TO FEATURE THE CORONA VIRUS OR NOT!

bahamaswriter

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My husband Erskine just asked me if I am going to have the Corona virus in my next novel! I replied very emphatically "No!" But many authors will no doubt feature the pandemic in their writings. What about you?
 

Woollybear

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There are many emerging infectious diseases, in part due to climate change.

The mosquito that carries Dengue and Malaria is now in our county for the first time ever. If I wrote an appropriate genre, I'd be more likely to have an outbreak of malaria in Utah than anything about COVID. :)
 

indianroads

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Of late, my novels have been set in a futuristic dystopian world - and plagues are in their history, I don't explicitly mention covid though.
 

neandermagnon

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It depends entirely on the story. I'm currently reading a book that's set in 2020. I assume it was written in 2019 or earlier and all the writer did was set it in 2020 so it'd feel much newer when it's published. It has date stamps that set it in spring/summer of 2020. Without the date stamps, it could be 2019, COVID-19 free and still feel entirely contemporary. But as it is, COVID-19 is conspicuous by its absence. Not only not being mentioned, but scenes set in schools and at teenage parties when everyone should've been locked down. I can forgive the writer for this as it's extremely unfortunate as he wasn't to know that COVID-19 would happen at the time he wrote it. But for a story written now a writer doesn't have that leeway and I'd even say it's a cautionary tale about writing in the very near future for whatever reason. (Says she who's writing a book set in 2055.)

My book set in 2055 does mention COVID-19 in a couple of scenes where someone from 2055 wouldn't not mention it. It's not a big thing though, because it's 35 years ago in my story's past. But older people remember it. A non-fantasy story set on Earth in the 2020s with no mention at all of COVID-19 would be like having a novel set in the 1940s that doesn't mention anything at all related WW2, even if it's not about WW2. There might be times when it doesn't matter. But probably more likely some character will mention it sooner or later.

I think that the lockdown provides an interesting setting for thrillers and crime novels that other years won't provide. As such I would expect that there will be books being written now that will be published over the next few years set in 2020 specifically themed around COVID-19 and the lockdown. And future writers will set books in 2020 just to have that whole lockdown thing going on.
 

BenPanced

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Personally, I wouldn't want to. My manuscripts feature guys with enough ennui/depression/lack of motivation/neuroses/whatever, I don't need it amplified with the addition of a pandemic and resultant self-isolation.
 

Maryn

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My current book ends with the virus raging, the characters isolating. One character, existing entirely off-camera, dies.

Maryn, who's isolating, too
 

Chris P

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I don't plan to. It's going to take so long for any of my current projects to come out (if they ever do) that the public understanding of the effect the virus has had on our collective consciousness will have evolved to the point where my current understanding is going to look very dated. I don't want to rush something out just to say I've written something topical. Even if I were to get something out quickly, like a short story, my mind really needs to let things settle and incubate before I have anything meaningful to say about my experience.

But, people are doing it and doing it well. Very well. Watch your yearly anthologies of short stories for this year and next, and prepare to have your literary minds blown!
 

ChaseJxyz

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Imagine if someone wrote a story that featured zika, that would date it pretty hard.

I'm of the opinion that fiction is generally set in an "alternate universe" to our real world (unless it's explicitly stating otherwise, like BASED ON TRUE EVENTS). Very major things that happened before the story was written, like 9/11 or WW2, happened, but the more day to day (who's the governer, sometimes even who's the president) can be anything. You can make up battles in wars, you can make up crises-es that your characters face and no one is really going to call you out for diverging from reality in some ways.

If your story is very explicitly set in Real World 2020, then covid will be involved in some way, even if you don't mention it. Travel restrictions, no bands are touring etc, but that doesn't mean your story has to be about covid. You could also just...pretend it didn't happen. That things went the way they were "supposed" to go. But is there a specific reason for that story to then be set in 2020? You could have it just be "modern day" and let the reader decide what year it is.

