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A Write Year: Writer Deena Bouknight On Life During Covid-19
Written By: Deena Bouknight | Issue:
"Yes, pandemic 2020 has presented a myriad of personal challenges, not just for me but for most everyone, but it has also opened up a world of blessings and opportunities – if we choose to look at it that way. "
Deena C. Bouknight
Prior to March 2020, I worked hard to not become a reclusive writer. And even though my quaint writer’s cottage overlooking Standing Indian and Winding Stair Gap provides an inspiring vista, I have purposed to avoid becoming one of “those” writers: a Harper Lee or Emily Dickenson, for example. Hidden away, churning out prose and articles and essays with only myself as critique and company.
Pre-pandemic, at least three days a week, I forced a shower, a little makeup, a real outfit (not yoga pants), and even hairspray, and packed up computer to settle at a coffee shop, library, or – on nice days – a table outside a café in Highlands or Cashiers. I even took my laptop to Bascom’s beautiful stream-side gazebo and worked for hours before joining the weekly two-hour Bascom writer’s group meetings. In fact, joining the writer’s group was another effort toward battling writer reclusiveness.
All was going well – until a global health pandemic forced isolation upon not just me but millions of others. Suddenly, we were all at home wondering if it would be worth the effort to “dress” for the day.
Yes, navigating this year has been a surreal, Twilight Zone, unprecedented, sometimes hazy, and oftentimes unsettling experience. But what I have found, and pleasantly accepted, is that 2020 has provided basket loads of writing fodder. An all-day virtual spring writing conference confirmed a general consensus among peers. Not only has there been material galore to satiate writers of all genres, but the forced shutdown meant fewer social distractions and more time to actually write. Bottomline: I don’t ever want to become a deranged Poe or Fitzgerald or Hemingway, half mad from over-imbibing and word-heavy isolation, but COVID-19 has pleasantly green-lighted stay-at-home productivity.
Not only have I been able to meet deadlines for The Laurel and my other bread-and-butter professional writer gigs, but I have amassed a collection of essays and narratives, polished to the nth degree a new historic literary novel on the 1886 Charleston, S.C. earthquake, and submitted for consideration countless works to literary reviews and writing contests.
Yes, pandemic 2020 has presented a myriad of personal challenges, not just for me but for most everyone, but it has also opened up a world of blessings and opportunities – if we choose to look at it that way.
