Writers in the Storm

by Tiffany Yates Martin

Probably the concern I hear most from authors these days is some variation of, “What do we do about coronavirus?” Not in real life (by now I hope we all know to WEAR MASKS, socially distance, and stay home as much as possible), but in their current works-in-progress.

Do authors acknowledge the virus, the pandemic, these relentless months of quarantine by setting stories before the cataclysm of 2020? If we try to avoid it by pushing stories forward into the not-too-distant future, how can we predict how the world may have changed by then—socially, economically, culturally? And even in that case, when unspooling a character’s backstory, how should we incorporate it? Do we reference these unprecedented events—working from home (or on the front lines, for essential workers), managing our kids’ virtual education, the personal and financial effects that will befall so many? How can we know the full extent of them yet? Will our stories even be relevant in a post-pandemic world (whenever we’re finally post-pandemic…)?

As writer and critic Lily Meyer says in this Atlantic article:

“No one has had time to truly refine their ideas about personal life in a state of widespread isolation and existential dread, and literature, even when political, is a fundamentally personal realm. It relies on the ability to channel inner experience outward, and because no inner experience of the coronavirus pandemic could plausibly be described as complete, prose that renders it static and comprehensible rings false. In the shaky realm of literature reacting quickly to a crisis in motion, mess and chaos are the forms that speak best to painful realities.”

That’s a literary way of saying what I think most of us already intuit: Who the #&*% knows?

But if anyone may have some guidance or insight, I thought it might be industry professionals who are more intimate with the market and its vagaries and responses to major world events—many current publishing professionals were around for 9/11’s effect on the industry, for instance. With that in mind, I asked a handful of colleagues—literary agents and editors at publishing houses—in the Age of COVID, what’s a poor storyteller to do?

What Writing Industry Professionals Are Saying

Their answers aligned along similar lines, and may offer some guideposts—and a breath of relief when it’s desperately needed.

1. Don’t overthink it.

Years ago I heard bestselling author Walter Mosley speak. Asked about research for his historical hard-boiled Easy Rawlins mystery series (Devil in a Blue Dress, et al), Mosley, the author of more than forty successful novels, laughed and said he made it all up. “It’s fiction,” he said simply.

Christine Witthohn, literary agent/licensing agent with Book Cents Literary Agency, is of this school of thought: “It's fiction, so they can write whatever they want. I haven't heard anybody (agents or editors) discussing that topic. I think those questions are writerly questions that cause a writer to spin their wheels and get hung up (i.e., worrying about issues that keep them from being productive).”

“To be honest, there hasn’t been a lot of conversation with editors about including the ‘new normal’ in manuscripts,” says Kim Lionetti, senior literary agent with BookEnds Literary Agency. “None of my recent sales have addressed quarantine, masks, or social distancing at all.  In most cases, I think editors just believe readers will go to fiction for escapism and don’t really need the new realities addressed…. I don’t think publishers are avoiding the topic, though. If it makes sense to an author’s story to include these new realities, then they should absolutely write about them.” 

Faith Black Ross, senior editor at Crooked Lane Books, has a similar take: “It seems to be a matter of personal preference, but for me, and most of the others I've talked to, unless it's germane to the plot I prefer to just ignore it. I think most people read fiction as a form of escapism and so reading about people wearing masks and worrying about the virus puts me right back into the realities of today that I would sometimes prefer to avoid thinking about, especially when I'm taking a much-needed break with a book.”

There’s also of risking your story quickly feeling anachronistic, Ross adds: “Having all of your characters wearing masks, etc., might date the book a bit and tie it extremely securely to this one point in time rather than letting the work be a bit more timeless.”

2. Sidestep, for now.

Escapism is a theme that came up repeatedly with most of the industry pros I spoke with—that readers may not be eager to deal with the same weighted issues that consume so much of everyone’s daily realities at the moment in the stories they turn to for relief and release.

“There are so many unknowns with the pandemic, and the situation is changing daily, so attempting to address it even tangentially is tricky,” says Chris Werner, senior editor at Lake Union Publishing. “I believe many readers are eager to escape into stories that are set pre-COVID,” the unpleasant realities of which have “shifted nearly every aspect of our daily lives. For example, making mention of masks would mean having to entirely reframe how characters interact in their home or workspace.

“For that reason, I’ve been advising authors that I work with to set their manuscripts pre-2020. This makes for a far less complicated writing/editing experience because it allows authors to focus on the core story rather than trying to incorporate ever-changing details. I have some authors who have written author’s notes explaining their decision to set the story before the pandemic, which is an effective way to help ease readers into the world…. The risk of a story appearing dated seems lower than speculating about what the future looks like and getting it wrong.”

