Reminders of My Former Life

A friend of mine offered some advice to me recently about a possible useful thing to gain information for my previous ‘big’ project, and I could barely even engage on what that was all about. On further thought, I could see what was mentioned, might well be useful, but apart from the fact that I may not actually be able to do that because of Covid-19 restrictions, thought further about it.

I’ve become a bit obsessed about this current project, in a way that hasn’t happened to me before, or not for this kind of thing, anyway. Reaching out to other writers, to collaborate on something, just me and the world, rather than my writing group, and all of Australia, or just me and a publisher, those things have happened. But this project is different, it’s big, really big.

And it’s important too, the way writing can be, when it touches on world wide issues. And at the moment, surely this Covid-19 virus is one mighty big (and frightening) thing. So putting together an Anthology about this is my big thing, and the title of the big thing, of the book I, and the poets and writers whose work is accepted will create, is “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19”.

See, a big issue, a life and death issue. An important issue. And since I came up with this idea, and began working on it, my previous writing project, that I thought was important, has faded away to not much, and I was wondering if anything much might happen until after, when my life goes back to ‘normal’. If there ever is going to be ‘normal’, as we’ve known life to be …

But at my writing group today (we meet online now, until … Until the hotel we meet at is opened up again, and we will be able to all sit at a table together and have our meetings.) So at the meeting, we were given a writing prompt, and I immediately came up with a scene for the Cosy Murder Mystery series that I’d been working on before Covid-19 came along, and it felt strange to be in the head of my main character, strange, but good too.

Because I had been wondering a little about whether I’d still be able to get into Meredith’s head again, after working on this far more worthy project. But Meredith is definitely there with me, she’s in my head, and so I can get into hers, and this reminder of that project is a little light relief, and I know I can get back into the Anthology project again, and step away if I need to, and life goes on still …

Being at home is fine, but going out sometimes is good too, and these things are important for us all, I feel. A little shopping, connections, online if real life can’t happen, Perhaps some gardening, or housework, these things can help make life feel more normal. And having a life that feels normal is a good thing, for sure … So normal is good, and having reminders about my former life, that’s good too.

A writer writes things that seem important, when it’s important to write them, but maintaining balance is good too, because it helps to keep going, and not get overwhelmed. I may have been approaching that, I’m not sure, but I feel more centred now, and feel these projects will both have their times, some days focused on one, another day doing some of the other, and it will all work out, step by step, on and on, as needed.

My former life is still there, and after this Big Project, I can step back to that other, still big, but not so worthy, project. It’s all about maintaining a sense of balance, and I can feel that is what I have, things are going well, and I can work on both of these projects, and others too perhaps, as long as there is balance …