For many people, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided much more free time than normal. Being able to use this time is something that we should value – after all, when are we going to get this amount of time again? Some people are using it to pursue creative projects or just learn new skills, but what if you don’t feel productive? This week I’m going to share a few tips on how I’m dealing with this during the pandemic.

I’ve got A Long Lost Time to keep me busy in a sense, and luckily, re-reading that took up most of the first couple of weeks. That allowed me some time to escape into Luke’s world, getting out of ours as things started taking a turn for the worse. However, now it’s up to the beta readers to go through it, so I can’t go any further. I’ve instead been working on my other projects, but those too have a time limit on how much I can do. What I really want to be able to do is write something new.

I mentioned in a previous blog, that this pandemic is most likely going to inspire lots of writers to get into dystopia and use what’s happened as inspiration. There have been a couple of writers recently that I’ve seen come up – Peter May for example has recently uncovered a book he wrote 15 years ago about a similar situation and it’s set to be a best seller.

However, I personally see this as being a very crowded market, so don’t feel as a writer you need to get in on that. Although, if you feel like writing about this to help you cope, then that’s good. The main thing is to write what you want. And if you don’t feel like writing, then that’s also okay.

Having the amount of free time that’s available can be frustrating, especially with writer’s block. I know for me, I find the times I’m most inspired is when I’ve got other things I need to be doing! So, don’t feel bad if you can’t get inspired by this time. Just use it to reflect on what’s happening, because when life goes back to normal, that may be the time inspiration strikes.

But one way that I’m keeping myself inspired is to think, what would my current characters be thinking or doing if they were in this situation? I already wrote a while back how Luke could be affected by coronavirus, but there are other characters who too may be. In my work in progress ‘The Signs Are Coming’ it’s kind of a similar situation at times, so it’s easy to fit in, and again in ‘The Snowflake Trap’ there are similarities that make me feel inspired to develop their story. If you don’t have characters to use, maybe try a famous book, film or TV character and see what would be different with their story if they too were struck by this pandemic.

However you go about it, if you don’t feel you can be creative, then that’s fine. For me, I know I’ve got to keep creating because it’s my way of coping and rationalising and keeping myself busy. I can’t not be writing – no matter how hard I try. So, I’m sure I’ll be onto a different project next week. A new one possibly? Or revisiting an old one. Either way, we all have to deal with this our own way, and none of them are right or wrong. Let’s just hope for the best that this will be over soon, and things can start getting back to normal.

Atlantic Split, At Liberty To Live and An Undercover Dream, the first three books in The Luke Bright Series are available to purchase NOW! The final book of the series A Long Lost Time will be released in 2020!

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N.A.K