We’re all staying home finding ways to make better use of our time. It’s not often that we get to have so much time on our hands as we are forced into isolation to protect ourselves in these uncertain times. What’s comforting to know is that we are not alone. For whatever it’s worth, the pandemic has swept us into a stronger sense of belonging. We find common ground and these troubling times become a source for writing ideas. The pandemic, in a larger sense, means something more. Its impact will carve its place in the annals of history.

Browsing online for potential freelancing markets where I could pitch, I could see a plethora of online and print publications inviting pitches for the coronavirus experience. Personal narratives on how the coronavirus has impacted our lives and what lessons we have learned from isolation are popular topics. Another is an invitation to write about how we are making productive and creative use of our time. These are reflections of that peculiar position of the pandemic in the course of our lives. It has terra-formed the course of human history and it will likely retain its stigma and implications long after it has been eradicated.

These articles and personal narratives would make for great recorded accounts of the human experience during the pandemic. Ten or twenty years from now, posterity will look back and read chronicles of our battle against the pandemic that swept the world during the twenty-first century. Such reading will help future generations connect to the world and make a comparative analysis of how past and present plagues shaped the course of human events.

Even if you choose to focus on your fiction or memoir writing during these times of isolation, at some point it’s inevitable that your pandemic or quarantine experience will crop up in your writings. If you are chatting or posting in forums about it, if you’re emailing a friend to ask them how they’re doing, and if you’re blogging about it, then you are significantly contributing to what can potentially become a record for history. The only requirement is to write it down. A few years from now, you’ll look back and reread what you have written, and you might be surprised at how it has changed you.

Another way to make productive and creative use of your time is to invite fellow writers to write about their experiences, create an anthology, and publish it a la Chicken Soup for the Soul. People are likely to pick up this type of book because the sense of connection, of belonging, and the need to relate to a common experience behooves our curiosity to find out how others are able to withstand the tribulation. And this is now happening. Visit Amazon and other popular online bookstores. Type “coronavirus” in their search box and don’t be surprised at the number of books about the topic written from different angles, including a guide for children and strategies to manage anxiety during the lockdown.