What’s Going On

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that

I’ve noticed a lot of writers on my social media talking about how hard it is to get any writing done, what with everything that’s going on…

I know, not the worst problem to have right now. Still, what is going on?

[There’s more anomie and bonhomi e over in the  Apoplexy Tiny Letter.]

You more or less know what’s going on, of course.

The blue line is the number of people the govt says has died. The red line is the number who’ve actually died. New @ft analysis of ONS data finds 41,000 dead. More than double govt’s 17,337. https://t.co/rBxIMbJcki pic.twitter.com/wbjosYFJVx

— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) April 22, 2020

More, if you seek out good info.
Less, if you rely on the state broadcaster.

And it kind of hurts to look too closely at what’s happening. At the end of March, I read an article in Wired about The brutal reality of dying under Italy’s coronavirus lockdown. It’s truly distressing reading.

I’ve only written one bit of fiction that features COVID-19, and that was I script that I punted into a very popular open call by the BBC Writersroom. It didn’t get picked up, of course. But as more advisers to governments and medical professionals start talking about how we’re going to have to live with the virus for another 2-3 years, it’s sure going to start infecting storytelling.

Sorry, that’s a typography professional – my bad!

It’s like, remember when folks worried about how the ubiquity of the cellphone would make all sorts of storytelling obsolete? Now, Mrs Stroke Bloke binge watches Save Me, and every time I pop my head in, the main character’s phone is welded to his face.

Are things going to snap back to normal, leaving social distancing fiction churned out in lockdown looking weird? Or are novels finally knocked out while the kids are dumped in front of virtual school going to look weird because they don’t account for the novel coronavirus and its aftermath?

Are any of you folks engaged in essential business?

What do you think? I’m inclined to agree with something I heard a writer say on the radio recently, to the effect that

When you’re deep into a project, you tend to see the world through the prism of that project, rather than the other way around

Michael Morpurgo, maybe? I dunno