6 – Three Ways Writers Can Act Like Grownups During the Pandemic

Posted March 23, 2020 | Laura Christianson
The Professional Writer podcast with Laura Christianson | BloggingBistro.com
The Professional Writer
6 - Three Ways Writers Can Act Like Grownups During the Pandemic
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Note: Click the SECOND player to listen (the top player is defunct).

With the worldwide focus on COVID-19, it’s important that those of us who own writing-related businesses act like grownups during the pandemic.

Frankly, a lot of people are not acting like adults.

But we can fix that. In this special edition of The Professional Writer podcast, I’ll show you how to:

  1. Correctly refer to COVID-19 in written communications (check out the Word Nerd Moment below)
  2. Quell the panic – both internal panic and the anxiety of others
  3. Evaluate your business plan

Warning: You may get offended by what I have to say about evaluating your business plan. But I have a valid reason for dispensing this advice from atop my soapbox.

Three questions you can ask yourself as you evaluate your business plan:

  1. What obstacles am I facing during the COVID-19 pandemic?
  2. What obstacles do I anticipate facing in the coming weeks and months?
  3. What strategies can I put in place to counter those obstacles, improve my processes, and strengthen my writing-related business?

Word Nerd Moment

The correct use of COVID-19

As writers, we bear a responsibility for correctly using the name of the disease in our written and oral communications. This information will help you do that.

The official name of the disease, COVID-19, was coined Feb 11, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO).

COVID-19 is a highly infectious respiratory disease caused by a new or novel (meaning new) coronavirus. The disease was discovered in China in December 2019. There are many types of human coronaviruses.

The acronym COVID-19 refers to:

CO = corona

VI = virus

D = disease

19 = the year the virus was discovered in China

When you write about this particular virus, refer to it as COVID-19.

It is also commonly referred to as coronavirus disease. Note that there is no capitalization or hyphenation – coronavirus is all one word, lowercase. Disease is another word, also lowercase.

Epidemic vs pandemic

The difference is in the scale of the biological outbreak.

  • An epidemic disease occurs at the level of a region or community.
  • A pandemic is an epidemic that has spread over a large area. The word pandemic is usually reserved for diseases that have spread across continents or the entire world.

Word origins:

The -demic part of epidemic and pandemic comes from the Greek dêmos, “people of a district.” This root also ultimately gives English the word democracy.

The prefix epi– is Greek and means on, upon, near, or at

The Greek prefix –pan means all.

Resources Mentioned