Writing in a time of Covid

This week we’re discussing our writing during this crazy summer and how it has affected it.

Over the past several months everything has changed. My family is evolving. We’re home more often. We’re spending even more time together (which I didn’t know was possible). We’re finding ways to express ourselves, we’re finding ways to create. I’ve recently taken on the task of decorating the kids’ bedrooms. All three of them are getting switched around. I started it all at the same time which means things are chaotic here.

When it comes to my writing, I am able to get more and less done. My friend Kelly told me about this app called Forest. Basically you get to grow a garden on it but in order to grow your garden you can’t touch your phone for a certain amount of time. If you do then whatever plant you’re trying to grow will die. We use this while we’re doing sprints. It has been fun to do these little sprints together and see what we can grow in our little gardens.

I’m currently working on three stories. Plus Wyatt and I have been tossing around some ideas for a children’s series. I told him he can do the illustrations for me if he wants to. He said he needed to practice some more. He has some problems drawing people.

Now, when I do get to sit down to write there are constant interruptions. Just like when I am on the phone they seem to know when I am writing. Suddenly, that is when they’re hungry, they don’t feel well, they need to order something, they need to borrow my laptop, and on goes the list. I don’t write at night anymore, even though that is when I was always most productive. I just can’t seem to stay up late to write. By the time I get done reading a few chapters of whichever children’s classic we’re reading I am wiped out from a full day of wrangling the kids. So while I feel more productive because I am getting sprints in I don’t think that there is a lot of writing getting done. My days are filled with interruptions but let’s face it. I welcome those interruptions. I am doing what I can to make sure that children are healthy; both physically and mentally, during this crazy time.

Writing helps me to keep my mind occupied. When I write there is no virus. The world is a happy place, it is a safer place. So when I can escape to my writing I do.