Of course if you're stories set in other worlds or periods, including covid would be weird. The average person isn't going to be talking about it in 100 years, like how the average person didn't talk about the "Spanish flu" until we all started comparing it to covid.
 
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mccardey

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If I was a quick writer, and aimed to self-publish (that is, if I were in total control of my career which would mean I was a totally different person, and probably fantastically productive, also successful but humble and quiet as well and maybe significantly better-groomed) I would absolutely include Covid19. As a reader, I'm fascinated by how people feel about things, and this is a definite Thing.
 

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I considered whether to do that for my NaNo novel. For sure, it dates the novel, but I haven't decided whether that's a bad thing or not for this novel. The thing is that it is an experience that people are having, and I don't think fiction is served by completely ignoring that, just because by the time the book is published, we may have a vaccine and no longer need to wear masks and social distance. Yes, someday, there will be historical fiction dealing with this time period. But why shouldn't we, today, be able to capture the feelings that living through this situation produces while it's more than a distant memory?

(By the logic that COVID-19 would date a novel written today, a novel published today without it is similarly dated, isn't it?)
 
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A.P.M.

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I'm writing a YA sci fi that takes place roughly 50 years in the future, and I mention the "2020" or "20's" pandemic a few times. There are older characters (60-70's) who were alive in 2020 who still wear masks, and the characters mention in passing that some older people wear masks because they grew up in the pandemic and are still germaphobes.
 

Chris P

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I considered whether to do that for my NaNo novel. For sure, it dates the novel, but I haven't decided whether that's a bad thing or not for this novel. The thing is that it is an experience that people are having, and I don't think fiction is served by completely ignoring that, just because by the time the book is published, we may have a vaccine and no longer need to wear masks and social distance. Yes, someday, there will be historical fiction dealing with this time period. But why shouldn't we, today, be able to capture the feelings that living through this situation produces while it's more than a distant memory?

(By the logic that COVID-19 would date a novel written today, a novel published today without it is similarly dated, isn't it?)

I agree, even though I upthread said I wasn't considering it. As with any tool, the level of detail to provide depends on what is needed for the story. Is my story about the pandemic? Then it will figure hugely. Are the stakes higher and the obstacles larger because of the pandemic (a spy has to sneak into an occupied home office rather than an empty office at midnight)? Then the story is still about the spy case but the pandemic plays a role. Does the pandemic have nothing to do with the plot or how it and the characters progress? Then I would consider carefully how much detail to include.
 

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I haven't done that for my current WIP for several reasons:
-I figured that if the book sells, the earliest it'll come out is in 2022. Hopefully, by then the pandemic wouldn't still be present in our lives...and certainly not to the extent that it is right now.
-I'm writing a lighthearted, fluffy romcom that's pure escapism.
-I just don't want to. :D After spending the year in lockdown and watching the news every day about the pandemic, I'm all pandemic-ed out. It's such an ever-present thing in our lives and where I can I help it, I want to have some relief from it.

Of course, if my agent or publisher thinks I should mention remnants of the pandemic in the book, I wouldn't mind doing so. Like maybe having the characters go around wearing masks etc. Fwiw, there was plenty of time for me to edit the pandemic into my 2021 books and neither publisher has asked me to edit it in, so I think it's fine not to have it.
 

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Man, this makes me glad I haven't yet tried to write contemporary or near-future fiction! I think Covid-19 is a highly unusual, pivotal thing that will be remembered for peoples' entire lives. Even if we get a vaccine by the end of 2021 and everyone takes it, and it's highly effective, it will have aftereffects, and I wouldn't bet on all these things being true. It could very much be a factor in our lives for years to come. The first Sars outbreak had long-term effects in the countries hit hardest by it, such as Masks being something you would see people wearing in public fairly often and even becoming fashion statements worn by K-Pop fans.

