Normally, reading
But then her husband died, and soon after that her mother died. Chopin was depressed. Her family doctor thought she was a very good letter-writer, so he encouraged her to try writing fiction as a way to stay occupied. (from Writer's Almanac 2/8/2021)
would not have meant much to me but during the virus lockdown, I certainly noticed the language and the idea.
Just as knitting or painting or woodworking can serve to engage the mind and modify the mood, so can writing.
I have read many stories so I might be able to create a good romance or murder case in my mind. I took a writing course as a sophomore and found the burden of deciding how to endanger a perfectly innocent hero and then credibly guide him back out of danger too heavy. I even had trouble deciding whether he carried a 45 caliber gun or a good hunting knife. Ever since that course and my difficulties, I shied away from writing any fiction.
But if I get put into solitary, I might try creating a really good story featuring a likeable hero and his struggle with something or other. It might be crashing in the desert or the jungle or the steppes and trying to survive while getting out of the bad situation. I wouldn't much care, I don't expect, if the writing added up to a lovely book, one that was well-received. I would just be using my brain to keep myself occupied. I realize I might have trouble getting pen and paper or some other writing materials.
A Hungarian woman, known in the West as "Edith Bone" was kept in solitary for seven years by the government. She wrote a book called "Seven Years in Solitary" about her work to stay occupied and engaged. There are references to the book in many places on the internet but copies of it are very scarce. I met the book as a library page but in my high school days.
Whether the situation is being alone in some isolated place (such as your house during pandemic) or being incarcerated in solitary confinement, the activity of keeping the mind engaged is important.
