posted on December 4, 2020 by Julie Hammerle

Writing in the Time of Coronavirus

All the way back in October, a million weeks ago, a writer friend of mine posted on Facebook that she was already working on her 2021 planner.

I commented that I was still trying to get a handle on organizing 2020. She responded with a sad face.

But I wasn’t kidding, and I wasn’t looking for pity. This year has been all about the best laid plans going awry, and I’ve decided to embrace the chaos, do what I can, and go a little bit easier on myself when I need to decompress.

Last Christmas I asked for the book The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll. It’s a great book. Really. And when I finally got around to reading it, I was all ready to get organized, stay focused, and write a whole bunch of books. On March stinking first.

Two weeks later, my husband was working from home and my kids were e-Learning and my dog was expecting seventy-seven walks a day and I was getting coughed on at the polls while voting during the Illinois primary and someone at our vet’s office tested positive for the virus two days after I’d been there…

And the journal was forgotten.

I suddenly found myself on autopilot, able to get through the tasks that absolutely needed to get done—the two contracted manuscripts I had to finish, work for my day job, baking bread…okay, maybe that one wasn’t mandatory.

But the manuscript I desperately wanted to write, the one I JUST KNEW would be a hit, I kept starting and stopping and restarting. Same with the one I’d begun working on with a co-author, and the serial novella I came up with for my newsletter.

Then I read Becca Syme’s Dear Writer, Are You in Writer’s Block, in which she talks specifically about the pandemic and how many of us are stuck because we feel disconnected from the outside world or because we are concerned for our safety and security or because we’re just feeling “off” or we’re introverts suddenly surrounded by a bunch of other people all day everyday whose safety and well-being are also deeply on our minds. To many of us, the idea of sitting down and writing a romcom about people meeting in a world where people could still meet in public seemed ridiculous. Yes, Becca, I was in writer’s block.

I tend, to my detriment, to be an “all or nothing” thinker. I’m either hardcore journaling, or I’m doing nothing. I’m either in the writing groove, or I’m avoiding my computer. But these days, it’s hard to be all-in on anything when there is so much uncertainty looming over us.

I’ve had to readjust, treat myself with a little more patience and kindness, embrace joy and creativity when and where I could find it.

For starters, I moved my “office.” Right now my kids are actually in school (another kind of stressor), but my husband is working from home three days a week. He set up his office upstairs. I had been working from the couch in the living room, but now I’ve basically repurposed our dining room as my workspace. (It’s not as if we’re entertaining right now!) The room currently has only one purpose for me—work. When I sit down at my chair, I know it’s time to be productive.

Also, I’ve been keeping a few phrases in mind from some of my favorite books. (I’m a self-help book junkie. I’ve never met one whose advice I didn’t love to read and subsequently ignore.) A few books have sunk in a bit, though.

One of those is Mini Habits by Stephen Guise. He makes a bit point of talking about how the smallest choices make the biggest difference. I may not feel up to writing thousands of words today, but, even on my worst day, I can write a few. If I sit down and commit to writing a hundred, maybe I’ll write more. Maybe I won’t, but I will have made progress.

Another of my absolute faves is Body Kindess by Rebecca Scritchfield. I think I may have highlighted about 75% of the book by now. She has so many good suggestions for dealing with emotions, but at the core of it is the principle of “spiraling up,” building on positive actions throughout the day. I try to stop and think, “Is this helping create a better life for myself?” Sometimes that’s enough to stop me from spiraling down into a Homescapes-fueled pit of despair and procrastination.

What are some books or phrases that have helped you cope in 2020?

Comment on this post to be entered to win an e-book copy of my novel, KNOCKED-UP CINDERELLA.

Julie Hammerle

Julie Hammerle

USA Today bestselling author Julie Hammerle writes young adult novels that focus on nerds, geeks, and basket cases falling in love. On the YA side, she is the author of The Sound of Us (Entangled TEEN, 2016) and the North Pole romance series (Entangled Crush, 2017). For adult romances, check out Knocked-Up Cinderella. A graduate of Butler University with degrees in secondary education and Latin with a minor in music, Julie lives in Chicago with her family and enjoys reading, cooking, and watching all the television.

https://juliehammerle.com/

8 thoughts on “Writing in the Time of Coronavirus”

  1. bn100 says:

    whatever was in my TBR

    1. Julie Hammerle says:

      Anything specific? 😉

  2. GB says:

    I found that humorous or sci fi/fantasy romance and cookbooks helped me through so far this year. I needed the diversion, hope and help (in that order). Like Jessie Mihalik’s trilogy starting with Polaris Rising, Milla Vane’s A Heart of Blood and Ashes, and a myriad of cookbooks.

    1. Julie Hammerle says:

      I love that! I love a good escape. I read The Fug Girls’ The Heir Affair during a really stressful time, and it was a great distraction. I’m always flipping through cookbooks, too 🙂

    2. Julie Hammerle says:

      I love that! I’m always reading cookbooks, too.

      If you’re looking for an escape, you’re the winner of the e-book copy of KNOCKED-UP CINDERELLA. Email me (julie.a.hammerle @ gmail.com), and I’ll send it to you 🙂

      1. GB says:

        Just saw your message yesterday and emailed. Thanks so much!

  3. Jerre Repass says:

    I had a short radio piece on npr called “come away with me.” When we could no longer travel and no one else could either a fanciful weekly travel piece attained dinosaur status! I live in the south, home of so much great fiction writing. I’ve written reams of always factual and hopefully engaging copy for newspapers and magazines, but very little fiction. This seems like just the time to try out some ideas with southern flair. To get a read on my subconscious, I bought a new sketch pad and am pre-illustrating! Think Lori King.

  4. E. R. says:

    I’m a mood reader, so the book has to really grab me at the right time. I have good experiences this year with poetry books (like a re-read of Atticus’ first poetry book) and the second volume of the graphic novel Heartstopper by Alice Oseman. Of course, there are also some great books that I’d enjoyed, too.

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