Writers, Here’s Why You Can’t Help But Write About COVID19
“Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around.”
I, like many others, did not think the novel coronavirus was going to be so serious.
Perhaps growing up in the Golden Age of Social Media has desensitized me. I cannot help but regard any inflammatory news with a critical eye — in the 21st century we are ceaselessly bombarded with hype.
The death of a beloved celebrity will make headlines on Friday morning, only to be replaced by some other, more sensational news by Sunday night. Prizefighting, where I first cut my teeth, has been described derisively as the “what have you done for me lately” business, and in many aspects, the media industry is the same.
I thought COVID 19 was going to be cut from the same, transient cloth. Here one moment, gone the next. A phase. Another small blip on the media gravy-train.
Boy, I was wrong.
I’ve never seen anything like it in my (admittedly short) 24 years of life. Singapore, where I stay, is in nigh-complete lockdown.
Airports closed, businesses heavily disrupted, our routines cramped and twisted out of shape.
COVID 19 has taken over our very lives.
Writers Write Best When We Care
“Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around.”
— Stephen King, On Writing
There’s a little-known Stephen King quote that goes something like:
People often ask why do I choose to write disturbing horror stories, and my reply to them is — what makes you think I have a choice?
I’m paraphrasing, but this sentence got lodged in my head the first time I read it. And it is 100% applicable to this pandemic.
As writers, we write best when we care deeply about something. And there is no way not to care about this pandemic.
It is impossible not to form an opinion about it. Impossible not hear, however passingly, about the rising infection rate. Thousands dead and more dying every day, billions upon billions of dollars destroyed as the global economy tanks, panic and fear and uncertainty rife in the air.
And when writers care, we write.
It tugs at our heartstrings, and our hearts tug at our pen-hands.
I tried to resist the pull, I really did. I didn’t want to be labelled a #Coronapreneur — more to the point, I didn’t want to label myself as one. I didn’t want to spread more fear and negativity in a world already brimming with it.
I failed.
This is my third article in a row on the Coronavirus. My first is a philosophical take on the Covid panic, my second my thoughts on a $1million dollar donation by Conor McGregor.
And I know deep down, more are coming. I would try to write about something else, but my heart doesn’t seem to be in it.
My writing would be lackluster, the eventual result would turn out a pale shadow of my normal pieces. Oftentimes, I wouldn’t even complete it, but leave the laptop never to return, leaving the article half-finished and stale, reminding me oddly of a particularly unappetizing dish I can never come around to finishing.
My usual articles on Personal Development and Entrepreneurship just don’t seem to cut it anymore — they don’t hit the sweet spot.
At least for now, it seems like my writing would centre around the pandemic. And when people ask why, I’ll answer with a shrug of my shoulders and a rueful smile on my lips.
What makes you think I have a choice?
Thanks for reading my story :)