I’m a writer, and right now, publishers and agents are warning fellow writers not to craft pandemic plotlines yet because it’s too soon and we are too close to the event. However, what might pandemic-centered fiction look like when the crisis is safely past and we are able to examine it with a distant, critical eye? Discuss the elements of the pandemic that might make the best fiction. What kind of characters might be most compelling? Are there certain tropes or plot twists that would lend themselves well to pandemic fiction? Also, consider whether pandemic fiction could fit into already-established genres or sets of titles (i.e., Camus’ The Plague, Love in the Time of Cholera, young adult titles like Laurie Halse Anderson’s Fever 1793, etc.)
Perhaps looking at similar past major events and the reactions to them have been and are would help. – J.D. Jankowski3 years ago
Medieval morality plays might also be a good thing to look at, as they tended to deal with the bubonic plague in often a direct or indirect way when giving lessons on how to deal with impending death. – Emily Deibler3 years ago
There will most definitely be a recurring motif of isolation and insulated communities, and topical threats will be varying degrees of disturbances to that community and moral failures of its leaders to contain the threat. That will most certainly differ from nation to nation as well, given the vastly different approaches to containment. Something to consider! - Runestrand – Runestrand3 years ago