Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good week. But with a nation-wide pandemic changing all of our lives and turning us all into shut-ins, we writers need to find a way to not let depression from being isolated set in by finding a way to pass the time. Taking an online class would be a great way to improve your writing skills. My motto has always been “Never stop learning.” Taking an online fiction writing or creative writing course will help that next novel you were planning to write be even better than the last.

I know that every day you have to stay indoors is making you crazy. And dealing with all of the negativity of the news about the coronavirus is making it hard to keep your mind on a positive level. I’ve been having the same problem myself. You may feel that maybe you shouldn’t even do any writing until this thing is over, but that’s just it…we don’t know when it will be over. And our lives have been changed against our will so you have to keep writing because you don’t know what your life will be like in a few months.

This is a time when our emotions are heightened and we feel more vulnerable. Some of you may even be afraid for your loved ones, or yourself. And that’s okay. But don’t lay down and curl up into a little ball and allow yourself to feel victimized by a virus. Instead, use those emotions by channeling them into your writing. I don’t care if it’s poetry, an article for a magazine or newspaper, online content, a blog post or a novel, just allow yourself to feel what you feel and use it to write your best work ever. Because when all of this is over, and it will be, you will have learned something and have become a better writer in the long run.

Sometimes the only way to get through something terrible is to use it to your advantage. Instead of letting it rule our lives every day, we need to take control and rule it. We have to do whatever we have to do to stay healthy and strong physically yes. But we also have to do whatever we have to, to stay mentally healthy as well and staying focused on something creative is a great start. Writers can make great things happen during times of great sadness or tragedy because it brings out the honesty and the truth about what’s going on inside us. The mind is a terrible thing to waste, especially at a time like this. It is when we are at our most vulnerable, do we write as if our lives depend on it.

In the case of a worldwide pandemic maybe in a sense, it does…

Until next time.