Sometimes I think my mind is fried. Or imitating (badly) the Energizer bunny. A lot of that is dealing with all the changes and problems that arise from COVID-19 and how it has changed all our lives whether we get sick or not.
I sit down at my computer to rewrite a short piece to submit to an anthology. Or I go back into rewriting my memoir and think – my writing/rewriting here is crap. Not as good as earlier in the memoir. Or go back to writing the latest Beyond mystery novel – Beyond Truth. Or write a blog post (I have two blogs). I am also doing the final edit of a client’s long novel – which is interesting and suspenseful but requires a heavy edit. Then something related to COVID-19 interferes.
Interference could be something as basic as going grocery shopping. Yes, I hate lining up outside stores, and dealing with a lot of the crap from store employees that is really the fault of their manager’s bad organization and training. I have dropped those few stores off my shopping list and go elsewhere. No, the big thing about grocery shopping interfering with my writing is when I have to grocery shop. Being a senior with a disability, I am encouraged to shop in off-peak hours. So, no more evening or weekend grocery shopping (which I was doing, so I could write and edit during the day on weekdays, best times for that), except for the local Shoppers Drug Mart, a five-minute walk from me where I go just after 9 a.m. every other Saturday. I am not an early morning person, thanks to health issues, but I can do 9.15 a.m. close to home. Not so grocery stores. But I have found that during lunch time or just after lunch time the grocery stores (and the buses to get there and back) are not busy, partly thanks to social distancing, partly due to off-peak times. But because of dietary restrictions and grocery items’ cost, I have to go to a couple of grocery stores (besides the Shoppers which carries some groceries). So, despite my plan to grocery shop every two weeks, I find that time-line is stretched into two or three days – one shop a day. Doing all three in one day is too tiring (i tried that the first time and after I got home, collapsed on the couch). And then I run out of some fresh veggies and fruit like lettuce and bananas in-between the two weeks.
Now getting into gardening season, there are all the garden supplies to chase down – from seed catalogue orders put in that are slow to arrive to stores carrying gardening supplies cum hardware stuff now on the “unessential business ” list for in-store shopping and they are using alternative ways. Plus I don’t drive so can’t do curb-side pickup (per se)… I think you get the picture. Dealing with business emails is enough extra, now there are emails and news stories related to COVID–19 to keep up with. What’s a writer to do? Tear his or her hair out. Maybe, hairdressing services are not on the essential business list – but dry cleaners are. Go figure.
I do a daily “to’do” list the evening before. But sticking to it??? I need to do some heavy changes mixed in with some softer actions. Heck, I’m a writer. I am creative. So besides following the “to do” list, I am going to try the following and I’m keeping itbasic. the three D’s – Dilute, Delay, Dump. And the three R’s – Review, Re-arrange, and Relax.
How are you as a writer coping with all the COVID-19 confusion, worry, anxiety and fear? Please comment. And speaking of relax – time for my daily walk in the neighbourhood and looking for signs of spring and crossing the street or walking on the street if someone is coming the other way. That’s rude, I think,
As for some of my writing – the anthology submissions, they are ready to go (finally) and will go out as soon as I hear back from the editor about if they can be all submitted as one email attachment or… I know…dealing with all this COVID-19 business has fried my brain. But not enough to fry my creativity.
Cheers.
Sharon A. Crawford, author of the Beyond mysteries. All available in e-copies at Amazon. Link for Beyond Faith here.
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Tags: Beyond Faith and Sharon A. Crawford, Beyond mystery series, Business of Writing, Writing in COVID-19 Times, Writing Time
It has been awhile since I posted. I am still here, but engulfed coping with all the changes with this coronavirus or covid 19 pandemic as it is also called. One thing I have also been doing is writing and what I am writing is affected by this virus pandemic. Except for some Facebook postings and comments about the virus, I find what I am writing goes back to the past, before 2001.
This isn’t strange because it is common; it is soothing to go back to earlier times (even before you were born if you are writing historical fiction) when your life becomes a huge trauma with no answers for relief, no certainty. And everyone worldwide is in the same position.
Research does show the benefit of what they call “nostalagia”. See The Psychological
Benefits of Nostalgia
Although some writers are writing stories (fiction or nonfiction) about the pandemic, writing something set in the past can be uplifting. If I am writing more of my latest Beyond mystery in the works (Beyond Truth, working title), I get completely absorbed in the story and the characters. Some of you have read my past postings over the years where my main Beyond character PI Dana Bowman has shall we say, taken over the writing of the Beyond books. At least, she claims she wrote the latest published one – Beyond Faith, but after a few “talkings” from me is now conceding maybe she co-wrote it. For more info on Dana Bowman and her connection to see me my website Beyond Faith page.
But Dana is someone other than me and getting embroiled in her stories (and the other point of view characters in Beyond Truth) gets me into a better world, albeit fictional (or is it? Dana would say otherwise) than the one we live in now.
With fiction, the characters have problems, many traumatic, but it is fiction and in the end (as in end of the book), there is usually some sort of resolution. This is true even with series books (yes, I know I had a cliffhanger as part of the ending to Beyond Faith which picks up in Beyond Truth). This resolution, albeit it may not be all happy, is something we all need today. Fiction can do this. Whether you write fiction or read it or do both. Whether libraries and bookstores have temporarily had to close their bricks and mortar stores, you can “borrow” e-books online from many libraries, buy e-books and print books online at Amazon and elsewhere.
And having said that (warning: shameful self-promotion) here is the link to my Amazon profile
and from there my Beyond books in case you are interested.
For those with Kobo readers you can go to Kobu directly
And here is a free takeaway. On my Facebook author page, for the past few months I have been posting daily (on weekdays) short words of wisdom for writers under the title Today’s Writing Quotation. I feature quotes from writers – well-known and otherwise, dead or alive, to help writers with their writing. The link to that author Facebook page is here.
So, how are you writers and readers coping with the virus pandemic? Are you reading more? What are you reading? Are you writing more? What are you writing? Is it helping you to get through this dark night of the body, mind and soul? Let’s start a sharing conversation on this.
I will try to post herebriefly once a week.
Stay safe and stay healthy.
Sharon
Pi Dana Bowman holding Beyond novels
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Tags: Beyond mystery series, Dana Bowman, Nostalgia, Nostalgia coping with Coronaris Pandemic, Sharon A. Crawford, writing, Writing coping with Coronavirus
Sharon A. Crawford author 