River Acheron Question For Imagine Magazine September

[Comicality]

Writing in the Covid-19 era...

Life imitates art. But art also imitates life. Horror and sci-fi movies from the 1950's depicted mutations and nuclear horrors, which was appropriate considering that these movies came out during the atomic age. Many horror movies from the 1970's depicted Satanism (The Omen, The Exorcist, Satan's School For Girls, Warlock Moon, The Devil's Rain, The Blood on Satan's Claw, just to name a few), this came about due to the rise of occultism, evangelical fear, and public figures such as Anton LaVey popularizing Satanism in the mainstream. All of this, of course, led to "stranger danger" and "satanic panic" in the early 1980's...this fear that a terrifying, unknown evil could be lurking right around the corner. And what kind of entertainment did we get in the early 80's? The rise of the slasher movie, where faceless killers lurked in neighborhoods, high schools, and campgrounds. Our writing is directly influenced by the zeitgeist of the era. It's unavoidable really. In 2020, as the Corona virus literally changed the way of life for all of us, our fiction will no doubt be transformed as well. My question is....how will you implement it?

Already, it has been announced that the sitcom, The Conners (The Roseanne spinoff) next season will focus heavily on how the pandemic affected the main characters, Curb Your Enthusiasm will also implement a COVID plotline, according to Larry David. In a way, if you write fiction that takes place in our world at our time, you kind of have to make mention of it. To do otherwise would place your story in an alternate reality. That is not to say that one must write a COVID plotline, or focus heavily on the pandemic itself of course. But as writers, should we not at least acknowledge that this is the world we live in. For the sake of realism, you can't have your characters go to an indoor restaurant for example. This is obviously not an issue if your story is a period piece, or some kind of alternate universe thing, but if your story takes place in this current era and world, then my question is, how much of COVID will you implement in your stories? I can see how this may be difficult for those of you with long running series that have lasted years. Maybe a casual mention of your character putting on a mask when entering a store? Or would go full-on and maybe have a character actually contract the virus?

None of this is, of course, meant to trivialize or capitalize on what is of course a very real and very serious problem in this world, but to not mention it at all would be less than realistic, would it not? For me personally, it has not been an issue since HOMETOWN takes place in 2013, but for my next story in the saga (HOMETOWN 3 or whatever it will end up being called), I was thinking of doing a time-jump. This was an idea I had even before the pandemic hit. So now, I'm not sure exactly how I want to handle things. It also depends on what happens with the pandemic over the next few months or years. These are uncertain times, and as such, it kinda makes our writing uncertain as well, doesn't it?

This month, my question is a simple one. How will you implement COVID in your fiction, if at all?

[Comicality]

 

There's this moment in the movie, "Home Alone", where the whole family is trying to catch a flight...and they're RUNNING through O'Hare airport in Chicago at top speed in order to not be late. Hehehe, I watch that now, in a post '9/11' world...and it's just so strange to me. Like, ummm...NO!!! LOL! That would NEVER happen in this day and age. Not a chance. But 9/11 changed the way we see things. And while it might have been normal at the time it was filmed, it's just not the same anymore.

I totally agree with the idea of art imitating life and vice versa. I don't think writers could avoid it, even if they wanted to. However, I think there's a deeper underlying emotion that will become the defining feature of the times we're going through right now. One of my favorite examples of this is the movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". That's a story that keeps coming back to us with every generation, slightly different, but altered to fit the times. It pops up during the Communist scare, it pops up during 70's Occultism, then again in the 90's during the AIDS epidemic, then again in the 2000's under the threat of terrorism...and I'm sure that Covid-19 will inspire someone to reake it yet again in the near future. I've even seen teasers that they're remaking Stephen King's "The Stand"...which makes sense. Anyway, while they don't directly address the issue they're dealing with...the 'feeling' is still there. And I think the Covid-19 era will be a big part of the vibe in stories going forward.

I did actually write a short story called, "Special Delivery" ( https://gayauthors.org/story/comicality/special-delivery/ ) where I dealt with masks and social distancing directly within the story itself. And before that, I dealt with a widespread virus in a story called "Agenda 21" (But this was during the time of Swine Flu and H1N1). But I think, even if authors don't exactly make it a Corona virus story, the feeling will still be the same. In the near future, I expect stories involving feelings of isolation, or a craving of contact, mistrust of your neighbors or your community...possibly stories that are really self contained and limited to one house or neighborhood. It'll reflect what people are going through these days, whether they include an actual virus and masks or not.

