BROADCASTS.com

[Ep 223]\n\n\n\nAs I write this, a pandemic is spreading across the planet. I surely hope you and those you love are spared any sickness during this worldwide crisis. I\u2019m stating this in part to document my day in the midst of these extraordinary circumstances.\n\nThis is something we can do as writers:\n\nDocument the days.\nKeep a Journal If You Can\nRecord your story as it\u2019s unfolding; capture and preserve\u2014in real time, in your voice\u2014what will become source material for future historians or for your own memoir.\n\nDr. Shane Landrum wrote, in a series of tweets:\nAdvice from a historian in the Boston area: Start keeping a journal today, ideally a hand written one if that\u2019s within your ability. Write about what you\u2019re seeing in the news, how yr friends are responding, what is closed in yr neighborhood or city or state or country. Save it...Sometimes you know you\u2019re living through an event that will be in the history books very large...personal stories don\u2019t make it into the history books unless people are writing them down in the first place. Keep a journal if you can.1\nHis Twitter thread prompted people to suggest typing up and printing out their observations and others to recommend indelible ink on archival paper.\n\nBut you can find other, creative ways to document the days.\nAudio or Video Diaries\nIf you\u2019re a writer who is also a first responder, health care worker, or supply chain contributor delivering food and goods to stores\u2014or stocking and supplying the stores\u2014you may not have time to write.\n\nOn a break, record a one- to three-minute audio or video diary on your phone. Tell us about the fatigue, the tasks, the challenges, the people. Share it, or save it. But document the days.\n\nIf you\u2019re not in some of those critical roles\u2014and I\u2019m sure I missed entire groups of people\u2014you are likely at home tending to your work, perhaps educating your child or overseeing her work. You, too, can use a video or audio diary to document the days.\nShare Some Now, Save Some for Later\nSome of it, you\u2019ll save for later: for a future project, for family, for historians.\n\nSome of it, though, you can share right now, to offer hope and accurately report on your world.\n\nPublish on social media, or through your blog, or through a podcast like this.\n\nPublish and distribute your most urgent messages however and wherever you can most easily get the word out to the people who need it most.\n\nUse Dr. Landrum\u2019s hashtag, if you like, to communally chronicle your experiences with others across the globe: #pandemicjournal2\n\nHowever you choose to document your days, I urge you to do this.\nWriters Document the Details\nWe are in a unique position, as writers, to know how to weave sensory detail into our observations that will recreate it for readers later; we understand that the story keeps going and if we document it today, we\u2019ll grab texture and tension and we can scene-build, and if we don\u2019t, we will have forgotten when the world moves on from toilet paper hoarding to new challenges, as it already has.\n\nIt\u2019s easy to forget the messaging and actions of early stages when the next one happens a mere hours later.\n\nOur role as writers in these uncertain times is to be among those who capture the stories.\nTell Your Story\nYou tell yours from your corner of the world, and I\u2019ll tell mine.\n\nOne day, they\u2019ll fit together to help people understand how one thing led to another in the high-level reporting alongside the everyday events: the confusion, the indecision; the toilet paper hoarding and the jokes that ensued; the frantic trips to Walmart and Target and grocery stores, not knowing how to prepare for such a time as this.\n\nWe\u2019ve had questions: will we go on lockdown or will life go on as usual? We will be able to share how that changed day by day, moment by moment, question by question.\nDocument the Questions\nThe questions, so many questions\u2026\nO Me! O Life!\n\nOh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,