Writing in the Time of Corona

Writing in the time of corona is different. Different precautions have to be taken. Different procedures have to be created. After all, we all want to emerge in some months (years?) on the other side of this pandemic, healthy and happy and relishing the chance to finally walk around without a mask.

These days, I’m still meeting with my writing critique partners… online. We send each other our pieces the day before we meet, and then give our feedback during our Zoom session. Is it as satisfying, as fun as meeting in person? Of course not. However, it’s the best we can do right now.

Currently I’m taking a writing class. It’s not something I normally do, but since face-to-face contact is limited these days, getting feedback and inspiration from fellow participants as well as from the instructor is something I truly appreciate. We send our weekly writing pieces to each other. We also have a site set up by the instructor where we post our feedback.

Celebrating with my writing friends is also different. Recently, I got some great news. My manuscript is getting published. If this had been September 2019 B.C. (before corona) instead September 2020, I would have bought a decorated cake from a bakery and after toasting my critique partners for all the support and help they’ve given me, I would have given them the news.

Instead, this is what I did: I went to a famous local cupcake bakery. (They won the big prize in the 2011 Food Network’s show Cupcake Wars.) I bought three special sugary creations. (I found out their favorites by telling them a lie about my students surveying people about cake flavors, and the kids needed more data. Oh, how trusting my friends are.)

Jilly's 14 Carat Cupcake... carrot cake, topped with gold glitter

I then dropped them off a couple of evenings before we had our writing critique Zoom. I told them, “Enjoy… and there’s a reason why you’re getting this cupcake… But I won’t tell you what it is until Thursday.”

I caught one of my friends as she and her husband were pulling out of their driveway. There I was, a masked woman, trying her best not to startle them as I handed off my bag of booty. (She was so used to seeing me in a small square, gridded off on her computer monitor, she almost didn’t recognize me, in-person and masked.)

Yeah, these are the days. As Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs sang: 

These are days you'll remember

Never before and never since

I promise

It’s certainly changed the way I’ve taught, too. I can’t walk around and look over students’ shoulders and praise their writing like I’d like to. I send email messages letting them know I’m bowled over by their writing. We talk about lines that sing, in whole-class discussions. And Thursday we’re walking to a nearby park and doing a writing buffet. Stories from all three classes will be fanned out on picnic tables. Usually, kids will write their comments on a story on a colorful sheet stapled to the back of the story. Then they’ll read a different piece. And a different piece. Thursday, each story will be slid into a plastic sleeve. Students will slip their comments (written on quarter-sized sheets of paper) into the plastic sleeve and behind the story. Before another student can read the same story, I'll wipe the sleeve down with a disinfectant wipe.

Yeah, these sure are the days...

Sioux Roslawski is a middle-school teacher, a dog rescuer and a freelance writer... and next year, she'll be a novelist. (Yippee yahoo!) She's also a mother of two and grammy to three and the wrangler of one enthusiastic 84-pound golden retriever.