A Writer’s Guide to the 10 Things that will tell you when the Second Great Depression Has Officially Begun

1. You notice that people are selling onesies on street corners, like pencils, apples, and sheets from yellow pads.

2. You’ve had a request from a long-lost college friend to move in with you, temporarily.

3. You’ve asked an old friend if you could move in with them, temporarily.

4. Skirts and sentences are getting shorter, one to save on material, the other for the same reason.

5. You are awakened by a rooster in your neighbor’s yard.

6. The people in Dorothea Lange photos begin to look familiar.

7. You see a government ad in the NY Review of Books seeking authors to complete the history of their state, 1937 to the present.

8. You suddenly understand why Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich was a bestseller in 1937. You wonder how much of it is in the public domain and could be adapted to the current situation.

9. The editor on your novel suggests cutting out a couple of secondary characters to save on paper.

10. You start making your own bottled water.