So, I'm thinking we'll all see more zombie stories, or nuclear fall out tales, alien invasions...stuff where you have to wall yourselves in to stay safe. It's just my prediction, and I'm sticking to it!

As for me, personally, most of my characters exist outside of the current timeline, and the stories are far enough along where writing the current virus into their stories would only complicate and confuse things. Especially since there's a number of them that are coming to an end soon. So, everything that I started before the pandemic (which is pretty much everything) probably won't have that as a part of the story. But everything I write from here on out? Who knows?

[Page Scrawler]

I've already found a couple of stories on Nifty that mention COVID. One of them actually uses it as an excuse to get three or four families together at a vacation home which was passed through the family. Whenever there's a disaster movie, like 2012, or Independence Day, I can't help but think: what about the aftermath? What changes will this have on the landscape of the "mini-universe" inside this story? I don't think I'd write any stories about COVID, present day, but post-COVID? Maybe I'll set a story in 2027, and it mentions how someone's grandma died of COVID or something. I have no idea at this point.

[Who4m1]

That is an interesting question. It always is an interesting balance between writing your story your own way and keeping it realistic. At the same time you always find the most important struggles of an era in some of their stories. Stories always develop out of our own thoughts and thus are heavily influenced by our state of mind.

Therefore Corona definitely will be displayed in a lot of works and that is a good thing.

However, I would guess that for the fact that it influenced many people around the world really heavy, changed the life during this time, that in relation to that fact it might not be that many stories with it (that feature it directly, indirect influences are something different).

While it's possible that I might make a story with Covid, too, I probably will also tend not to include it. There are a few reasons for that, that probably can be found with other authors, too.

 

1. Options for storytelling

 

In stories usually things happen. Usually things that are in some way exciting, even if that may just be a day of school with some social interaction. In Corona times now a lot less things happen. Of course that can be very different depending on your job and the area you live in. You definitely can write a good and exciting story out of this setting, but if I'm at the point of starting a usual story, it feels much easier, but also more natural to start in an everyday environment without many specifics generally.

So I rarely would include an unusual state at the start of a story. That in corona most lifes (or at least mine) got mostly more boring (if you don't count the new distancing methods as exciting – and boring doesn't mean all bad here, but I think you know what I mean with less exxciting stuff happening) gives more reason not to include.

Also included in a later point in stories, it would usually limit the things you can do as story teller, deny the possibility of some things. I just see not enough reason in general to include it, I'll later feature the side of realism more.

This point overall is no real reason not to include it, but the reason for you to include needs to be strong enough to outweigh the deficits that may come with it or you need to like/support the way that changes your story/the setting of it.

Nonetheless it may be, that I'll write one or a few stories featuring corona, if I want to later. That could be really fun and interesting, too, but most of my stories probably won't feature it.

 

2. Forced importance of corona

We have established that we want to keep it realistic in most stories (there can be some funny exceptions). Now if we look at our life right now, how much it is changed, how we behave, but also about what we think and what we talk, there is really much of the corona crisis. If you look the news, chances are pretty good, that more than half of it will be about corona and related measures in some way. Since corona impacts society and our life in a major way, it is absolutely logical that it is present.

But if I now want to write a story, I need to depict the mind of the protagonist in it. That means, at least in the way I see it and would realize it, there will be a lot of corona.

That way corona is forced as an important topic in some way in those stories. You can't just say that there was corona in a small sentence with some of the measures taken and then never mention it again. And also in conversations and a psychological way it would be present a lot. Of course you have a little bit scope you can use to adjust it to your story, but it would be very present and I think there is a good chance, that it may take some of the focus of other topics, maybe the main topic you want to write your story about, away.

To mention it here again, there are definitely ways you can make it work and good, but there are some dangers. And since it will be a part of the story that is not too small in many cases, I also think that there might be a danger of repetition, of similar struggles happening too often if you were to write a lot of stories that are always with corona.

But a part of that thought is also that writers and readers can just become tired of corona which is the next point.

 

3. Escapism

There often is a little part of escapism in reading stories. You don't necassarily need to want to escape your world, but you are going to a different world to dive into the mind and problems of some other person than yourself. Now that in itself is a wonderful and fantastic thing that is very diverse. However, you can say that for reading a story there usually needs to be something that intrigues you. And there can be topics that you really just don't wanna deal with - that could be for many different reasons, some very personal.

