Writing in the Time of Covid
Question:
I know I can’t be the only one struggling with my writing during this pandemic. Any ideas on how I can be more productive?
Answer:
First let me say that I will answer this not only as a fellow writer, but also as a trained clinical social worker. Although most of us are nestled in the familiarity of our homes, the distractions seem bigger than ever. There is a lot of noise, making it hard to focus our thoughts, ignore the suffering, and repress the underlying fear gripping our hearts. My suggestion is to acknowledge this reality. And take the word ‘should’ out of your self talk. We are focused on what we need to be: surviving this virus.
I too have struggled. Here is how I finally returned to writing.
In mid March, a fellow writer and dear friend, Joe O’Connor, contracted the virus. He was being super careful, social distancing, staying home. He was the second person in Kent County to test positive, and the first to die.
Joe had been a member of my local critique group for the past two years. When he first showed up on the scene, we became instant friends. We began meeting for coffee almost every week to discuss writing and life in general. Late last fall his first poetry book, Why Poetry?, was published. I hosted a reading at my home that December. You could hear a pin drop when Joe read his poems about life, truth, the events unfolding outside his office window, and his tour in Vietnam.
After his death, our critique group met via Zoom. The first meeting consisted of nine blank stares, all of us unable to process that Joe was no longer with us. So we read Joe’s poems and shared stories. We laughed and cried. No one spoke of writing.
Feeling the need for community, we decided to Zoom every week. On the second week, there was some discussion of writing, but for the most part we talked about our struggles, and the days we did nothing but stare out the window. It helped.
We are still meeting every week. I look forward to those two hours very much.
And all of us are writing again.
When Joe was asked if he wanted to be put on a ventilator, he said, “Yes. I want to fight.” Joe was a tough kid raised on the streets of Brooklyn. He wasn’t about to give up. But the virus ravaged his body and he died from a stroke not long after. That drive to fight stuck with us.
As writers, we started to ask ourselves, what would Joe do?