Farzana Doctor | Issue 1

Writing in the Pandemic

Writing in the Pandemic

When I was writing my first novel, Stealing Nasreen, I had a full-time job that sucked the life out of me. To finish writing the book, I wrote for forty-five minutes, three times a week, religiously. Because this writing time was so precious to me, I was motivated and productive during those three writing spurts.

Over the years, I’ve been lucky to be able to carve out entire mornings for writing, and I do my other paid work in the afternoons and evenings. Even with the greater abundance of time, I continued to be disciplined in my writing practice, probably because I’d trained myself in the context of scarcity.

Then the pandemic hit. Like many writers (and readers) I know, the anxiety of the moment made it harder to sit still. I couldn’t focus but I needed to; I had a deadline with my agent for edits on my draft YA novel manuscript. Plus, I had many tedious self-promotion tasks to complete for Seven’s upcoming release. But my mind turned instead to Netflix (I zipped through fifteen seasons of Grey’s Anatomy in two months), the contents of my fridge, and social media doomscrolling.

I know I wasn’t alone; countless tweeps and Facebook friends were reporting the same issue. I decided to do what I’ve always done when facing a collective problem: I turned to community.

I started the #WritingSprint Facebook group. Writing sprints are exactly what they sound like. A member can call one, invite others to join, and everyone agrees to write for the specified time. After, members are encouraged to report back on progress, and cheer one another on. It’s like a writing peer support group or pep squad. The group’s virtual presence was a huge help to me over the spring and summer.

When Seven launched in September, I took a break from the group because I didn’t have room for writing (the learning curve for releasing and promoting a book virtually was steep and time-consuming, but that’s another conversation, which I’ll be talking about at this Diaspora Dialogues event in February). Since the beginning of January, I’ve returned to the #WritingSprint group twice, on days when I struggled to keep my butt in my chair. Just knowing that the group was there made me push through my distraction, worries and lack of motivation.

I’ve met some of the 178 members and a few are friends. The rest are strangers whose names I now recognise, people who are working on articles, poems, books and stories. I’m so grateful to know them.

By the way, anyone can join the group and lead a writing sprint. Join us!

Farzana Doctor is the Tkaronto-based author of four novels: Stealing Nasreen, Six Metres of Pavement, All Inclusive, and Seven. Seven has been chosen for 2020 Best Book lists including: Indigo/Chapters, Apple Books, Amnesty International, CBC Books and more. Farzana is also the Maasi behind Dear Maasi, a new sex and relationships column for FGM/C survivors. She is also an activist, part-time psychotherapist and amateur tarot card reader. Website: http://www.farzanadoctor.com

Farzana Doctor

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