on Fiction University:

It has been a wild year. 2020 has impacted the quantity, consistency, and flow of my writing. Productivity has been a challenge because my concentration has been nebulous, jittery.

Unsurprisingly, many other writers and content creators are reporting similar challenges—and as a result I’ve seen multiple articles offering solutions to these issues: ‘How To Stay focused During COVID’, ‘How To Muscle Through the Multitude of World Events And Keep Creating Content’, ‘How To Crank Out a Bestseller In the Midst Of Global Meltdowns, etc.

While all of these columns are certainly helpful, today I’d like to offer a bit of insight as to why it’s difficult to concentrate in the first place. As in—what is going on, literally, in the brain that has upended our ability to focus.