I'm updating a Christmas story I wrote in 2000 and am wondering what people are doing about including the pandemic in light-hearted works. Do I ignore it and describe a pre-covid world in the hope that such normality will have returned by the time of publication, or do I slide it into the text, imagining that in three or four years' time, kids will still be regarding masks, distancing, bubbles, etc., as a real and necessary part of Christmas???
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I was re-reading and updating my book too and that thought did cross my mind as well, but I think I am just going to avoid it, because I look at books as escapism, to be honest, I don't want to be reading about what we lived through unless it has some bearing or impact on the story, which mine doesn't, thankfully.
Thanks for the reply, Michelle.
I'm updating from 2000, so in the first version I managed to portray teenage kids without mobile phones, tablets or social media contacts. Now, I'm having to introduce such things as a part of daily life and it occurred to me that masks and distancing, etc., may be an accepted part of daily life in the future, especially when visiting elderly relatives., which my 'kids' are doing. However, the climate is changing so rapidly that, even since my first post, things have moved on to such an extent that I think/hope you are right. 'Normal life' will return at least to the degree that we won't have to deal with lateral flow testing in a kid's story!
In reply to I was re-reading and… by michellehurstauthor
Thanks, Andrew. I'll think on that.
Regards,
John
Hi John
The more I read your question, the more of a dilemma it poses.
It's mostly short fiction I've been doing recently and I can't think of any I've done where I have mentioned Covid or masks.
But you did mention that yours was for children and that masks/isolating is a part of their lives, so if your story is set in the real world, here and now, children could wonder why characters aren't wearing masks.
You could end up overthinking this one, so I'll just suggest that it really depends on whether or not it looks right in the backdrop of the story.