As a writer, it’s often tempting to pursue the “it” topic, the one that everyone wants to read about right now. For the past year, “it” has been the pandemic. And yet, although the pandemic has occasionally snuck its way into my work (seriously, how could it not?), I really don’t know that I want to write about it.
So what have I been writing about? Or maybe the question is how to write at all? I keep hearing from writers that the pandemic has made it difficult for them to write. I’m not sure if this is the case for me or not. I perpetually find it difficult to write. Writing is mostly a slow process and very often I end up with a thousand drafts. It takes huge shifts of energy to constantly move myself in and out of the “writing state,” which is a necessity when living with a partner and having kids and a grandkid. Plus, the mountains are always calling.
This is all to say that instead of chasing trends, I will continue to write about the topics that I’ve always written about. Women’s lives. Misfits. Mothers and daughters. This is what fires me up. This is what I know.
E. D. Morin