We're living through something that will certainly be in the history books. The outcome of our upcoming election in the US will also very possibly have a big effect on the future of our country and on the lives of most Americans in a way past elections haven't as much. How much attention characters in 20 or 30 years would be paying to events of 2020 would depend on their age and on the story, of course. I have to say that the 80s and 90s still feel pretty recent to this old fart, 9-11 is like yesterday, and my same-age friends and I still talk and think about events, movies, music, and politics from our misspent youth (important characterization tip for younger writers characterizing older people--time passes faster and faster as you age--it will be 2040 before you whippersnappers know it).

2020 and the next few years will likely be featured in future history books. It's got to be hard to write contemporary fiction, let alone near future fiction, set in such odd times. IMO, if one wants to write a book set in more normal times, there's nothing wrong with not specifying the exact year and allowing the reader to assume it took place in 2018 or 2019, though. Or if the year must be mentioned, just say it's 2018 or something. But it would knock me out of serious disbelief to read a book set in 2022 where everything is completely back to the way it was in 2019 and no one is talking or thinking about Covid anymore. It would knock me even more out if 2022 rolls around and we're still having to wear masks and be careful with distancing, because the vaccine is only about 50% effective and half the population refuses to take it anyway, but the novel set in that year assumes everything would be back to normal.

Unless it's clear the book really is in an alternative reality or timeline. Something like the POTUS being a fictional character, and other prominent people and events being different in some ways. And I would very much want to find the dimensional door to that timeline, thank you very much (well, okay, not if it's like the alternative timeline Chuck Wendig created in The Wanderers)
 
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gothicangel

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No, but I hope at some point that things will get back to normal, otherwise I will have to rethink scenes where my MC gatecrashes a newspaper offices or even just in pubs asking people he's never met before questions!
 

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TBH, I'm not sure how willingly I would read a book that featured the virus. I'm sick of it now and I'll probably still be sick of it in a few years. Other than that, I agree with those who posted that books are a slow progress. Even if you're done and looking to traditional publish, it will take years before that happens, and who knows what the virus will have evolved into by then (or de-evolved).
 

Roxxsmom

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TBH, I'm not sure how willingly I would read a book that featured the virus. I'm sick of it now and I'll probably still be sick of it in a few years. Other than that, I agree with those who posted that books are a slow progress. Even if you're done and looking to traditional publish, it will take years before that happens, and who knows what the virus will have evolved into by then (or de-evolved).

I think a lot of people feel this way by now. For me, though, a book set in our own times or the near future where the virus isn't affecting character's lives in some way would feel strange and unrealistic, just as a SF book set a century in the future (or even in the very near future) that is as if climate change never existed seems strange and unrealistic. Or for that matter, a contemporary story where characters fly and airport security is pre 9-11 even though they have smart phones. This doesn't mean the stories have to center on these things, though. Life goes on, covid or no covid. But Covid has changed the parameters of how life happens. If I had a character who was (say) a college professor in 2021-2022, she'd likely be teaching her classes from home, or having to teach in person and having the constant, gnawing anxiety about whether the masks and social distancing rules and constant cleaning of surfaces would be enough to protect her and her colleagues, even if the story is about something else.

There are plenty of ways around this, though, such as having a contemporary novel set before the pandemic, or in an unspecified year that is clearly the early 21st century, or setting the story in an alternative world with a different POTUS and some of the other details of contemporary life are different.
 

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PBS had a report recently about publishers and agents saying not to send anything related to COVID. They have been inundated with stories, most of them bad.
 

mccardey

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PBS had a report recently about publishers and agents saying not to send anything related to COVID. They have been inundated with stories, most of them bad.
Ah, but what if your ms is BRILLIANT!! and GOING TO CHANGE THE WORLD!! and you wrote it IN UNDER A MONTH IN COMIC SANS AND FINISHED IT JUST LAST NIGHT!! I'll bet they'd arm-wrestle for that one.... ;)

ETA: Welcome to AW, btw. :Sun:
 
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LJD

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I write contemporary romance, and have decided that, for now, I will not include COVID-19 in my books. In the future, there will likely be places were I reference it, but not at present.

