But some people are using these stay-at-home orders to do something they wouldn’t usually have time to do: write a novel. While there will likely be stories written about the pandemic in the future, some Twitter users are getting a head start by sharing the first sentences of their would-be novel written about the outbreak.
Bill Grueskin, journalist and professor, is responsible for the prompt, as he asked his Twitter followers: “What’s the first sentence of the best novel that will be written about this epidemic?”
Grueskin started the thread with his own entry, as he wrote: “‘It is a wondrous and joyous thing, this voyage that lies ahead for us,’ Fred said to his wife as they boarded the Diamond Princess for the dream vacation that cost him most of his 401K.”
Grueskin’s opening sentence refers to the Diamond Princess cruise ship, on which 712 passengers contracted the coronavirus. The cruise ship, which was carrying 2,666 guests and 1,045 staff, was quarantined at a Japanese port for nearly a month.
While many Twitter users responded with poignant, emotional, and some political posts, others opted for funny, light-hearted opening sentences.
Journalist Lauren Kirchner wrote: “‘I swear,’ she said, muting the TV, ‘if I die alone in the goddamn Javits Center, I’m never gonna rest, I’m haunting this city for all of eternity.’’
Kirchner was joking about how the Javits Center, a convention center in Manhattan, has been converted into a temporary hospital, as New York has more than 76,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
George Conway wrote: “The president was on the television screen, explaining how to spell COVID-19. ‘You know what that is? Right. Become a very famous term. C-O-V-I-D. COVID.’
“It was at precisely that moment that I began to sneeze.”
Conway quotes President Donald Trump, who during a press briefing on April 2, decided to spell out the word COVID-19 and declared it a famous term.
Norman Ornstein played on the opening line of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities and took a dig at President Trump and said: “It was the worst of times, it was the worst of presidents.”
Finally, Alex Leo wrote: “Her test results came on the day of her funeral. It was a bleak affair even as funerals go with the priest acting as the only speaker and AV specialist in charge of Zoom-grieving. As he welcomed her relatives, he wondered how many of them were actually wearing pants.”
Leo’s opening sentences play on the idea that as many people are now staying at home, they are using video chatting services like Zoom, for hangouts, work meetings, and potentially—and unfortunately—funerals.
