Writing Meditations: the Healer

The name of this post is also the name of the book I am currently working on. I have been working on it for about two years now, with not a lot of focus in the past. When I first started, that year, I wrote probably 10,000 words. Now I've written some 80,000 words, with the majority of that being written in the last five months. It's been a really cool and taxing journey. Which completely goes against what I initially planned.

When I first started conceiving of the idea for this book it was the new year of 2018, in January, and I was setting goals. One of those goals was to write something, anything, but I didn't want it to be hard or complex. I wanted to allow myself to draw upon the copious amounts of experience with other fantasy novels through out my life, and not worry about tropes. I'd write the most trope heavy book if it led to me finishing the darn book. I had one gimmick that I wanted to play with. I wanted the main protagonist to be a support person. I thought about how most books feature some man or woman with incredible powers for fighting and killing. The blast them or slice'em type.

As some one who loves playing support in video games, and who's favorite episode of Band of Brothers was the one featuring the medic, I thought it would be fun to feature a Healer. In the magical sense. I thought, that's simple and straightforward enough, now where do I want to put this person. Well, then I thought in a place that is suffering from some plague of course. What better enemy for the healer than a sickness or curse. Mind you, this was two years ago, before a pandemic had slapped the world across the face. I'm killing myself that this book isn't already out there ready for marketing, as I see post after post of people watching Contagion on various social media platforms.

I thought I'd landed on a story that would basically write itself, it would be short, and I'd have my first endeavor under way in no time. I had no goals or thoughts of publishing, and didn't think this could ever become anything more than just a hobby. Then I made a huge mistake. I like to outline, so I got started on outlining this book and a thought came to me. What if this story featured mental health fairly heavily? What if that was one of my plot lines? I started giving the characters some potentially mental health issues that would be a major part of their arc. In the outline, it looked just as straightforward as the tropes I'd included.

I was so wrong. I was wrong because duh! Of course, dealing with one of the most complicated issues of our time and through out humanity. Us with our damn Homo sapien brains, so similar to other mammalian brains and yet seemingly far more complex. That prefrontal cortex that provides us with the superior tools which got us to the commanding lead we are in as a species. And yet those very same tools want revenge on us for some reason. Even worse for me, when you make them a featured character in your book, without the necessary skill to attend to them, well they run hogwild.

The book became so much more personal, and difficult to write. I was and am still excited about the book, and I actually think it's so much better than I ever thought it would be. But it doesn't change the fact that I totally played myself.

I wanted to share that because while it's been two years and going, it was my first real experience with writing a book. My desires and goals have evolved since that time when I first made this my new years resolution, and it has seen me through a lot of interesting growth. That's what these meditations will mostly be about. Perhaps they will meander a bit, as I talk about one topic and go to another, but in the end it will be focused on my journey as a new writer, trying to gain the skills and confidence to be a great writer.

I hope others find it as inspiring as I have found reading others stories to be.