[Link] Wordless

(Originally Posted on December 30, 2021. It's older, but still well worth a read for when you feel the words are broken and just won't make their way to the page.)

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by Christa Faust

It’s Been A Year. Again. Next year looks to be more of the same and then some. But this isn’t one of those “how about that 2021?” Happy Fucking New Year type of posts.

I want to talk about not talking. Or more specifically, not writing.

Something has happened to me over the past couple of years. Something I can’t seem to put into words. Because that’s the problem. My words. They seem… broken.

We have all been playing this fun (not actually fun) game over the interminable eternity of this Fucking Pandemic. The options may be different on each person’s list, but the underlying multiple choice shuffle is the same.

Why am I like this right now?

Read the full article: https://christafaust.com/wordless/

[Link] Are we ready for COVID-19 as a central theme in literature?

By Gabino Iglesias

Nearly two years after the start of COVID-19 social-distancing protocols and lockdowns, the pandemic is still a thing we think about — and live with — daily. Its constant presence and the way it has changed our world has had an impact on everything, including literature.

I, like I'm sure many others, had no interest in reading books about plagues generally or about how we were dealing with COVID-19 more specifically over the last two years. But as this pandemic seems like it will eventually turn into an epidemic or become endemic, I have started freeing myself up to read about these topics beyond daily news — and to start looking back, and forward, with literature that either mentions COVID-19 or features it a central element of its narrative. And from the slew of books coming out this year, it seems like other have too (or at least publishing houses think they have!).

Pandemic fiction and nonfiction began more quickly trickling into our libraries and bookstores in the second half of 2021, and has since found a growing presence. We've seen novels like Louise Erdrich's The Sentence, Catherine Ryan Howard's 56 Days, Amitava Kumar's A Time Outside This Time, and Sarah Hall's Burntcoat. There have also been anthologies like COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthology, Lockdown: Stories of Crime, Terror, and Hope During a Pandemic, and And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the Covid-19 Pandemic (the latter two of these actually came out in 2020). All directly address the pandemic and chronicle how it has affected our lives, relationships, plans, and productivity.

Read the full article: https://www.npr.org/2022/02/24/1079823095/are-we-ready-for-covid-19-as-a-central-theme-in-literature

[Link] Writer's blockdown: after a year inside, novelists are struggling to write

by Alison Flood

A spell at home is surely a good opportunity to write, so why are so many authors struggling?William Sutcliffe, Linda Grant and more share how the pandemic has stifled their imaginations

In early February, after a month of lockdown, William Sutcliffe wrote on Twitter: “I have been a professional writer for more than twenty years. I have made my living from the resource of my imagination. Last night I had a dream about unloading the dishwasher.”

If the first lockdown was about finding space to write (along with a blitz spirit and a Tesco delivery slot), then the second has been far bleaker and harder for creativity. Whether it is dealing with home schooling, the same four walls, or anxiety caused by the news, for many authors, the stories just aren’t coming.

“Stultified is the word,” says Orange prize-winning novelist Linda Grant. “The problem with writing is it’s just another screen, and that’s all there is … I can’t connect with my imagination. I can’t connect with any creativity. My whole brain is tied up with processing, processing, processing what’s going on in the world.”

Grant describes waking up in a fog, and not wanting to do anything but watch rubbish TV. Her mind is not relaxed enough, she says, to connect with her subconscious. “My subconscious is just basically screaming: ‘Get us out of this’,” she says, so there’s no space to create fiction. “I don’t have the emotional and intellectual energy to give to these shadowy people to bring them out of the shadows.”

Read the full article: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/19/writers-blockdown-after-a-year-inside-novelists-are-struggling-to-write

Writing in the Time of Covid (Not to Be Confused with Love in the Time of Cholera)

Living with Covid-19 has changed a lot of things. We can just file that statement under "Things Captain Obvious would say." For writers, it has changed the way we interact with fans, publishers, and other writers. 

Gone are the conventions. Now they're super spreader events we aim to avoid. Gone are the "regular days" without spouses and kids at home when we might normal write. 

For a look at some of the specifics, I turns to three of my fave indie writers, Nancy Hansen, Bill Craig, and Jenny Reed. 

How have the changes that Covid brought to gathering and going places changed your writing routine (if at all)?

Nancy Hansen: Honestly, it really didn't change much for me. I write at home at least 5 days a week as it is anyway. Sometimes more. When I couldn't see the extended family, we kept in touch via cell phone and the camera on my tablet, and I used whatever extra time I had to get in more writing. Since I'm now somewhat disabled, I'm used to being home most of the time, so that doesn't faze me. I blogged a little more consistently. Overall; life went on.

Bill Craig: I jumped to a totally new genre for what will be my first book of 2021. Ravens Hollow is a horror novel set in a pre-covid world.

Jenny Reed: My spouse now works from home, which affects my routine in this fashion:

I USED to have a whole swath of day spouse-free, and while I might get interrupted by dogs, trolls, phone calls, or facebook PMs, these were almost always non-urgent optional things which I could quickly answer and get rid of or even outright ignore if they were inconvenient. (Calls from mom at the most inconvenient times excluded, of course. You cannot ignore your mother, not if you like surviving, anyway.)

NOW, if my spouse wants to take a break, then I must take a break. If my spouse is in the mood for a snack, then I must be. And I better not be in the mood for a snack when my spouse isn't, unless I wish to send a secret signal that it is snack time to my spouse. There is no warning time when my spouse is done working for the day (used to be called the commute, and I'd get a facebook message giving me a countdown... no longer).

On the other hand, there used to be the occasional dog issue that I had to drop everything and deal with right now. This is no longer my problem; my spouse will go deal with it and I can sit tight and ignore it. Unless my spouse is on a conference call, of course... then, it's my problem, but now I have to figure that out first.

Are you seeing or hearing changes from your fan base in terms of buying books or just wanting to communicate more with you after being housebound for weeks or months at a time?

Bill Craig: My routine has not really changed. I still work from 9pm to 11pm. I missed 1 day of writing due to being sick with covid. Being a functional hermit kept me from getting a more severe case.

Jenny Reed: No.

Nancy Hansen: I have heard from a few people, mostly wondering about how to get certain books of mine and when new ones in certain popular series would be out in print. Since what I write is great escapist fiction, I can understand the additional interest, but I had to explain that once I turn them over to a publisher, the books are on their timetable and not mine. Still I thanked everyone for their interest, and yes, it did pick up quite a bit as the year went on. There wasn't much new on the Tube, and surfing the social sites was getting depressing. The news certainly was no comfort most days! I don't mind chatting with folks when I have the time. In fact, I belong to a small writer's group where we read to each other virtually once a week, and that gave us all an outlet to be with our 'tribe'. Pretty much business as usual on this end for the most part though.