“Literature is not journalism,” adds Courtney Miller-Callihan, literary agent/founder of Handspun Literary Agency. “There are incredible novels to be written about the coronavirus, but to be a little flippant about it, we don't know how that story ends yet; maybe it's not yet time for someone to write the Great Coronavirus Novel. Meanwhile, I've been encouraging writers struggling with this question to think about whether ignoring COVID-19 feels dishonest to their story, or whether including the pandemic would actively thwart the reader's experience of escapism. A sizable percentage of my own work is on romance novels, which are about as escapist as it gets (in a good way!), and the industry consensus thus far seems to be that romance exists in an alternate dimension where coronavirus never happened.” 

Cindy Hwang, executive editor with Penguin Group USA also favors this approach until we have more perspective on the current global crisis: “Honestly, if I had to give a writer advice right now, I'd say sidestep the virus and keep your dates vague. That won't work long-term or for every book, but until this is over we just won't know!”

3. Look to the future—eventually.

At some point, just as with 9/11, this global experience of pandemic is going to become a part of the collective culture that will undoubtedly be reflected in our literature. But just as many stories now make little specific reference to the Trade Towers falling and the radical shift in our society that followed, COVID-19 and quarantine may simply become part of the fabric of our fictional worlds—a thread in the tapestry, rather than a discrete swath of patchwork quilt.

It’s already showing signs of happening, according to Kim Lionetti: “Recently I did have an editor suggest that it should be incorporated into a manuscript in a small way (e.g., there’s scenes in a gym, and they suggested including some of the cleaning and distancing considerations being added). That’s the first time I’d ever heard it raised, though, and I’ve had quite a few sales since March. Generally, I just recommend doing whatever feels right to the story. If the new reality adds some integral dynamics, then go for it.  But don’t feel obligated to shoehorn it in.”

“On the flip side,” adds Chris Werner, “I’ve been seeing deal announcements for books that are themed around quarantining and the situation as it stands now. There is certainly a lot of material to tap into in this regard, and more writers may see the pandemic as an opportunity to explore new terrain.”

That concern and confusion you may be feeling as a writer amid this unprecedented disruption of society isn’t baseless—and you’re far from alone in wrestling with these issues. But as with every other major crisis in history, this too shall pass—and when it does, it will as always be art and artists that help society process, understand, and heal from our collective wounds.

“One day (God willing) we will come out the other side of all of this,” says Faith Black Ross. “Like so much of publishing, it's all really maddeningly subjective. It's all still very up in the air and unknown, but for now I like my fiction like I like the rest of my life, without any coronavirus in it.”

“Honestly, I would tell writers to write the stories they want to write!” says Christine Witthohn. “Don't get hung up on things that will only cause them to procrastinate or block their creativity. That's what editing is for. Everyone has enough to worry about right now.” 

About Tiffany

Tiffany Yates Martin has spent nearly thirty years as an editor in the publishing industry, working with major publishers and bestselling and award-winning authors as well as indie and newer authors, and is the author of the Amazon bestseller Intuitive Editing: A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing. She's led workshops and seminars for conferences and writers' groups across the country and is a frequent contributor to writers' sites and publications.

Under the pen name Phoebe Fox, she's the author of the Breakup Doctor series and her most recent release, A Little Bit of Grace (August 11, Berkley).

Visit her at www.foxprinteditorial.com or www.phoebefoxauthor.com.

by John Peragine

These last few weeks have been one of the most trying times of my life. Covid-19 has been this constant cloud that hovers over the most inane tasks of ordinary life. Heaped on top of this is the political divide happening in America and the ongoing fight for freedom and rights. Though these issues have weighed heavy on my heart the last few months, nothing has been as crushing as these last two weeks.

First, my twenty-two-year-old daughter became very ill. She had been living on her own and preparing to go back to school this fall. Since her illness began, she has been in the hospital five times and moved back home.

Then the Midwest derecho happened on August 10th. In about fifteen minutes, the derecho pounded through with 120 mile-an-hour sustained winds and flattened trees all around us. Cell phone towers went down, as did the power and our Internet. We remained that way for over a week.

Many people have had it much worse than us but my purpose in sharing this story is to illuminate the one thing that got me through with my sanity and soul intact: my writing community.

My Writing Community Is a Godsend

I needed help, and they responded. And I am so grateful. I was scheduled earlier this month to post a blog, and with a text, my good friend Jenny switched with me. I have had writer friends call me, write to me, send me letters, and Zoom with me. They shared the burden of my work and lent an ear when I needed it.

Creating a writing community around you helps you in so many ways because we are all in this together.

Our work is done inside our heads. Writing the words down is a consequence of the worlds we build in our dreams. Writers' greatest accomplishments happen in total isolation. Because of this, we want…no…we need connections with others just like us.

Sure, I have a loving family and non-writer friends, and they often nod and do their best to support me. But they don't always 'get' me. A writer understands the emotional angst of another writer.

