People are cooped up in their homes as communities around the world quarantine in an effort to slow the progress of the virus, both to prevent hospitals from becoming overrun with too many victims at once (although that’s happening already in some places) and in the hopes of a vaccine to prevent further illnesses (vaccines are being developed and tested in multiple locations, but from what I’ve heard, they aren’t likely to be widely available until sometime next year).
Personally, I’m been in something of an odd situation from the very beginning. Not odd in the sense that my life has changed weirdly. I mean odd in the sense that it hasn’t changed much at all. I take online classes, I work on personal websites and blogs, I volunteer for a local organization that helps teachers, but all of those activities involve my computer. Even my volunteer work is often done remotely. Basically, I’m accustomed to spending a lot of time in front of my computer or reading books. Now, I’m still sitting in front of my computer and reading books. Although my direct contact with the outside world (beyond the internet and my communications with friends in other places) is minimal, basically only what I need to do in order to get supplies and walk my dog, I still worry that I could end up getting the virus in spite of my precautions, but that’s the risk we all take, and others are in far more danger than I am right now. I learned a long time ago that it just isn’t possible to control everything that happens in your life, and I’ve arranged everything I can control as best I can, which is about as much as anybody can do right now.
I like to consider wider events in terms of terms of the books I’ve been reading. I talked about the coronavirus a bit in my reviews of Charlotte Sometimes (which takes place partly during the 1918 influenza pandemic, and I did that review before I knew that we were headed into a new pandemic) and Will It Be Okay? (which I couldn’t get pictures for because the local libraries are closed, but you can still read it online). So, I’ll be starting to cover some children’s activity books and adding some resources for helping people to carrying out the activities in the books. However, after some thought, I’ve decided to go further and create a list of resources, including websites and videos, not just books and sources of reading material, to help people keep busy while they’re sheltering at home during the pandemic.
I don’t really mind spending extended periods of time at home because I actually have many interests and hobbies, not to mention all the books I still want to read, and I never get enough time to do everything I want to do. I’m also a definite introvert, so a lot of what’s important to me happens in my head, and I appreciate relatively uninterrupted periods when I can develop ideas that I’ve been toying with in odd moments. Of course, this also often leads to more projects and hobby concepts than I will ever actually do. The more I read and think about stuff, the more things I think of that I want to try. It’s a vicious cycle. I don’t get bored very often; I get boggled, trying to decide what to work on next. So, for the benefit of those who don’t go through this process, I’m going to present a bunch of random ideas for things you can do at home that don’t require any usual materials or any particular skill. In fact, I’ve decided to start a new blog with some of my ideas.
In the meantime, here are a few things to help you stave off the boredom. I’ve grouped them by subject, and I’ve made notes about books that relate to some of them. Most of these activities are child-friendly, but not exclusively so. These are things that adults can do as well.
Places to Read Books for Free Online
All or most public libraries offer books online these days (provided that you have a card for that library), and Amazon offers some free public domain books for Kindle. However, there are other places where you can find books that you can simply read in your browser, some of which also have audio. I have a list of places where you can read books for free online on my Resources page. I’ll reprint the list here for easy reference:
“A non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.” It’s free to use, but it requires you to sign up for an account. It has more than just public domain books. Various organizations, such as libraries and book-selling companies, have donated scanned copies of many books and also various audio recordings, some software (such as old computer games), and other materials. There is even help for users with print disabilities. Patrons may borrow up to 5 items at a time, and books can be borrowed for up to 14 days, with the option to renew. When your time is up, the book simply disappears from your list of loans, so there are no late fees. You can also turn in books early if you’re done with them and want to get something else. Patrons can also place holds on books which are currently being loaned.
Provides free e-books of books that are in the public domain. Some of the older vintage series described on my site are here. There is no need to sign up for an account. E-books are available in multiple formats.
This is a collection of public domain works, especially those about religion and folklore. Most of it isn’t for children, but some of the folktales and fairy tales overlap with children’s literature. For example, they have a complete collection of the Lang Fairy Books (also known as the Color Fairy Books because of the titles). There is no need to sign up for an account, you can simply read the texts in the page.
An online collection of public domain works by the University of South Florida. The description on the main page states:
“Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom. “
The collection contains more than children’s literature and is free for the public to use. You can listen to the audio version of a book while reading the text version of a book in your browser at the same time. You can search for books by author, title, genre (broad categories such as mystery, adventure, fantasy, and horror), collection (shows specific topics such as African-American Literature, The Princess Collection for stories about princesses, or specific series such as the Oz books or the Lang Fairy Books), or reading difficulty according to the Flesch-Kincaid grade level system.
