy) this may change.

 

Besides the lockdown and the overall alarming situation, it's actually a great opportunity for lots of reading and writing! I was going to finish my book later this summer, but now I might actually finish it next month, if laziness doesn't overwhelm me. I'm pretty sure it won't, though. Also, I finally decided to have a diary. It's a great way to keep myself creative, I'm not sure why I didn't have one until now. Bummer!

 

I still have to work my day job and the stress of it all (are we remote working or are we staying here despite the advice of the government, blah blah blah banks are stressful places), so my writing is starting to suffer a bit.

I'll bounce back, probably.

 

Hello friend,

Where I live in the country isn't lockdown (yet), but I started to feel a massive difference in my job. Sales are going down, costumers aren't coming much in numbers, and my shifts are getting cut, and this can lead to a bad scenario. But a positive side is that now I have more time to read and write in hopes that at least the publishing industry will not close so I can have this opportunity to publish a book.

 

Unfortunately, I hadn't had time to write or read. My classes switched to online, which made the homework a lot more demanding, and I've been helping my family prep since my state declared a state of emergency. I wouldn't say the virus is interfering daily life, but it certainly has a lot of influence on my current priorities.

I try to not be a downer, but I feel quite guilty that my works-in-progress are collecting electronic dust

 

Well seeing that I still have to show up for work and my writing have to share my free time with other things I’d say my life is just the same as before.

Now, if my government comes out and say that we all need to go home and stay there until further notice... Then that might change it, since I’ll have 8 more hours of me-time and then I’ll denifetely devote 2 or 3 of them everyday to my writing for as long as I’m off work.

 

Oops double post, please ignore

 

I plan to write a lot more than I usually do, although I tend to stay home most of the time anyway so who knows if I'll actually be more productive than usual.

I do have a few ideas floating around because of all this. Last year I got the idea to do a series of stories set a few decades in the future (around 2050 or so) that focuses mainly on new technologies and the issues they'll have for society. For instance, one story would revolve around artificial intelligence being used as domestic servants in homes and workplaces, and a police department's A.I shows signs of being sentient by thinking beyond its programming. So the issue becomes whether or not servant A.I's are in fact sentient like humans, and if sentience can even be defined.

So in the wake of coronavirus and the misinformation surrounding it, I started wondering about the ethics of a government taking aggressive steps to combat the spread of misinformation. Right now we live in a time where climate change is a major issue and yet there are plenty of climate change deniers. We also have anti-vaxxers who have already been met with legal backlash for not vaccinated their kids (some schools refuse to admit unvaccinated children). It raises a question; misinformation can be extremely damaging to the health and safety of the community, so should a government take active measures to fight misinformation? And if so, how far? Most of us place great importance on freedom of speech, but is it justifiable to let people think whatever they want even if it leads to the spread of misinformation that could cause widespread harm to the community?

Since I've gotten the idea I thought I might include the coronavirus pandemic in my fictional future's timeline, since there would still be people alive in the 2050s who remembered the pandemic. If this future has a lot of laws regulating information, then it can feasible be a hot-button issue if there are people alive who remember the pandemic and the misinformation that helped it spread.

 

I think this whole virus thing is being over-reacted to at the moment. Why are people mass buying toilet roll? Most people are recovering and those who are sadly dying are mostly older people with conditions that complicate things. I had a viral chest infection years ago, I recovered. But my elderly father was frail and had lungs issues and his body couldn't fight it so we lost him. Of course it's sad. I think some countries have acted correctly and I do believe in protecting anyone vulnerable but I'm not bothered about myself.
This whole thing has certainly fired my current work but on the other hand, I don't want to be indelicate. My novel deals with a world war 2 situation. Where the enemy is holding slaves in ghettos to force them to help in their war effort. One of the dilemmas my character faces is a viral outbreak in the ghettos she works in. She's a nurse in training to be sent to the battle fields and is under instructions to report any symptoms of this illness. Then locking up orders will be enforced on the person and their families - she just never expected it to be her own family. People are mass panicking as the neighboring work camp was liquidated due to the infection.

I'm drawing from what I'm seeing, feeling and hearing around me. The rumours flying, the assumptions people are making. Those who are fear mongering and also those with a false sense of security. It's one thing to write about a viral pandemic but another to live through it.

 

@big soft moose That link doesn't seem to work.

 

It says I don't have permission to view it.

 

Aah, ok. Weird, I have posts in there before I'm allowed in...

Oh well, when I grow up I'll be able to see it.

 

No writing storm yet, but I hope it's coming? I can work my day job remotely, and while generally I expect things to slow down, they haven't yet. The weekend was nice with all activities cancelled. I didn't write, but did read my sixth grader's required reading Where the Red Fern Grows, which I somehow missed while growing up (yes, I cried). I have very specific things I need to revise in my WIP and hoping to get to that in this weekend's downtime. I think it's likely that the ethos of this moment will flavor most things I'm doing (writing and otherwise).