Writing in the course of the Pandemic: Novelist Susan Coll Considers Her alternate options

We asked Washington writers to share studies, essays, poems, drafts, musings, and other issues they’ve been working on right through quarantine. nowadays, a riff with the aid of Susan Coll, who's the author of 5 novels, most lately The Stager. thanks very a lot for asking if i'm writing through the pandemic. sure, i'm! And it’s going reasonably smartly! It wasn’t, at first, but now I even have an idea. I’ll write a comedy a couple of novelist who's having problem writing except she has a minor psychotic wreck: She now believes the pandemic is all in her head. I bang out the outlet scene: My protagonist shares this epiphany with her husband. he is on Zoom, half-listening, while educating third-graders about perimeters. It’s now not on your head, he says, hitting mute. How may any individual, even in mid-psychosis, make up the bit about the President ingesting bleach? It appears humorous for a few minutes, until it does not. 5 hundred words in and that i’m stuck. It’s too quickly for pandemic novels anyway. remember these conversations submit- 9/11? About how we need time to digest life earlier than committing paintings? also be aware that nothing become humorous? Even irony turned into useless? thanks very lots for asking if i am writing through the pandemic. sure, i'm! I’m simply taking a brief smash! I should rest my mind because it’s been working very complicated. I these days wrote a novel about a lady who is freaking out. White supremacists, nuclear-armed North Koreans, hacking Russians, international warmingâ€"it’s all too a lot. She is considering going into hiding in a book place nook. My agent began to shop this e-book shortly earlier than quarantine, and that i haven’t heard from him in weeks. Is it inappropriate? Too pre-Covid? Too quaint? should I add a world pandemic to the listing of my protagonist’s considerations? i'm wondering what my agent thinks, but he doesn’t reply to e mail or return calls. On facebook, he posts photographs of his pets luxuriating on overstuffed chairs, so at least, thank goodness, there is proof of lifestyles. possibly it’s just that the entire editors employed to reject books have misplaced their jobs. thank you very plenty for asking if i'm writing in the course of the pandemic. sure, i'm! I’m just giving my strategies an opportunity to bake. I’m discovering to cease checking headlines 187 instances a day: more than a hundred,000 people have died in this nation thus far. Cities are in flames, americans can’t breath, reporters are arrested, an government order takes aim at free speechâ€"it’s difficult to locate the headspace to jot down. I’m weaning off the social medias, too, in spite of the fact that it’s excellent to connect with chums. On Instagram, an acquaintance posts glam photos from a film competition in Berlin where an adaptation of her memoir premiered prior this year. No, in reality, I’m now not resentful at all. What I’ll do is decided the novel aside for a bit of and write a memoir, too, and then I’ll promote the rights and get Sigourney Weaver to big name in the movie! this is precisely the assignment that I should preserve me engaged. I send one other email to my agent to discuss. He doesn’t reply, but that’s okay. I’m joyful he’s alive. On facebook this morning, his cat and dog switched chairs. thank you very lots for asking if i'm writing in the course of the pandemic. sure, i am, however probably it’s time to once again switch gears? I’ve all the time cherished reviewing, so I call a critic pal to see if she may element me toward more work. Hahahahahahaha! she says. What’s so humorous? I ask. Oh, priceyâ€"now she appeared to be choking. Ackackackackackack . . . . Oy! is that this the Covid cough? No, she says, gathering herself. She’s just laughing at my funny story. Freelance work has dried up. e-book reports, above all, are just about kaput. thanks very lots for asking if i am writing through the pandemic. yes, i'm, and i’m perfectly okay. I’m returning to the comedian novel concerning the novelist who is writing through the pandemic while experiencing a minor psychotic wreck. possibly a metaphor is lacking: Perimeters + coronavirus = ? I seek advice from my husband, who's at all times full of first rate ideas. (now and again he has two without delay and one among them receives caught.) He begins to riff about perimeters past which danger lurks. It sounds so wise that I reach for a pen. Wait: Do you in fact imply perimeters? he asks. Is it viable that circumference or radius is the more advantageous word? Perimeters! Circumference! For the love of God, who cares? No metaphor is superb! I say. No, i am not shouting. i am completely ok. I’m just going out to clear my head. A swig of bleach could assist. thanks very a great deal for asking if i am writing through the pandemic. You recognize, writing isn’t every thing. My existence is terribly full. occasionally I do jigsaw puzzles, or teach others how to write. We write for the sake of writing, I inform my college students after we meet on-line every week. Take the pressure off, individuals! There’s a worldwide pandemic, I say. One scholar worries her opening scene may not work. It doesn't, I agree. You want a far better metaphor! Plus nothing is funny anymore! How do I find an agent? one other one asks. That’s easy: I direct him to fb, the place the cat is shredding what seems to be a manuscriptâ€"wait, is that mine? So yes, thank you very an awful lot for asking! I’m writing through the pandemic and it’s going just swell. actually, hang onâ€"I consider another sentence coming in: We stability perilously at the precipice of the perimeter (or maybe the radiusâ€"which implies a definite centeredness) of existence. five hundred and twenty phrases. It’s been one more productive day. be part of the conversation! Share