It's frankly not something I feel like writing about, and my books are light, escapist rom-coms. Also...the situation could change so rapidly, and even though most of my books are self-published (and come out less than a year after I start the first draft)...that's just not something I want to deal with.

I don't state years in my books, though I know when they happen—I use the year to figure out when the holidays would fall and it appears in my notes. And let me tell you, I'm glad I didn't state years... I mean, the Easter epilogue in the Valentine's Day novella that I released in February simply wouldn't have been possible...
 

Roxxsmom

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Also...the situation could change so rapidly, and even though most of my books are self-published (and come out less than a year after I start the first draft)...that's just not something I want to deal with.

This is a very real challenge with writing contemporary fiction grounded in reality, I think. It is really hard to know how current events will affect the future. I've read plenty of novels that were clearly set in a particular time frame where the characters don't even think about who the President is or give a passing thought to all those very real, serious issues none of us can go five minutes without thinking about in real life. Sometimes it works for me, sometimes it doesn't.

I'd still find it weird to be reading a story that was clearly set in the real, actual 2020-2022 time frame with no reference to something this overarching, though. Referencing something that's real and contemporary isn't the same as a plot that focuses on it, however. I have to say it seems kind of odd for agents and editors who rep contemporary, real-world literature to categorically reject anything that references a particular current event happening in the real world, though I can certainly see why they would be sick of seeing plots where a particular current event is central.
 

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I struggled with this as well in one of the short stories I wrote recently, where it would have made a lot of sense to have a throwaway line about COVID-19. Ultimately, I decided not too, because it would have dated the story. However, it also occurs to me that LOTS of things date a story, things that seem timeless, even cutting edge at the time they were written. I, for one, don't necessarily mind when stories date themselves, unless it is inconsistent with when the story is supposed to take place.

It's interesting to read distant-future sci-fi stories that were written in the 40's and 50's because of how often they mention "Atomics" and how fundamental they are to these futuristic societies. You can't fault them for this, because at the time, atomic science was cutting edge, and they couldn't have predicted that "Nuclear" would come to be the dominant term. Sort of makes you wonder what things we take for granted today may eventually sound dated (my money is on the word "Quantum", which I think might eventually be replaced with something else, once this branch of science becomes more mainstream).
 

Kat M

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It's interesting to read distant-future sci-fi stories that were written in the 40's and 50's because of how often they mention "Atomics" and how fundamental they are to these futuristic societies. You can't fault them for this, because at the time, atomic science was cutting edge, and they couldn't have predicted that "Nuclear" would come to be the dominant term. Sort of makes you wonder what things we take for granted today may eventually sound dated (my money is on the word "Quantum", which I think might eventually be replaced with something else, once this branch of science becomes more mainstream).

I was just thinking about this the other day concerning Star Wars. The "cutting edge," "futuristic" technology in the original trilogy is so different from the way our technology has evolved. (Big boxy things that would probably be touchscreens, etc.) If it purported to be set in the future, then it would seem so dated. But the creators brilliantly set it "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." Does the tech look dated? Sure! But this all occurred possibly centuries ago, so it was probably cutting-edge in its day. And so the movies retain some of their futuristic charm that other stories don't. (Although I find dated distant-future stories absolutely charming for their datedness, so I'm not the best judge there.)

(Side note: I just watched a Doctor Who episode set on Earth in 2020. I kept falling out of the story trying to retcon COVID into it and failing miserably. Pity; it was a great story.)

I'm team "set it vaguely pre-COVID" for all the reasons mentioned above (escapism, not knowing how everything will play out, etc.).
 

benbenberi

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Given that we don't actually know how COVID will play out over the next few months/years, or what its long-term impact will be on how we live & what we consider "normal," it's a very tricky question. I would say, if it's really necessary to set your story specifically in 2020 and have COVID & its repercussions be a significant part of it, then go ahead. You're writing a COVID story. Otherwise, better to place your story vaguely in the Before Times and accept that the readers' world is going to be a very different one, in unknowable ways, from the story setting.
 
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