A path through trees - Christian writers in isolation, by Deborah Jenkins

The other day I shared an article on the Association of Christian Writers' Facebook page about how some well-known writers are coping in isolation. You can find the article here. There was interesting feedback. The writers on the ACW page are a lively lot and respond well to discussion posts. One suggestion was that somebody write a similar piece about how some of us are doing. We are writers. We are in isolation. We are well-known (I, for one, am a publishing sensation. At least to my own mother).

So, with four days to go until my monthly blog post, one day to write it (how can the at-home life be so busy?!) and no ideas at all, I gladly picked up the baton. You're welcome. I hope you find the contributions below as inspiring as I did.

Amy Boucher Pye

I find myself in a rubbish sleep cycle lately, which isn’t great for feeling rested but helps me get writing done. Especially as our kids are teenagers with sleep cycles to match, meaning they surface when I am ready for elevenses.

I’m bursting with words these days. For how long I don’t know, but I’m riding the wave while I can, I’m finishing off edits for next year’s CWR Lent resource for small groups, Praying with Jesus, and wrote seven scripts for the Our Daily Bread daily videos, these based around the Coronavirus pandemic. I found them so encouraging to write – reminding myself that our God is a God who listens before we even begin to speak. We can come to him with all of our troubles and cares. I also have two books to get going on, but feel slightly daunted by them. 

Click here Our Daily Bread videos

My main video chat call is the weekly writing one I’ve had for several years with Tanya Marlow and Amy Robinson. We support and encourage each other, and do writing sprints to foster creativity and accountability. 

I’ve really missed the gym and appreciate one of the trainers starting up classes by Zoom. Yes, there are loads of free videos out there, and I could dig out my old VCR workout tapes from the loft, but I don’t tend to have enough commitment to follow through with that. Knowing she and others can see me on Zoom keeps me going! (To find out more, check out her Instagram page.)

With all that’s going on I’ve found it hard to read, and have gone to one of my comfort authors, Elizabeth Goudge. I started up The Rosemary Tree, and realised I had read it before but am enjoying it. For the Woman Alive book club we are going to read one of my most favourite of hers, The Scent of Water. No Zoom meetings necessary – there will be a thread in the FB group. When someone asked what her books were like, a very good answer was given: “Old fashioned and wordy but lovely.”

We started self-isolating nearly a week before the rest of the country, and since then I’ve been keeping a somewhat regular diary on my FB wall (set to public) with links to interesting articles or funny videos. After posting a fortnight of selfies I realised just how much of a Gen Xer I am and not a millennial as I was more than sick of them...

Wendy H Jones

As I usually do a lot of travelling, which means my writing fits in around everything else, isolation has changed life a lot. Having more time at home is both a plus and a minus. I need to organise writing time as there seems to be so much time in the day. This can prove tricky, as I’m used to writing up a storm in different situations. The plus is, I have more time to think as there are less distractions. I live on my own. I’m also getting a lot more time to focus on online marketing and to support other writers with this.

I’m doing a lot more reading during the lockdown, which ultimately has an impact on me as a writer. I'm catching up with all those courses I signed up for online and didn’t end up doing.  I’m doing adult colouring books which are a great way to release a different creative side of your brain. I’m going for a walk each day and listening to podcasts on writing and music while I walk. Again, great for releasing creativity.

I have been speaking to a lot more people than I normally would, both in and out of the writing community. This involves Zoom mostly. I’m currently writing my next novel in the Cass Claymore Mysteries which is a humorous crime book. I am also completely rewriting my marketing book and it will be coming out soon as Marketing Matters. 

Book 1 in the Cass Claymore Mystery series

Maressa Mortimer

I have been very distracted, changing the way we homeschool, which means more preparation. I've found it hard to focus, and it’s only this week I can think straight again, planning stories etc. I have started reading again as well. It reminds me of when the kids first arrived, very draining and all-consuming. A plus is that we don’t have to leave the house for various activities and classes, freeing up time.

I've started listening to Dutch Psalm singing, songs I grew up with, feeling struck by the words, of trusting God and relying on Him, which I find very calming and grounding. Also, the change in curriculum has meant more time to read to the children, and reading to them is reading to myself, getting lost in exciting stories like those by Enid Blyton. Also, stories of war where God protects His people even if they lay down their lives, having to do what is right, standing for truth…

I do adult colouring books to calm things down, or to organise my mind. It’s relaxing, and gives me time to order my thoughts. When very busy, I bake. I also find playing simulation games like Sims helps to get my imagination going. You are running/watching people’s lives and then coming up with new story lines.

I find myself too much on Facebook and Instagram, seeing how my friends and acquaintances are doing. I thoroughly enjoyed the recent Zoom call with other ACW members and have actually found myself doing more writing and reading since then, as seeing other people smoothed things out and made my life feel more normal. My world had suddenly shrunk and I felt it was hard to think beyond the day to day stuff.

