DISCLAIMER: Hi all! First let’s start with a disclaimer, a way for you to balance your opinions of this blog post. I am a Democrat, have already voted Democratic down the line. However, this post is NOT political. It’s meant to explore what writers of fiction need to write well and joyously.

A WRITER’S SENSITIVITY

A writer sits at her peaceful, quiet, home writing desk, boots up the laptop, and poises her fingers over the keyboard. The right music is playing in the background and her cup of tea is the perfect temperature. Outside her window, the window she loves to gaze through when taking a breath and a sip, the window that shows the normal neighborhood scenery glowing with autumn colors, there is turmoil. The city is grinding away at the street in front of her house, trucks beep, men shout, and the smell of tar used to repave the road permeates the closed window.

Everything this writer set in motion for a perfect writing day is destroyed.

And now her tea is cold.

This exact situation has been going on outside my window for the past few weeks. Before that there was digging and crunching into my sidewalk to replace the water pipes all along our street. And before that, many, many men and women popping up at my front door to warn me about what was about to happen to my neighborhood. One more complication. I have a dog. A sweet poodle mix who barks at anything disruptive anywhere within a mile. Needless to say, it’s been rough going on my current manuscript rewrite.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled for the new pipes and the nice smooth street outside my driveway. I only recount this story because in a way this kind of disruption to my writing energy has been going on for many, many months, possibly years. This 2024 election cycle has taken its toll on me, and writers everywhere. I know, because I have nearly 15,000 Facebook followers between my personal and author FB pages. They are all writers and many have shared their frustration with writing during this election cycle. Even my British, Irish, Australian, German, and New Zealand writer friends have chimed in on Facebook and Twitter to comment about this particular election and its disruptive impact on their writing.

We are mere crafters of words and stories. Our productivity depends on the ability to concentrate on that activity with passion and commitment. This kind of background noise is really cramping our style! It’s more than background noise. It includes texts from family and friends, not to mention the plethora of texts directly from candidates across the entire country. I had no idea I was so popular. I know, I know, they need to do that but, really? It averages three texts an hour. I’ve had to block the texts that come after 11:00 PM to protect my sleep.

In eleven days from this posting, this crazy ride will end, and I pray the noise doesn’t get worse. Give a writer a break! All I know is I need some serious peace.

DELICIOUS STORY FODDER

However, there are a few good things about all this noise. If you write speculative thrillers like me, all things political are great fodder for plot ideas. Especially this election. However your political preferences lean, no one can deny the frenetic energy of this election. It makes for a good story, providing the names are changed to protect the innocent.

The roadwork outside my house is loaded with great story seeds. That kind of thing would definitely trigger my main character. And the noisy, reactive dog? Talk about messing with the characters and the readers. This could be fun.

Something about vibrant elections, whether it’s for a school board or President of the United States, hooks into the writer’s brain. I remember exactly what I was writing in 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2022. This 2024 election energy is as potent as the anxiety of Covid 19, and that fearful sensation I got the first time I went to a restaurant after Covid. I still write about the friends I lost to Covid, and the friends I lost during and after the 2016 election. This is powerful stuff, and the emotions alone are the magic that makes a manuscript read real. So, maybe we’re blessed?

WHAT A WRITER NEEDS FROM THIS ELECTION

Easy. STOP THE NOISE! I, for one, want a nice, quiet next four years. I want people to prosper and live happily with health and joy. No more hate or insults. Just the quiet hum of a well-oiled, well working government. Nope, it’s not a fairy-tale. It can happen.

We writers already have a mess of crap to deal with. If we choose traditional publishing, we face agent rejection and if we escape that, we’re looking at possible publisher rejection. If we self-publish, we face the insecurities related to that side of a writers’ world. Either way, there’s the terror of reader rejection, bad reviews or worse yet, bad sales. We have to market our work no matter how we’re published. Trust me, no writer needs the crazy of an election cycle on top of all that!

All a writer needs from this election is some honest stability. A jumping off place for a real-life happily ever after? STOP THE NOISE! Let’s have some peace and quiet for focused writing. A stable, joyous future for the America we all love. Okay, maybe that is a fairy-tale but why not? Many of us do write fiction, after all.

So, take heart my wonderful, creative, amazing writer friends. It’s almost over!