Writing During Quarantine

As an introvert, I recharge with time alone. So I have to admit, when Quarantine hit, hearing that all required social events were canceled made my little introvert heart soar with happiness.

Fast forward six or seven (or has it been eight?) weeks…

I’ve been spiraling through cycles of depression and mood swings like crazy the past several weeks. With each new announcement, I’d bounce again between “you’ve got to be kidding me” and “well, I saw that one coming.” The hardest part, however, has been finding the gumption within to write.

Writing is very important to me. I’m not published yet, but as my agent keeps saying, we need to keep writing.

It’s so easy to see success as “wealth, favor, or eminence” (the Merriam-Webster’s definition of success). But to me, success is providing for my family’s basic needs. “Basic needs” to me include a happy heart, mind, soul, and body.

I have to remind myself frequently that my success doesn’t rely on the world’s success, but on God’s. And God gave me the kids I’ve always wanted so I could write with them, play stories with them, cook and bake with them, garden and explore with them, and homeschool with them the way I always dreamed.

I’ve known I wanted to be a writer since I was nine years old. Writing feeds my basic needs in a way that has nothing to do with the dictionary definition of success.

Writing makes my heart happy, my mind engaged, my soul entertained, and my body healthy. Writing itself is successful to me even before getting published or meeting the world’s level of success. (It reminds me of that quote from Little Women I shared a couple weeks ago.)

It wasn’t until a couple days ago that I finally realized part of the reason why I might be feeling down was because I hadn’t been writing.

Instead of waiting for the energy to write, perhaps I should write in order to find the energy.

I’ve had to learn that for me, writing gives me energy, but it may be a different type of writing than I expected (more on that later). So long as it is making me happy enough to give me the energy to do more, I should pursue it.

Just a little something to remind myself everyday, especially in the midst of this quarantine uncertainty…

How have you been coping?