A friend is still editing my book, so I can’t continue with the sequel for now. I decided I would do some short stories, and combine them. I’m getting challenged to think outside the box, and have a go at other types of writing. I want the theme of the stories to be “a setting from books I love”, the first one based on a Viking book in Dutch that I adored as a teenager and would happily re-read. So I’m going to do a bit of time-travel-fantasy type writing, thinking of living the Christian life in a completely alien setting and culture.

Maressa's first book

My tips would be to be kind to yourself. It is a very difficult situation that can leave you drained and distracted. Maybe do something different from your normal writing, something lighter, shorter or more devotional, something that doesn’t take all of you, as some of that will be used to queue at supermarkets and worrying about older friends and relatives. Do something new, something that excites you. The happy rush will help and sustain you through the writing. Accept your feelings but don’t deny or ignore them. 

Peneleope Swithinbank

Oh the joy of having a blank diary, more or less  - time! What bliss, I think. And then, by mid morning, I’m bored; there’s nothing in the diary and thus no motivation to be doing anything. I started strong: just over three weeks ago, the house went into self-isolation after long-haul travel meant my husband and I had passed through 3 international airports in 12 hours. 

The following week, I tidied and de-cluttered some cupboards, spring-cleaned the summer house to within an inch of its life, planned all kinds of new projects. I walked miles and miles on long walks across the hills and valleys without seeing a soul.  Then the novelty wore off, the world shut itself off and I realised that all contact with my children and grandchildren, planned for the Easter holidays, was totally cancelled. It’s just himself and me. For the foreseeable future.

After this, a weekend where I decided to do nothing, to have a duvet day. 24+ hours of doing little except reading – the Sunday paper, a thick book, some online stuff. I pottered in pyjamas, until Monday morning, when I felt dire. Lethargic, listless and totally unable to lift more than a coffee mug. It did not bode well and I vowed to have no more duvet days unless I was on a sick bed. Which I am not. Thank God.

So I returned to my normal daily rhythms – routine sounds too drab, too disciplined and mundanely strict.  A beauty of rhythm, a beauty of daily creativity. It works for me and definitely a plus. But the minus? All speaking engagements – and there were several scheduled for the spring and summer -  are cancelled and thus the opportunity to sell the books which are stacked up in the guest room has been lost. 

An idea arose from no-where: why not ask some other authors to put together a box set of our books and sell it at a discount online? Maybe a God-given moment of inspiration. Other than God, I’ve no idea where it came from.  Three others were found via the ACW website, authors whose books would go well with mine and whose email addresses I already had. We tentatively thought we might sell 5 sets; a mere week later, and we have sold the 20 we eventually settled on. It’s been a steep learning curve  - working out how to send the parcels, print out the labels; but it’s led to a second box set being put together, this time of 3 books and totally different authors, which will go live after Easter. 

The first book box set

The social ‘new normal’ is exhausting. Enchanting when it’s with the grandchildren, but exhausting. You have to concentrate 100% of the time – there’s no picking up signals from body language, and there are fewer less- concentrated moments. Everyone seems to stare at the screen the whole time and engage; introverted me finds that hard.

Two new projects - a new book: a memoir for the grandchildren - it seems a good time to begin - and recording ‘Walking Back to Happiness’ as an audible book. Something I had wanted to do for ages, but was put off by the thought of the technology involved. Now there’s no reason not to do it; I'm fortunate in having a husband who has both the technological skills and the time. 

What I have learned: -

• -          Wear lipstick. It makes you look and feel more put-together even when you’re not. Sorry, men, no idea    what your equivalent is. 
• -          Sit back from the screen and have your upper body visible to help the other person. Staring at a vast   face filling the whole screen is tiring.
• -          Sit lower than your screen and look slightly up.  No one wants to peer up your nostrils and looking   down on others is not good body language.
• -          Better to do little and often. Don’t be afraid to say enough’s enough, let’s do it again soon. 
•         Exercise keeps me sane – I’ve had a personal trainer twice a week for a long time, and now it’s via       Facetime. It’s actually easier. And living in the countryside I can go for long walks without seeing  anyone else. 
•         Rhythm, for me, is important. Knowing what I want to do each day, is helpful. I do have a Lockdown schedule, although it can change easily but having it gives a structure which I need

Finally, God has blessed me and I like to be able to pass on blessing when I can to help others in any small way possible. So I wrote a talk and posted it in a closed on-line clergy group, for those who are struggling. Any small way to try and help others.  And isn’t that what we try to do as writers?

    Click on the link to see the novella on amazon
      Deborah Jenkins is a primary school teacher and freelance writer who has written articles, text books, devotional notes and short stories. She writes regularly for the tes. She has also completed a novella, The Evenness of Things, available as an Amazon e-book and is currently working on a full length novel. Deborah loves hats, trees and small children. After years overseas with her family, who are now grown up, she lives in Sussex with her husband, a Baptist minister, and a cat called Oliver