Writing During the Pandemic: Advice and Ideas
Posted on September 24, 2020
Though many businesses have reopened and students have returned to school, many of us are still working from home and practicing social distancing. We’ve all either taken up new hobbies or returned to old ones, from baking to painting, to keep our minds occupied during this hard year. The editors of Black Mountain Press have noticed a new plethora of submissions that suggests many are spending the quarantine writing. Whether you are entirely new to creative writing or looking to write more while you have the time, we hope some of these tips will help you make the most of your quarantine.
Make a schedule and stick to it.
If you are working or studying from home, it is hard to differentiate your work time and your personal time. Before, as soon as we returned home, we could leave all our stress behind us (or, at least, we could try to). Now that we’re home all the time, stress from our responsibilities and stress from this disaster of a year makes it difficult to unwind and focus.
My best solution is to pick a time— it could be an hour or two a week, however much free time you feel you can spare— that you give yourself to write, and let that time be when you shut off the rest of the world. It takes a few weeks for writing time to become a normal part of your schedule, but once you adjust to this new block in your schedule, it makes slipping into the quiet headspace needed to make art a little easier.
Avoid focusing on page or word count.
This applies more to fiction than to poetry. Online writing culture often tells you to write a certain amount every day, and events like NaNoWriMo have become extremely popular because of this. Keep in mind that the world is a different place, and cranking out 1600 words a day while the planet is on fire is a more impressive feat than it once was.
Whatever you are able to write during your time block is an accomplishment. Don’t add a deadline to something meant to help you escape, and don’t beat yourself up if there are days where you can barely muster more than a sentence. Take your time.
You don’t have to write the next great American novel. Write what makes you happy.
A lot of new writers step into their hobby wanting to write something thoughtful and provocative. With everything going on in the world, many are tackling large issues in their poetry and fiction. I applaud anyone using their talents to educate and empower by writing the hard subjects, and there’s no denying that these types of stories are needed now more than ever. However, if you are a new writer looking for a mental exit, it’s okay to leave behind the real world.
If it makes you happy, if it helps you cope, write love poems. Write comedies, fantasy novels, or superhero tales. Write about your favorite memories, the friends you haven’t seen in a while, or the bookstore you can’t wait to visit again. If letting the faults of the world bleed onto your document helps release your anger like sucking the venom out, then that’s great, too. Just don’t let the world around you govern your passions.
Let your writing connect you to people again.
If you’ve been safely practicing social distancing (and I hope you have), you probably miss people. Even introverts like me miss small talk with the barista or chats with coworkers about a new television series. And if you’re like me, only interacting with the people you live with starts to feel like being trapped under a Steven King-esque dome. But remember, unlike the last pandemic the US saw, we have the internet now. Hobbies like writing are a doorway to meeting more like-minded people who have chosen the same way to spend the pandemic as you have.
The online writing community is vast and multi-faceted, and if you look for it, you can find groups to share and critique work with, places to share your art pieces online, and plenty of potential friends with different backgrounds from you who may offer you insight and new inspiration. While you should avoid comparing yourself to other writers online, they can motivate you to practice your craft. There’s a tightrope you must walk to avoid letting social media run your life and harm your mental health, but reaching out to online friends who share your interests can give you the motivation and the socialization we all need right now.
Lastly, here’s a few prompts to help you write today.
- Shuffle the songs on your music app of choice. Write a page or a poem about the song, and create an atmosphere for how the song makes you feel.
- Write about a dream you had, but expand on it. Did the dream end abruptly? Give it a good ending. If the dream had no set-up, give it one. Make use of your own subconscious, and let the dream remind you of how big your imagination is.
- What’s the most interesting story a family member has told you? Write about it. Imagine what it would have been like to be there, what that family member may have looked like then, what must have been going through their head.
- Pick up the last book you read, choose a line of dialogue (this could be random or your favorite line) and imagine it was said in an entirely different context. Let the butterfly effect lead the line to new places.
It is heartwarming to see so many new writers emerge from the dust of this terrible year. If you write something brilliant inspired by one of our prompts, let us know when you submit to us! We would love to read your pandemic project.