Covid – Changes for Mystery Writers

How many times have you read a book or watched a movie and thought to yourself: that could never happen! Fiction is filled with stories we know would never happen. But there’s always been a fine line of what we will or won’t accept in our subconscious in stories leaning toward real life. Covid has done a subtle brain segue to all of us. Did we really believe watching Dustin Hoffman in the 1995 film Outbreak that a deadly virus could take over as it did? Wasn’t the excitement palatable because deep down we couldn’t conceive of it taking place? We read mystery/thriller novels and see movies because we want to experience pseudo-trauma with no prospect of living it in real life. I mean, winter looks enticing in the movies and on the page, but sludging through it year after year is less than ideal!

Now we have an unwelcome greater sense that all of the ugliness is possible. And we’re not reading about it in someone else’s life. We’ve lived it. We’ve seen too many things happen rapidly that most people alive today have never experienced. Only those who remember World War I and II can relate to the constant fight and flight feelings that have invaded our beings, and those dear souls are few and far between.

This is true for mystery, thriller writers­­—even for stories set in the time before Covid. If you’ve ever axed a plot, you liked but thought wouldn’t be possible, that has changed. The public will now believe things can change quickly in America because we saw it happen. The government can lock down countries, including countries throughout the world. Vaccines can become political, controversial and make neighbor rise up against neighbor. The essence of what we experienced has opened our thoughts up that what was once unthinkable, can happen.

Could it be that some of the greats did push boundaries because they, too, were living in a “fight or flight” atmosphere in their real lives? Think Agatha Christie. In 1914 she was one of the 90,000 Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses enlisted to help with the war, tending to seriously wounded soldiers. She also lived through the horrors of World War II, something everyone thought couldn’t happen after such a horrific first world war. It affected how she wrote. What was known as “shell shock” in her day is now what we call PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. And, not to lessen anything that someone in war or a traumatic experience is living with, everyone today probably has some feelings that fall into the trauma category simply by being alive in today’s world.

And, what about the writer’s approach to stories told after 2019? Does Covid have to be a part of every story? Are writers and readers emotionally prepared for that? How many novels will come out with Covid as crucial to the plot? How will the writers manage the emotional aspect of writing in this era? Will writers choose to skip the era all together to not deal with the pandemic? Or will intense novels appear centering on the covid heroes who gave their all in the medical field day after day?

How many years will have to be in the rear-view mirror before nostalgia, lessened awareness, and even humor can surround what we’ve been living through with Covid? Or is that left to the scribes who will continue long after we’re gone?

So many questions without answers right now. One this is sure. Covid changed our minds and our words, no matter the genre, forever.

Michele Olson writes stories set on Mackinac Island in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan filled with suspense, romance, friendship, faith, and quirky characters. A top seller in Mackinac Island Fiction to the million people who make a trip to the island every year to experience life with no cars, amazing scenery, and the glorious Grand Hotel, she enjoys opening up this incredible island to even more visitors. Incorporating her work as an artist and a voice professional into her writing whenever she can, she enjoys creative endeavors of all genres and fueling faith with fiction.

Michele lives in the shadow of Lambeau Field in Green Bay, WI with her husband and thoroughly enjoys being a wife, mom, and “Gee Gee” to two adorable grandsons.

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