Writing for Fun
Writing can be a lot of fun, and writing really well requires practice and skill. However, you don’t have to be Shakespeare or Dickens to have fun with writing. Don’t worry about being a great writer, especially if you’re new to it. If you write at all, you’re a writer. The best way to learn is just to keep doing it and see what works and what doesn’t. Think of your craziest ideas and just get them out there! Put them on paper or on your computer
When you’ve written something that you want to share with other people, you could get a free online blog, possibly through WordPress (like my blog) or Blogger (through Gmail). There are also special sites to submit your writing online where it can be read by the public, reviewed, or sometimes, entered in contests.
Fanfiction.net – Exclusively for fan fiction. This means that people write their own stories based on characters and worlds that already exist in books, movies, tv series, and video games. Free to use, but requires you to set up an account.
Fictionpress.net – This is for original fiction, using original characters. Free to use, but requires you to set up an account.
Inkitt – Accepts a wide range of fiction, holds contests, and offers publishing deals for stories that get a lot of positive attention.
Writing When You Don’t Know What to Write About
Don’t worry about coming with a great idea, just start writing about something, anything, and see where it takes you. Good writing is creative and shows a strong voice, so you can start with a very basic topic and just allow your personality or your characters’ personalities to carry it from there.
Fan Fiction
If you don’t want to take the time to build characters or worlds for them right now, you could start by writing some fan fiction, which involves taking characters and situations from already-existing fiction and putting your own twists on them. For example, you could make up a new situation to happen on the Enterprise from Star Trek or a fictional planet for characters from Star Wars to visit. You could write a story that could happen to the characters from Harry Potter that occurs between their established adventures in the books, or you could play “what if” and write about how things could have gone differently if something from the original stories changed. For example, suppose that Harry’s father survived, even though his mother died protecting him? Or vice versa?
Imaginary Vacation
Travel for fun isn’t a particularly good idea right now because of the coronavirus, but I remember reading an article a long time ago about how planning a vacation can be very stress relieving, even if you don’t actually go. (I’d put the link there, but it was so long ago that I can’t remember where it was.) It’s a kind of mental vacation. In a way, I think mental vacations can be even better than actual vacations because you don’t have to worry about staying within your own personal budget, making your travel connections on time, or the availability of tickets and hotel reservation.
Just pick a destination and look up local sites and hotels. Plan an itinerary for yourself, and look up YouTube videos of sites in the area to get an idea of what they actually look like in person. Look up the history of the area for local flavor. You can even plan meals at the best restaurants in the area, whether you could normally afford to eat there or not.
You can expand on your dream vacation by turning it into a story, writing in romance or intrigue, or just file it all away as a vacation you’ll take some day, when you can.
Writing When You’re Just Really Bad at Writing
Don’t let that stop you. When you can’t write well, writing badly, and have fun doing it! As I said, you don’t have to be a great writer, you just need to keep on doing it, and that’s how you get better. Besides, if you think you’re just really awful at writing, have I got a writing contest for you! I just have one question: Can you be really bad at writing on purpose?
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest appeals to me not just because I like writing but because the aim of this contest is to write badly. Specifically, you have to pretend that you are writing the first sentence to a very badly-written book, and the winner is the worst one. There are quite a lot of contenders, which is how they have been able to publish books full of past entries. I covered one of these books on my other book blog. The namesake of the contest is Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, who has sometimes been credited with originating the hackneyed opening line “It was a dark and stormy night …” (although that expression had actually been around before Bulwer-Lytton used it). This line was the inspiration for the contest and is part of the title of each compilation of past entries. Anybody can enter the contest, and you can submit as many horrible opening lines as you want. The only requirement is that your entries have to be one single sentence, but it can be a very long run-on sentence. I entered this contest myself about six times last year but didn’t win, which means that I’m either not bad enough at writing to win or not good enough to make myself sound really horrible on purpose. It’s a toss-up.
For inspiration, you can read past winning entries online. They’re pretty entertaining, and it’s fun to imagine what the rest of those stories would be like.
If All Else Fails
Write about your experiences during the coronavirus, even if it’s just a rant about your worries and the inconveniences of getting groceries and household supplies or staying at home with family members who drive you crazy. You’re living through a major historical event that is affecting the entire world right now. What you have to say about it will be of interest to people later, and if nothing else, getting your thoughts out will do you some good. If you need someone to rant to, go ahead and comment below. I rant regularly when I feel the need, and I don’t mind airing a few rants from others.
Jestress's Forgotten Books and Stories 