The Coronavirus Crisis — Why am I Writing a Novel About This Time?

* This article first appeared on 'Medium.'

I am writing a novel entitled ‘Love in the Time of the Coronavirus.’ The title is inspired by the book written by the great Gabriel Garcia Marquez — ‘Love in the Time of Cholera.’ I even start the book with a quotation from Marquez’s book: “One could be happy not only without love, but despite it.” After that, the story becomes distinctly mine.

Is It a Love Story?

Yes, but there are many different types of love depicted in the book so far. There is the love between mother and son, father and son, father and daughter, brother and brother, and friend and friend. Are there any romantic stories? Yes, there are two of them. Writing about love when two people meet and cannot be intimate is an interesting challenge.

So, why am I writing this book?

Reason One

The first is that I did not start out to write a book about the crisis. I wrote a short story set at the very beginning of this time — it takes place on February 29, 2020. Back then we were all (or at least I was and the people I knew) living in ignorance, and you know that they say “Ignorance is bliss.”

That story is set in a bodega in Brooklyn, and the characters that inhabit it are ones that I am comfortable with because I’ve used them before. The neighborhood, the people, and their interactions all come from what I know. Hemingway said write about what you know — in his case like war, guns, bullfighting, fishing, and so on — so I felt very comfortable in this world.

I shared the story on a couple of workshop sites online, and I got some nice feedback. As luck would have or not have it — I’d rather not have the book if the virus had just gone away on March 1st — the crisis started to escalate as I wrote another short story involving the same characters from the first story. It is about an unemployed guy extorting money from people in exchange for not infecting them. Once again, I shared this story on the workshop sites and got great feedback.

One of the readers said, “You should turn this into a book.” I thought about it, and I liked and didn’t like the idea. I had just written a novel last year, and I was going to take a year off and just write articles and some short stories, all of which I look at as light and enjoyable writing. Novel writing is heavy lifting — another observation from Hemingway that flows through my brain!

Reason Two

The second reason I wanted to write the novel was because I had these stories, and they are dated as the crisis evolved and exploded. I got the idea to make this book into the journal of a writer who is living through this crazy time, and so I take my beloved — I mean that I love them — and familiar characters and bring them on this journey through the crisis.

As of today, I finished writing a chapter that takes place on April 27, 2020. Sometimes a chapter takes place a day after the previous chapter, but other times I let things settle a bit, allow my characters some space to live — or die as in the case of two characters thus far — and then I proceed to move forward. I actually started writing the chapter on that day, thus getting the weather right and also the actual events happening in the real world, but I can rarely finish a chapter in one calendar day, so I am trying not to rush anything for the sake of time frames.

Reason Three

The third reason why I am writing this novel is because I have always wanted to write historical fiction, but I never had enough nerve to try it. I have friends who write amazing historical fiction, but besides being in awe of their craft, I am humbled by their attention to details of the time and place, of an era that they painstakingly researched to get right.

Writing this book may seem like an historical fiction cop out to some of you, but I figured I can get the historical fiction thing under my belt by living through the events that I am putting into the book. So, there are names of real people appearing in it — NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Dr. Anthony Fauci to name a few — and when one of the character’s wives gives him a death stare because he talked when Dr. Fauci was speaking, well you get the idea.

The Need to Be Respectful

The final reason I felt compelled to write this book is a need to be respectful of the people involved on the front lines. There is a doctor and a first-responder in the story, and since I know doctors, nurses, and first-responders living through this crisis here in the New York City area, I felt a need to depict their heroism and selflessness. Since I also know people who have lost someone to the virus, I wanted to be sure to chronicle the suffering that they are experiencing.

How and When Will It End

One of the things about this book that is most daunting is that once I got started on it, I made a promise to myself that it would end when the crisis was over — what has been called Phase Three. Many of these characters are suffering in some way, and I want to get them to the place when they don’t have to suffer anymore. I am not sure how or when it is going to end, but none of us do.

Someone who has read some of the chapters mentioned something interesting to me. Though I have a couple of antagonists in the story, my friend didn’t recognize them as such. She said I had the greatest antagonist of all — the virus itself! I hadn’t realized it, but now I know that she is right, and like the iceberg that sank the ‘Titanic,’ I am going to try to make the most of it.

Should I Publish the Book as a Series?

This same person suggested that I publish the book in installments, but I don’t like that idea. She felt I should get at least some of the story out now when interest may be highest. My problem with that is that once I’m done writing a book, I want to go over it again and again to make connections and smooth out the story. I can’t do that in installments. I loved to hear what readers think about installments in the comments.

So, there you have it — the reasons why I am writing a book set in the time of the coronavirus. Where it is going depends on where the story takes me and the world takes us, but that is kind of like life itself. I am enjoying writing this book a little more each day, so does that sound like heavy lifting? I don’t think so anymore.