Life isn’t easy, and when you’re dealt lemons, Tip # 8 encourages us to make some lemonade. Right now all of us are in the largest crisis of our lives. To say that we were dealt lemons is a gross understatement, but we must make lemonade in the meantime.
As writers, you may ask, “What does that looks like?”
Relationships
Life is all about relationships, and the success of our books is all about relationships as well:
- Relationships between our characters,
- The feelings we stir between our readers and our characters (also a relationship), and
- Marketing our books.
With today’s on-the-go society, very few families spend time together. The Stay-at-Home Order has provided an opportunity for families to spend time together and hopefully strengthen those relationships. Of course the opposite is possible, but we’ll be hopeful that’s not the case.
In today’s high tech society, we have the opportunity to reach out to each other electronically to continue our social interaction with others and deepen those relationships. It is also placing those who were not technically savvy to become more proficient. As writers, those are critical tools.
Emotions
It’s hard to make your characters’ emotions “real” without experiencing those emotions yourself. The COVID-19 pandemic has put us all in a position to feel emotions we may never have experienced — EXTREME, to say the least. We can use those emotions we feel to make those emotions “real” in our characters.
More Writing Time
Under normal circumstances, quite a few writers are not able to write full time because they still have to support themselves and their families. With the Stay-at-Home Order in place, those who are unable to work, have more writing time. Those who are now working remotely, can use their drive time for writing.
Support
There are so many concerns and variables associated with those concerns. Some of us have “children” who are on the front lines of this battle. My daughter is a neurosurgery resident who is in the forefront, along with the daughter of a fellow writer in my writers’ group, Jill Haymaker, whose daughter is an ER doctor.
Prayer is our sword and comfort. The medical staff are the heroes in this battle and need our support and prayers.
Let us stand together as a community of writers and lend a hand of support, encouragement, and prayer.
What recommendations do you have to pay our support forward?
(c) 2020 Karen Van Den Heuvel Fischer