A fascinating article. I think you're really on to something here.

Like other writers, I expected to be incredibly productive during lockdown, and the reverse turned out to be true (as far as writing fiction was concerned). By contrast, when I had a full time job and had to fight for every minute of fiction writing time, I was incredibly efficient, often finishing first drafts of at least two novels per year.

I believe the reasons I suddenly could not move on to my next novel during lockdown are complicated. Some of them revolve around personal struggles, such as being made redundant, and also that the novel I'd just finished jabbed some major emotional raw nerves. But I believe lockdown and Covid in general had a significant part to play in killing off my ability to write fiction during that time, for the reasons you outline here.