Drawing Inspiration From Self-Isolation

It does not feel like an over-exaggeration to claim that we are living in strange times. A scenario that many a budding writer might have penned as an apocalyptic story idea has come to life and affected the whole world, leaving thousands lost and over 25% the the planet’s population in various forms of lockdown…

This is sadly not a story, but real. Even as it feels unbelievable.

Over the past several weeks, I have been through the highs and some of the lows. I am fairly certain that my family contracted the virus that has brought much of the world to a grinding halt, though it is currently impossible to say for certain, as we are not being tested in the UK unless we admitting to hospital with a serious condition. My family’s symptoms were mostly mild. I suffered the worst.

I was share our story with you, though I do not wish to linger too long on the negative.

Eleven days ago, my son returned from staying over with his father for the weekend. He had been a little bit run down that week, but he is in the last year of what we call primary school and the work is hard. He gets a lot more tried than he used to. Given that he tends to stay up late when he sees his father, as they enjoy spending time together, he re-entered our house looking exhausted. His eyes had that quality that any parent will recognise. The one where you look at them and just know they’re not quite right. His voice was also a little bit hoarse and he said that he had a sore throat. We put him to be early, hoping that he was going to be alright with sleep, but as he got ready he began to cough…

And the warning bells went off.

My husband and I both suffer with anxiety and rather than go immediately into meltdown, we adopted logic and researched what we would need to do if he had the virus. The current recommendations were that he be isolated in his room for seven days, brought his meals and taken care of from a distance so as not to spread it to the rest of the house. My husband and I had been feeling run down, but still had things to do that week, so were prepared to take whatever precaution we needed to.

We went to sleep that night, hoping it would be okay…

The following morning, our son was rather unwell. His lips were chapped, he was struggling to breathe in a way that reminded me of when he was much younger and was prone to asthma attacks and he was coughing a lot more. The decision was made. He would be staying off school and I would take care of him, whilst my husband kept his distance as he still needed to attend college that week.

Keeping an eleven-year old in his bedroom felt awful. I felt like I was neglecting him, even though I gave him medicine, made sure that he had plenty of cool water to drink and brought him his meals. I was so worried he would get worse, though they claimed that it was normally very mild in children. It turned out that my worries were than of an over-anxious parent, as he very quickly bounced back and by the following day, he was already getting better and by Wednesday, he was practically himself again.

Unfortunately, I fell sick on Tuesday. My throat was swollen up and I began to cough. We made a decision as a family that we would all self-isolate on the same day the Prime Minister announced that the quarantine would be expanded to 14 days for people in our situation. Two weeks without leaving the house and we were NOT prepared for it. We had not been stockpiling supplies. We live on a small budget, week-to-week, so had not been able to afford to, even if we had felt selfish enough to do so.

My husband got some last minute shopping in and we prepared to hunker down.

On Wednesday night, my symptoms got worse. I could hardly breathe. I was wheezy and my husband was very worried about me. I cried a lot and it took longer than it ought for me to be able to say, ‘Keep an eye on me. Don’t let me die.’ because I was so afraid of what might happen.

Fortunately, with medicine and plenty of bed rest, I began to feel better after a couple of days. I am 35 years old. My son is 11. My husband in his early 40’s. We have no underlying health issues and this virus took two of us off our feet and burned through our systems so quickly, it was frightening. We knew that this was something that NEEDED to be taken seriously and were so frustrated to see all of the images and videos of people, going about their lives, not seeming to care about how it might affect the elderly and most vulnerable people in out society…

It was almost a relief when it was announced that our country would be going into lockdown.

I can understand how, if you haven’t contracted it and this virus has not yet touched your life how it might seem like overkill. The authoritarian reach of a government that many of us did not vote for, or have very little confidence in. But the right decision was made. Social distancing will save lives.

I have seen so many wonderful people using this time to help others in inspirational ways. I am not yet sure what I can offer - I am creatively minded and want to do things to lift the spirits of others, though I am currently still in quarantine and even once that is over, I have to consider the well-being of my son.

I can tell you what I have been doing -

Since the lockdown began, I have been writing a daily diary, keeping a record of what is happening, as well as detailing my personal experience and how the challenges of each day affect me, physically, mentally and emotionally. It is very rough, but my hope is that some day, when all this is over, I will make it public.

I expect a lot of people will be doing the same thing. I look forward to reading your journeys.

I am also hoping that the diary might give me inspiration to write some stories. They say the best writing comes from talking about what you know and I imagine that many of us will have unique and interesting stories and experiences over the next year with which to draw creative inspiration from.

I have also prepared my hand-written project books for the year ahead. I recently tweeted an image of the blank books and set myself a goal to fill them with words by the end of the year. These books now have form and little labels that break down what will go into them.

I have 3 large (A4) 250 page project books that will contain:

1) First Draft and planning for the 3rd book in the Bloody Marytown Saga, called ‘Mind Games’ which is broken up into sections for the prominent characters who will feature in the book.

2) Plans for the spinoff saga I intend to write featuring a character introduced in ‘Art of War’ which is broken up into sections for the prominent characters and the roles they will play in the story

3) Plans for a fantasy saga that I would love to write, broken up into sections for the races that will be featured in the world it is set in, including two of my own created races. I look forward to sharing more about this when I have a better idea of how it will look.

I also have 3 smaller (A5) project books, which will be filled with more creative work:

1) The Gadriel/Gale story series that I have spoken about already, broken up into sections for each story in the trilogy. Working titles are ‘Full of Grace’ , ‘Grace Under Fire’ and ‘Saving Grace’

2) Diary style entries for the three current prominent characters in the Bloody Marytown spinoff series. They include the main character, Daniel Whiteland, the Surviving Son of Azazel. A young half-mortal woman named Elise Walker, whose abilities come from an entity in direct confrontation with the Watchers of the Mount. And another, male character (As yet unnamed) who is a direct descendant of a being that Azazel long thought dead…

3) Similar diary style entries for three characters in the fantasy saga I mentioned, including a magic-wielding vampire, a human/dragon hybrid king and an elemental pairing of nymphs.

The below image may contain some insights into what I mean…

See Anything You Might Recognise…?

I look forward to sharing my progress as it comes.

I understand that the current circumstances can be overwhelming. And I hope that you are all keeping well and as safe as possible. It might not be easy to distract yourself from what is going on in the world, but this is what I will be doing, during the lockdown, for however long it lasts. I encourage you to find what creative outlets you can.

Hopefully we can all find some inspiration in this period of isolation.