Now for the moment corona is not my favourite topic in a story, because there are so many other possible topics and I had so much effects of corona and so much life in corona times in the reality already. Doesn't mean I will put a story away just because it features corona or anything like that. But I would rather here about a person without the same limitations as us at the moment and with different problems and struggles, because I feel like the struggles coming with corona and the necassary measures are topic often enough in reality already.

Could still be that I will read or write a good corona story in the near future, but that is my general base feeling about it. And combined with the second point of automatically happening importance of corona that means for me not writing many corona stories.

 

4. Universe

I intentionally closed the topic in some way in the point before, but the relationship you have as an authors to your universe is such important and exciting that I need to feature it to. It is a topic you can discuss a lot about and learn a lot of different varieties.

There usually is no clear wrong and right, there are many ways you can handle the universe the story plays in or think of it. And I do think that it can be really interesting to change it up as an author for a story once in a while. There is the opportunity for some special stories that way.

But there is one way I usually go with for my stories. I choose a start point. That already can be a fictive world, but it also can be the present like it is now or like it was two years ago. And then it is a parallel universe where I can more or less free say what's happening. The greater parts always need to remain realistic for me in some way. That doesn't mean that I won't start a story with fantasy elements or an apocalyptic scene, but it needs to be mainly coherent and the actions of society and the characters need to be plausible. (And that means to me. I sometimes feel like some people don't understand that, but being stupid and forgetting some other good options to solve a problem is very plausible for many human beings.)

But I will forge it in that framework. A great example for that: Two years ago many would have not believed that a virus would come and impact our life that majorly, so actually many virus stories are plausible in some way. On the other hand since many people would have believed that to happen, a world continuing without a virus with that kind of impact is very plausible, too.

So I feel like it's ok for most of my stories not to include corona. However, corona is likely to be part of the past in the stories I will write later (for example twenty years from now).

And by the way: Though that may change, I usually don't define the universe too close for many stories anyway. For example I usually do not feel the need to include or even specify in which specific year it plays. But as the excessive use of the world “usually“ implies that's just my general feeling. It is something that always depends on the specific story and its different aspects.

(Maybe I will try a few more specific stories in the next time - or maybe not. Let's see. )

And for instance the type of story you write can always mix things up. You could start to write a series about people just dealing with life and current developments which means not only corona, but in general (maybe 9/11, Donald Trump, other political or social topics and whatever). Or maybe you just want to feature recent developments as a regular side kick in a bigger story. If you choose that mode, then of course including it would be the way to go. (Just corona could form some kind of exception if it may crush your story or the possibilities of it going on the way you want.)

 

But there are many possibilites. The relationship to the universe as an authors and the balance of keeping enough realism overall is a huge topic that can feature big discussions on its own and comparisons of different styles. And especially in terms of keeping a bit of realism I feel like you have some kind of responsibility as an author there, too.

 

Concluding while there may be stories featuring the state where corona is present, the majority of my stories probably will be without corona or feature corona only as a past event.

However it depends on the story and you can definitely do it both ways.

 

Hope you had fun reading, that I didn't write too much nonsense and that my main points came across.

Have a nice day!

[MrM]

Most of my stories exist in their own established time streams and are not, necessarily, right now. Even Brandon Smiling is more of a 2010 meets 1985 amalgam since the Billyverse seems to have a very 2000s vibe flavoured with a dash of 1980s since both you and I are trying to draw upon our teen years and that was in the 80s more or less.

I think the rule applies: write what you know. If you are writing a contemporary story set for today then, naturally, you'll want to reflect your current experience of now. An interesting idea, staying with the teen experience theme, might be a story about two boys who meet online and only see each other virtually during class and later Zoom. That might actually touch the experience of what a lot of kids are going through right now. My only problem starting such a story is that, it is my hope, that the story becomes a cute little history piece of a brief time in our lives when all the world seemed to be going to Hell but it all ended up alright in the end. Something to look back on as anomalous after we all get our vaccines by Christmas.  Writing against that kind of backdrop can be difficult. But, if this thing drags on and on, then it might be a meaningful piece because it will mean a whole generation of kids will have grown up only seeing each other Through A Looking-glass Darkly.