Month: August 2020

The July–August 2020 issue of Poets & Writers features thirteen quotes by “Authors on Creativity in Quarantine” about how and why they do (or don’t) write during the lockdown. I half agreed with this one: “Writing remains just as and no more difficult than it always has. On bad days, I do not lose myself in my writing. On good days, that doesn’t happen either. Every sentence is a boulder pushed up a hill that does not change in steepness or in height. Some days I have the strength to push; some days I have the strength to lie down and take a nap; never do I know what kind of day it will be” (Novelist Lillian Li). I agree that the nature of writing has not changed for me. Before the pandemic, I wrote every day. During the pandemic, I write every day. Writing is hard work. Some days, words flow more easily than others. But, unlike Li, I keep going. Forcing myself to take a nap would be more effortful than restorative. Doing the work produces the reward. So I stay awake. Every day. For more of my thoughts on writing, see REFLECTIONS.

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.

The July–August 2020 issue of Poets & Writers features thirteen quotes by “Authors on Creativity in Quarantine” describing how and why they can (or can’t) write during the lockdown. I like the defiance behind this thought:“I think writing is a form of protest. Over the past two decades, as an Asian American poet, I wrote more and worked harder as a form of protest. Oddly, today I feel similarly; I write now to tell off the pandemic. To prove that writing as an act can and will endure. It might not save us, but I know it will always be here for us” (Poet Victoria Chang). For more of my thoughts on writing, see REFLECTIONS.

In the July–August 2020 issue of Poets & Writers, which features thirteen quotes by “Authors on Creativity in Quarantine,” I often nodded in recognition. Then I read: “When the pandemic began, I found myself careening from deep despair to terrifying fear. Neither allows me to write or create in a meaningful way. When I was finally able to return to the page, what struck me is that fear is more incapacitating than despair. I could surrender to hopelessness and still make something. If I focused on fear, I was silenced” (Poet Ada Limon).With me, the opposite is true. Despair is all pervasive; why make an effort when life is hopeless? Fear is specific and prompts action; can I defang the cause or ameliorate the reaction to it? Writing is how I examine the roots of fear and the ways we try to overcome it. For more of my thoughts on writing, see REFLECTIONS.