Under the present circumstances, it is difficult to find anything to write about that is as important as the present circumstances. Of course, at my age, my creative energy runs out all too soon anyway. I am not the only one. I subscribe to a blog by a writer who, once rather prolific, now seems to have run out of things to say.

But I have not given up. I am writing a book which, typically, is far too ambitious. It consists of a cycle of twelve stories, each of which requires enough world-building for a whole novel. My characters grow, a great problem is solved, and the ending of the cycle — when I eventually get to it — gives me chills.

But, even without the present circumstances, it becomes ever more difficult to find the energy each day to do a sketch, a rough draft, a developed draft, then a first, second and third draft, then a series of final readings, all for just one chapter out of five or seven for each story. It’s typical. But I don’t have the creative energy I used to.

I am an introvert, but I find that, oddly enough, I am motivated by prolonged, intense social interaction with a lot of different people at once. Like at a science fiction convention. Which I have not attended since early March. And probably won’t for a while, under the present circumstances.

But I have not given up. Every day I go a little further. Maybe only ten or twelve steps instead of thirty or fifty or a hundred. But every day is another ten or twelve steps closer to that ending which I so much want to reach. I’ll get there.