In the July–August 2020 issue of Poets & Writers, which features thirteen quotes by “Authors on Creativity in Quarantine,” one describes turning to a different form of writing during the pandemic lockdown: “The last thing I want to do is write fiction. It all feels like fiction already. Instead I’ve gone back to the least artistic form: a journal. That’s what I want right now: Minutiae. The meals we ate, that I let another load of laundry mildew, that my son screamed I LOVE YOU to the neighbor boy across the street. Because when I do return to fiction, I’ll need the people at home, half panicked and half happy, doing the ordinary things: washing the dishes and putting their kids to bed” (Novelist Alyssa Knickerbocker). As a writer of historical fiction, I know that those mundane details bring a story to life. I am forever grateful to the journal keepers and letter writers whose records of their day-to-lives not only bring my stories to life, but are often the inspiration for the character traits and plot events I write about. For more of my thoughts on writing, see REFLECTIONS.
