As a contemporary YA writer, I'm really struggling to work on my current project which is set a couple years from now. I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around the long term impact of all of this on our world and our teens.

The story isn't about the pandemic at all, but I don't think there's an authentic way to write a story set in the near future of this world w/o understanding that the characters lived through this.

I'm trying to consider the impact at various levels: the practical way it will change schools/families/societies as well as the psychological/emotional toll it will take. Makes me feel like I'm trying to write sci-fi.

So instead I tweet.

But for real, at this point, to write a story set in 2021 or 2022 that ignores the coronavirus pandemic is like writing a story set in 1946 or 1947 that ignores WWII. Even if that's not what the story is about, it changes everything.