In the middle of the night, I can send out a sentence I'm stuck on to a writer pal, and within minutes I receive a response. My own biological family doesn't even do that!

Tips for Building a Writing Community

1. You offer yourself first. You ask what you can do for other writers you meet. They may not take your offer right away, but they will remember your generosity. One day, you will get an email, humble in its construction, asking for the help you offered months and even years prior.

2. You become active in the writing community. You show up and pay forward the help others have given you, whether it is writing on a blog like WITS or offering to look over someone's opening lines. Being part of a writing community is about service and what you offer to others.

3. Create a Writing Support Group

The reason several current contributing authors are here on Writers in the Storm is because of a Writer's Digest Novel Writing Conference from four years ago where I met Eldred, Jenny, Kris, and Miffie. I suggested we begin a writer's group online and we, along with Ellen Buikema, have met weekly ever since.

It is not a traditional writing/critique group. It is mostly a check-in on how our writing (and more importantly, how our lives) are going. We encourage each other to write more and pursue our career goals, and some amazing things have occurred. Most of us have had books completed and published. We have grown as writers together. We have become friends for life.

4. Offer What You Know

I have a mantra that I live by, especially when it comes to other writers:

I give away what I know,
I get paid for what I do.

I have a few years of experience as a writer, and I am willing to share whatever I know (or think I know). I crave connecting with and helping other writers. Rather than monetizing it, I offer it freely with the hope someone will use it to become more successful.

This isn't to knock the writing teachers out there. That is their job and they should be compensated for it. But I get paid for writing and editing. I'm lucky...I have no need to make money off my writing community.

The Astounding Generosity of My Writing Community

As I mentioned earlier, the generosity of my writing community has been astonishing. I never expected anything like the outpouring of support they have gifted me with while I was down. I am genuinely humbled. I know this is not the typical blog post you might expect at Writers In the Storm, but I felt compelled to share something positive in these sometimes dark times.

I appreciate every one of you.

Writers are so vital in this time of strife and fear. Through our fingertips, we can create beautiful worlds, words of hope, words of love, and create a better tomorrow. Keep writing my friends. And remember to reach out to the writer friends in your community. We can all use a good word and the reminder that we are together in this!

P.S. My daughter is doing better, my power and Internet are back, my coffee maker works, and I have ice for my whiskey. All is right in my corner of the world again.

How has your writing community supported you on your journey? Are there any moments that stand out for you? What are doing for your fellow writers? Please share your stories with us down in the comments!

About John

John Peragine has published 14 books and ghostwritten more than 100 others. He is a contributor for HuffPost, Reuters, and The Today Show. He covered the John Edwards trial exclusively for Bloomberg News and The New York Times. He has written for Wine Enthusiast, Grapevine Magazine, Realtor.com, WineMaker magazine, and Writer's Digest.

John began writing professionally in 2007, after working 13 years in social work and as the piccolo player for the Western Piedmont Symphony for over 25 years. Peragine is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. His newest book, Max and the Spice Thieves, will be released Spring 2021. https://www.facebook.com/twilightdjinn/

By Barbara Linn Probst

Before I turned to fiction, I was a hybrid of academic and therapist. There was a truism in clinical practice that having been in therapy made you a better therapist—a complicated question, impossible to prove, although we always encouraged students to experience therapy themselves before attempting to offer it to others. I got curious and decided to ask the question in reverse: what was it like for people who entered therapy after having spent time as therapists?  Could they leave their therapist-minds behind when they moved to “the other chair” and surrender to the client role? As you might guess, it wasn’t so easy.

Now that I’m a novelist, I’m interested in a similar question for writers. Most of us were readers before we became writers, and would probably agree that our reading experience influences our experience as writers. But what happens when a writer opens a book and shifts to her reader-identity? Can we leave our writer-minds behind and surrender to the “reader chair”—and should we?  

Once again, I asked.  More than fifty people on several writer groups I belong to responded to my question: “How do you read? Do you lose yourself in the story (as a reader might) or read to study how the author did it (as a writer might)?”

The responses can be summarized into three big ideas.

"It depends on the quality of the book."

For some, there was a clear difference in how they read “well-written books” and how they read “poorly-written books.” 

• If the book is really good, I lose myself in it and forget to “read like a writer,” even if I want to and try to.
• A good story hijacks my brain and turns me back into a reader!
• If it's a book with problems, I tend to read like a writer and start seeing the issues.
• A poorly-written book will break the spell and activate that inner critic.

On the other hand, some people felt that the writer-brain interfered, even with well-written books, and often ruined their enjoyment.

