It’s JUST a Pandemic.Why Aren’t You Writing?

People To Everyone Else: Going through a rough patch? Finding it difficult to focus? Give yourself a break…it’s a pandemic out there. We’re all having a hard time in this new upside-down topsy-turvy world reality. There’d be something wrong with us if we weren’t.

People To Writers & Creatives: William Shakespeare wrote a little piece of work called King Lear during his lock-down in the time of the plague. You have no excuse. You have all the time in the world to write.

Anyone else getting really tired with this double standard?

Maybe worrying about catching a virus that has already taken the lives of over 207,000 puts a little stress on creativity. Maybe worrying about the compromised and/or elderly people in your life catching the same virus narrows your predisposition to creativity even a little more than does worrying about catching said virus yourself.

Maybe non-creatives (and even other creatives) need to stay in their own yards and mind their own business. We are in no great race to hand in the next KING LEAR at the end of this lock-down. We are under no obligation to create. And a lot of us also know that there are quiet times in the lives of creative types…and that we are always creating, even when it appears we are not.

Write the next Great American Novel if your heart is in it. Sure! Go ahead. Knock yourself out. But if your heart isn’t in it…just breathe. Breathe until this crisis is over. Hurray for Shakespeare! But we all live by our own rules. We all know there is a time to write and a time to not write. Check in with yourself and ask yourself if you want to put the added pressure of forced creativity into the mix of things you’re currently dealing with.

Be kind.