Describe your process for writing
When I started writing Paradise, I had the setting and the characters. These were intimately linked from the onset. I also had a few critical plot points. Having a beginning point and a trajectory without knowing the space in-between was the exciting part; it allowed for the active exploration that makes writing fun.
I began writing in short increments; usually a few paragraphs each night, just to set in the habit of writing. Eventually the story had enough momentum that it didn’t need little pushes; instead I wrote when it was convenient, but for larger periods of time. Paradise also gained more clarity as it moved, so more of my time was devoted to writing instead of thinking. Throughout the process I made sure to honor who my characters were, as well as how they were changing. I made sure to be in each character’s mindset while I wrote: in this way a larger part of the story fell into place by their decisions, and not mine.
In what ways was your writing process different than being in medical school? How was it similar?
This could be a long answer, but here is the simplified version: creative writing requires a synthetic mindset; putting a story together. Medical school requires an analytic mindset; breaking information down in order to understand it.
The main similarity between creative writing and medical school is that they both require commitment and focus.
How is writing fantasy fiction compared to abstracts, research or other medical literature?
I’ll start with a disclosure; I personally don’t have much experience writing abstracts, research, or other medical literature save for my experience in undergraduate science courses. Scientific writing is more analytical, creative writing is more synthetic…and more fun.
Story-telling and the practice of medicine are both healing processes. The healing that comes from stories is communal, spiritual, and psychological. A good story gains the trust of the recipient, and where that trust is, change, growth, and healing can occur in the recipient. Stories have the ability to widen our perspectives, reconnect us with ourselves, and bind us together in communities.
The healing that the majority of western medicine focuses on is very physical. The right alterations in the body via surgery, medications, or stretches and exercises helps to bring the body back from a state of disease to a state of health. Here too, trust is essential for healing to occur; when a patient trusts in the care they are receiving, they are more comfortable communicating what is happening, and more receptive of available interventions.
From both storytelling and the practice of medicine, states of disease and discord can be brought back into harmony, or forward into a new state of health.
Medicine plays a huge role in shaping our stories as it shapes our health. Good medicine is only possible through listening and then participating in the stories of our patients.
A lot of reflection went into the characters. There is an old phrase “Nature vs Nurture” that definitely comes into play here; each character has an intrinsic self that when mixed with the world they encounter, and what they do in that world, combines into something else entirely.
In the novel, Kuthan says to his comrades, “Look for patterns…
I like patterns. Looking for patterns is a way of making sense of things; a world, a school of thought, a group of people, or an individual person. I think recognizing patterns is an intrinsic part of being human; though many of us are drawn to different types of patterns and might not always intellectualize the process.
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