• Writer-mind can interfere, and I wish it didn’t!  It’s a real downer.
• I’d like to read like a reader but it can be really difficult.
• The inner writer critic comes out far too often. I find myself pulled from the story.
• I'd like to read as a reader, but I find now that it's often as a writer. Oh, there's THAT trope. Oh, what a nice use of interjection. Why's she switching POV now? Hah, great dialogue! Ooh, what a great way to describe that expression. Ah, she just raised the stakes. It's kind of annoying because I miss just reading for pleasure.

People dealt with that challenge in different ways—typically by toggling back and forth or by reading a book more than once.

"I switch back and forth."

For some, the “toggling” happens as they go. While mainly “just reading,” they might stop to note something the writer did that they admired—or to wince when something is jarring.

• I read like a reader who is a writer, meaning that I simply read, but sometimes take notes on things that impressed me about the writing.
• A good book makes me stop to ponder how she did that!
• I often re-read a certain passage and think, “Now that’s a great idea to describe xyz!”
• I try to read like a reader but I catch myself noticing if the POV veered slightly off or if the scene jumped without a clear explanation. I find myself thinking: hmmm. Something was removed here and the transition is now bumpy.
• Mostly as a reader but I sometimes stop dead as a writer to admire a great sentence or be shocked by bad technique.

For others, the two processes happen alongside one another, as if different parts of the self are engaged in different ways.

• The writer can still think along the way, while the reader feels.
• I read like both: like a chef enjoying a dish prepared by someone else, who can't help figuring out how it was prepared and what ingredients went into it. Or like a singer listening to another singer, and appreciating how they handle reaching difficult notes and where technique compensates for vocal flaws.

I go back and read the book a second time.

With an exceptionally good book, many people said that they read for enjoyment the first time, and then go back to re-read with their “writer-brains” so they can focus on craft and identify what the author did that was so effective.

• Then a second time as a writer, paying more attention to how it was written rather than what it's about.
• If a book wows me, I'll reread it, sometimes to be wowed again, sometimes to study technique to understand why it wowed me.
• If it's amazing or I couldn't put it down, I go back and try to figure out what exactly created that response.

This was especially so for books that had effective twists and turns.

• If the book intrigues me enough I'll go back and reread as a writer so that I can understand how this particular book kept me turning the pages
• I wanted to analyze why it worked so well and what it was that made me lose myself.
• The twist at the end revealed why the point-of-view character behaved as he did throughout the story. I had to reread it with that knowledge.

Many people noted how important it was to experience the story as a reader, before all else.

• If you don't read first as a reader, the story is no longer a work of art or humanity.
• I would never want to forget that the story is written for readers, that the writer has something personal to convey, and is speaking to me, not demonstrating writing technique. I can't really experience the story if all I care about is to study its writing, even if I naturally tend to notice the writer's skill as I read.

These reflections offer an additional reminder. It’s important to remember that we’re writing for the reader—to give the reader that immersive experience of falling under the spell of the story, the same experience that we ourselves enjoy!

That may sound obvious, but I know I can become caught up in craft and technique—the sort of things that writers care about. I can spend hours worrying about eliminating “deadweight” or searching for the perfect word to convey the meaning I’m after. Although these things are part of our craft, I suspect that they’re not the things that readers care about.

Story.
Characters.
Meaning.

Isn’t that what we care about too, when we are in our reader-selves?  When we read, many of us toggle back-and-forth. We also need to toggle back-and-forth when we write— balancing our search for the highest level of craft we can muster and our feeling for the reader.

What about you? How do you read? Do you find yourself switching into your writer-brain when you read? If so, what triggers the switch? Please share with us down in the comments!

Barbara Linn Probst is a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, living on a historic dirt road in New York’s Hudson Valley. Her debut novel, Queen of the Owls (April 2020), is the powerful story of a woman’s search for wholeness, framed around the art and life of iconic American painter Georgia O’Keeffe.

Endorsed by best-selling authors such as Christina Baker Kline and Caroline Leavitt, Queen of the Owls was selected as one of the 20 most anticipated books of 2020 by Working Mother, one of the best Spring fiction books by Parade Magazine, and a debut novel “too good to ignore” by Bustle. It was also featured in lists compiled by Pop Sugar and Entertainment Weekly, among others. It won the bronze medal for popular fiction from the Independent Publishers Association, placed first runner-up in general fiction for the Eric Hoffer Award, and was short-listed for both the First Horizon and the $2500 Grand Prize. Barbara’s book-related article, “Naked: Being Seen is Terrifying but Liberating,” appeared in Ms. Magazine on May 27.

Barbara is also the author of the groundbreaking book on nurturing out-of-the-box children, When The Labels Don't Fit. She has a PhD in clinical social work, blogs for several award-winning sites for writers, and is a serious amateur pianist. Her second book releases in April 2021. To learn more about Barbara and her work,  please see http://www.barbaralinnprobst.com/