After years of talking about it, I am going to use my time in the current lockdown, to finally write a novel. I have only ever written short pieces before but have planned this book out – it is a contemporary family drama, with ups and downs in romance and I hope, both laughter and tears – and I feel confident about it and am keen to get going. I have just one question. Should I include the coronavirus as it is set in the present? Would readers think it weird that it wasn’t mentioned – as it is such a major world crisis – or do you think that when this is all over people will just want to forget about it and read cheery fiction, so that any mention will be a downer? The story is ultimately meant to be uplifting.