We don’t know how good we
have it.
Imagine what it was like
to leave home and not know what was happening to friends or family until a rare
letter came through. Since I write historical fiction, some of my characters experience
this isolation.
When COVID 19 shut
everything down, I thought I was cut off from most of my creative groups. I
still communicated regularly with my online critique partner, but what about
writers’ conferences and meetings of my photography club? I missed the
in-person contact, and I still do. But thanks to Zoom and its competitors, face-to-face
interaction is not dead.
The Highland Writers
Group had been meeting in-person at coffee houses, but it quickly adjusted to
the pandemic by adopting a Zoom meeting format where we chat a bit and then
read and critique our work. We have since returned to meeting at venues that
allow for in-person interaction, but Zoom is still available for those who are
worried about COVID or for whom travel to the in-person location is
inconvenient.
The Calumet Region Photo
Club (CRPC) also adjusted by holding its meeting via Zoom. And somebody from
the umbrella group developed a computer program for holding internet
competitions. Of course, that only works for digital images, so those clubs
that want to have print competitions must do them in person. My club has chosen
to stick with digital competitions for now, and that’s fine with me since I
rarely entered prints before the pandemic. (Digital images are cheaper and less
work.)
CRPC had an in-person
picnic in the summer and an in-person Christmas dinner in December, and they
were both wonderful. We thought we were going to return to in-person program
and mentoring meetings starting tomorrow, but circumstances interfered and we’ll
be online for another month.
I really miss attending writers’
conferences, and I was looking forward to attending the Society of Children’s Book
Writers and Illustrators’ (SCBWI) Midwest conference in April. So I was really
disappointed when that got cancelled. But the SCBWI has been offering free online
workshops for members, and I’ve taken advantage of some of them. That isn’t a
Zoom format, but I do get to see the presenters, and those who watch real-time
can use the chat function to ask questions.
In-person meetings are
always the best way to foster relationships and to learn from others, and I can’t
wait until things return to the old normal. At least, I hope they will do that.
But the pandemic hasn’t
eliminated all opportunities to interact with other creative individuals and learn
from them.
And I’m grateful.
__________
The photo at the top of
this post shows the Highland Writers Group’s March 13, 2021 Zoom meeting.
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