Writing Realistic Fiction During a Pandemic

Recently, there has been lots of encouragement to write your novel while in COVID-19 lockdown, or quarantine. I have taken the opportunities to submit a couple of poems to compilations. They are short. They are sweet. They are current. And they will come out in a timely manner. However, writing novels is a time-consuming process. Years can go by between starting and finishing a book. Not to mention, the genre I prefer to work in is contemporary women's fiction… Or a least that was the genre of my last novel. Now it feels like historical fiction. What life was like before the pandemic. Everything that I've written to date is dated. There is a real possibility that my short-stories will need to be classified as historical fiction. The thought of writing a contemporary novel is more daunting than ever. The old adage is 'write what you know.' While writing about feelings, this is more than possible. However, it is impossible to write 'what I know' when there are daily changes in how we interact, travel, work, and socialize. That means that what I write today may be irrelevant tomorrow…. Consequently, I am testing my skills in historical fiction and speculative fiction. It's taken some time to readjust my thinking regarding my writing. And it will be an ongoing process. When I need time to process and think, I bead. There's a lot of beading going on! Enjoy my jewelry!