Please Don’t Criticize Me For Writing Pandemic Stories

I realize there are a lot of them around, but that is where the world is today and there isn’t anyone for whom the topic hasn’t become personal.

Like many of you, I’ve been writing a lot of COVID-19 related stories over the past several weeks. It’s really hard to think about anything else right now, so given that we generally write about what’s on our minds, it’s not unusual that this is the topic of a good percentage of the stories being written these days.

At the same time, I’ve seen a number of complaints by writers who feel that there is far too much emphasis on this topic, especially on Medium. A common criticism is that there isn’t a balance in terms of topic variety. I do agree that stories that are just rehashed or spun content reporting the same facts that are everywhere you look are a bit annoying. I think we can leave news stories to those who actually report the news.

Yet there are a lot of other stories being told that aren’t just repeating well known facts. Many are personal, such as people discussing what it was like to survive the illness or sharing their grief over the loss of a loved one to the virus.

I admit I get somewhat miffed when writers try to tell other writers what they should or shouldn’t write about. It’s not as if someone is forcing them to read these stories, so I often feel like telling them to just move on to something they are interested in. And forgive me for pointing this out but complaining about Covid 19 stories is actually still writing articles related to COVID 19.

People who read my work will know that I have previously advocated for writers to strike a balance between writing about timely topics such as the current pandemic and topics that are considered to be evergreen. But this position is not intended to suggest that writers shouldn’t write about whatever they choose to.

It’s intended simply to point out that if we only write about COVID-19 for months, that when the pandemic is finally over, we will have blunted a lot of the skills we had developed to come up with new ideas. This will make us more likely to experience writer’s block and the negative emotions that go along with it.

It’s not hard to understand why we are writing so many COVID-19 stories. It has almost become impossible to think about anything else which obviously makes it hard to write about anything else. Social distancing, emptier streets and sidewalks and the quarantine with the need to wear masks and gloves if you do leave your home, constantly remind us about what is going on.

There is also another important reason why we seem to almost need to write about the virus, that has been the main reason I have been writing so much about it. That is to process what we are going through.

I will tell you from first hand experience, that the experience of having the illness associated with the virus is certainly no walk in the park. I am still getting over it after more than three weeks and it almost feels as if my health will never quite return to normal.

For about a week of the illness I wasn’t sure what the outcome might be, and I refused to sleep at night, only letting myself drift off once the sun had risen due to the darkness making the fear that I wouldn’t wake up so much scarier. I would sometimes wake up choking, which was made worse by the panic that quickly developed over the certainty that was it.

Several days in the hospital surrounded by people on ventilators (thank God I didn’t have to suffer through that) and two people dying from the exact same illness that I had just added to the trauma as did losing two people to the virus who had been a part of my life, in one case for the majority of it. I am still having nightmares and quite a bit of anxiety, especially at night.

I won’t go into the entire experience except to say that even with everything I went through, I was very lucky it wasn’t worse. I didn’t have what were considered to be severe symptoms like hundreds of thousands of others so I am extremely thankful. I am also grateful for the support I received from so many of you that made me feel supported and less alone throughout the whole ordeal.

But even with all of that support, the experience was traumatic. This is not a word I throw around nor one that I use lightly.

Trauma is the severe psychological distress that occurs after we are forced to confront a terrible or life-threatening event that is generally outside the realm of the normal human experience. Because we aren’t prepared to face the situation and haven’t observed others who have as a common part of the life process, it can overwhelm our ability to cope. This can result in long term problems such as fear, anxiety, depression, nightmares and being unable to function fully in different areas of our lives.

For me, while I may have heard of the coronavirus a year ago, it certainly wasn’t something that I had given much thought to, or that I thought I’d ever have first hand knowledge of much less suffer from. I definitely never even considered the possibility that a pandemic resulting from the spread of the virus would cause millions of people to get sick worldwide and hundreds of thousands to die.

It also happened so fast, going from hearing stories about it reported on the news to social distancing, to being forced to stay at home with a shut down of practically every business other than grocery stores and pharmacies. It was only a matter of days before I started getting sick and for the numbers of others who were sick to climb then skyrocket.

So in addition to the fact that every aspect of life has changed practically overnight because of the coronavirus focusing my attention on it, I also need to work through the experience. That is the case with all of us, whether we have suffered from the illness the virus causes or just fear that we or someone we love may come down with it, despite social distancing.

Whether or not we contracted the virus, knew someone who contracted it did or knew someone who died from it, the factors we all must cope with in this situation are still hard enough to seriously affect our psychological health and well-being. Writing about our experiences in an effort to process them, try to share something that many people have in common, or gain control over our emotional state is a method of coping that many individuals, especially those who are writers, may use.

Here are a few ideas if you want to expand your writing about COVID-19 past your own personal experiences:

• Choose subjects that apply broader principles to this crisis such as trauma informed therapy or how to prevent feeling personally threatened by fear of contagion or getting the virus
• Examine how our reactions to stress are defined by the times we live in
• Examine other similar events in history when the entire world was affected by the same crisis at the same time
• How our experiences during the pandemic lead to risk or resiliency factors in the future
• Write articles that despite being about COVID 19 will still be in some way applicable to our lives after the crisis is over such as exploring coping skills for dealing with a potentially life threatening situation, how to help children through an ongoing crisis situation or how to handle family life when you’re all sharing one space for an extended time

There is no end to the number of interesting stories that can be written about this area that are novel, creative and innovative and can help us better adjust to the situation now and in the future once social distancing comes to an end.

Take-Away

The trauma, like the virus, won’t simply disappear. For many of us, it will continue to linger in our memories, thoughts and nightmares. Writing about it can help.

Don’t avoid or ignore your thoughts and feelings or try to purposely numb yourself through self-medicating and write about them if this helps. Processing what you are thinking and feeling in times of stress can be a protective factor against developing PTSD.

Don’t minimize what you are going through or let others do so. Most importantly, don’t let anyone tell you how you should or shouldn’t cope with what you are experiencing. Each of us has to determine what the best strategies are to help us get through what may very well be the most stressful times of our lives. We also need to support one another in this effort.

Natalie Frank has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and often writes about how to create a more satisfying and successful writing life. She is an editor for The Partnered Pen & One Table, One World and is Editor in Chief for Promposity & Mental Gecko, both of which she created. She is also the Managing Editor for Novellas and Serials at LVP Publications. Her collection of poetry, Disguised I Breathe, In Love I Hold, can be found here on Amazon.

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