Have you found your day job reflected in your fiction? That work that brings in the paycheck--has it changed what you write about?
I'm the New Age massage therapist of the group, and I confess my perceptions of the world have transformed since the long ago days when I bustled down hospital corridors as an R.N.
I'd begun writing in my late nursing days, and I belonged to a writer's group from Community College. I wrote a story called "Going Home" about an elderly woman resuscitated and left to deteriorate on a respirator. The idea of the piece revolved around letting the old people pass on gracefully. Medicine got carried away trying to "save" a soul ready to go home.
When I read the piece to my group, one girl started crying. Her grandmother had just been through such an ordeal. The girl's emotional wounds hadn't healed yet.
Maybe I should have written about something else.
But since I became a massage therapist, my world tilted and a new, inner world emerged. Suddenly, I've become aware of angels, fairies, reincarnated witches, and crystal ball gazing--that's just for starters. My writing reflects these new subjects. I work in my clients' auras, am conscious of energy fields and energy work, do yoga to keep from keeling over, meditate, and know that the universe is a pretty exciting place.
No more sad stories. I promise. The best is yet to come.
4 comments:
I agree with Kristine: making someone cry through your writing isn't the worst thing in the world. I believe good drama helps us feel a wide range of emotions, from funny to sad, scared to thrilled, angry to falling in love.
Do you talk to your clients as you work? Do you talk about the energy fields you're sensing or the spirit guides you communicate with? How do they respond?
Just curious.
Thanks for your comments, Kristine and Tory. No, no mystical talk during massages at the Rivers Club. It's a pretty conservative place, plus most prefer to relax.
Today I finished Elmore Leonard's "Maximum Bob"--typical Leonard, he gives each character, from the cop to criminal, a unique voice, story and POV. One character is Leanne--her husband is Maximum Bob (a judge who tends to hand out "maximum" sentences). Leanne is very much into crystals, past lives (she sometimes speaks in the voice of a young black slave girl who died over 130 years ago), auras and the like. Leanne also plays a surprising, but plausible role, in the book's ending. Anyway, there's a market out there for those kinds of characters. Good luck.
Massage therapy is very interesting work, Cathy. I think that the power of touch is fascinating and we're only beginning to understand how healing it can be.
I look forward to hearing more stories from your world.
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