FEATURE
Writing through the pandemic As she celebrates the publication of Skin Deep, her third YA novel in three years, Port Macquarie-based Hayley Lawrence reflects upon a strange and difficult year in the life of a writer, yet finds there is light at the end of the tunnel.
When I think of the last fifteen months, I think of one word: CHALLENGING. Homeschooling was no fun for anyone. Losing jobs was no fun. Releasing books in the midst of entire city lockdowns, also no fun. But COVID has been this interesting time of unity and division. Those who lost jobs and careers and those whose workplaces have never been busier. Those whose house prices skyrocketed and those unable to find a home to rent. Those locked down in cramped city apartments and those on sprawling rural properties. Those with kids bouncing off the walls during homeschooling, and those working in uggboots with cups of tea and silence. For writers, COVID has been a time of mixed creativity. I have watched on with deep envy as those without kids have smashed out an entire novel or two during COVID. All that time to stay at home, stare out the window, think and world-build with cats and dogs curled around their feet. Then there are those like me with kids crawling out of every nook and cranny in the house, trying to steal hours locked away in their bedrooms to write amidst the noise. For me, writing throughout COVID has felt akin to crawling through broken glass. I have been writing to contractual deadlines with Scholastic Books. In the midst of those deadlines, I was homeschooling, I broke my right arm, my fourteen-year-old dog died, my marriage collapsed, my ex-husband lost his job as a pilot and my entire town of Port Macquarie flooded, including my house. COVID was a very serious marooning time. And while in the midst of the cyclone of my life, I had to block out what I could and write. Broken arm or not, broken heart or not. Some say brokenness makes for better art. I’m not sure. But I do know many, many people have suffered brokenness throughout COVID, so let’s see what emerges from the rubble!
I am thankful to be emerging now. With new ways and new paths. The storms have left rainbows in their wake. And I will continue to write. Writing isn’t what I do, it’s who I am. And I am not okay if I’m not touching base with my soul through writing. Writing is my meditation. But the pandemic isn’t over and none of us know when it will be. Or what the arts will look like in the aftermath. I have so far managed to release two novels during the pandemic: Ruby Tuesday in 2020 when Melbourne was in a hard lockdown, and now Skin Deep on July 1 when Sydney, Wollongong, the Central Coast and the Blue Mountains are all ghost towns in lockdown. Timing, huh? This is life in 2021. Unpredictable. The years our children will remember, the masks they have grown accustomed to seeing and wearing. The social distancing and COVID-safe check-ins and restricted gatherings we have come to accept as normal. But if there’s one thing COVID has taught us all to be and forced us all to be, it’s adaptable. New ways, new jobs, new workplace structures, new schooling routines, new ways to shop and socialise. And we have responded as a people, with Zoom meetings, virtual book launches and virtual parties. It is a testament to the human spirit. Because if there is one thing we can be certain of in life, it’s change. Humans have been adapting to it since time immemorial. And if there’s one thing writers and artists are good at, it’s capturing and embracing change. So, may the writers keep writing. Because when we simmer it down, stories are nothing more than shared wisdom. They are lived human experience and a communion of souls. There is no better food for the lonely soul than that.
Skin Deep is published by Scholastic Australia.
northerly SPRING 2021 | 19
