Featured Submission Q&A for August 2013: Life After Grief
Wow, I am absolutely floored and incredibly honored that Life After Grief was voted one of this month’s featured stories. Thank you so much!! By now, most of you know about me and how I got into writing, so let’s get rolling with the questions!
How did you come up with the plot for this story?
This story was originally written for Hawthorn and Vine’s Treasured Tropes fest in September 2012. (Sadly, and despite several very generous extensions, I missed the submission deadline, so this story wasn’t actually part of the fest.) A trope I like and had never written before was Healer/Patient, so I picked up this prompt submitted by Unseen1969: Both Draco and Hermione are Junior Healers, and have a fierce competition going on to see which of them is better than the other. A mysterious, almost-always-fatal ailment has appeared in the wizarding world, and each of them take different approaches to finding a cure. When one of them comes down sick with the very same disease they are trying to cure, it falls to the healthy co-worker to Heal the sick one.
How did it develop?
My usual strategy with prompt-based fests is to find some way to turn the prompt on its head and create something unexpected while still remaining true to the original idea. Not so with this one. I liked the prompt’s direction, and I liked the twist. I feel like it’s one I would’ve thrown in myself, had it not been included!
Ook’s well-developed idea turned into a quickly-developed plot. I knew what I wanted to happen and (mostly) how I wanted it to resolve. What took the most time was my research. I have a pre-med/genetics/microbiology background because of college, have worked in a laboratory for going on five years now, and have always been interested in science. I wanted the disease I created to be as real as possible, to be as frightening to my characters as influenza or smallpox or Ebola is to us. Same thing goes for their efforts to find a cure. I wanted to capture the difficulty of the science they were attempting, the randomness that often accompanies any great medial breakthrough, the utter desperation to succeed, and the heartbreaking consequences of failure.
What is your favorite thing about this story?
I loved having the chance to finally combine my passions: science and Dramione fanfiction. I hadn’t read a lot of Healer/Patient or St Mungo’s-based stories that really dove into how Healing differed from doctoring, what safety protocols might be in place, how incurable infections were handled, etc. I liked adapting the day-to-day, medical-procedural details that are so commonplace to anyone who’s been in a hospital or watched television to the Wizarding world. I feel like my story is unique in this way, and that makes me incredibly happy.
Is there something about it that surprised you?
The emotional reaction to this story has been absolutely staggering. If I ever need to feel better about myself as a writer, all I need to do is revisit some of the truly amazing reviews left by my readers.
Was there a part that was difficult to write? If so, why?
All of Chapter 5. I am not exaggerating when I said this chapter took three complete rewrites. As painful as it was to discard the first few drafts, I am immensely glad I did. Though there were minor issues with voice and plot resolution, my major issue - and the cause of the rewrites - was finding the correct emotional tone.
I performed a lot of research on viruses and vaccines, but I probably did more on grief. I started by browsing psychology sites to learn about the Kubler-Ross “five stages of grief” model, PTSD, and other reactions to loss. That information provided me a good framework, but it was all so clinical and (weirdly, though perhaps understandably) easy to write about. What finally worked, and what I probably should have started with, was drawing from my own experiences with loss. Reflecting on the losses I’ve suffered and my reactions to them helped me to fill in my framework and make Chapter 5 everything I needed it to be.
How did you come up with the title?
Since I relied so heavily on the Kubler-Ross model, I played around with incorporating the “five stages” into my title, but I thought it was too obvious. I thought about referencing the disease’s mode of infection, but I wasn’t crazy about it. Then, I facepalmed.
I usually write with a bit of a soundtrack, and one of the songs I kept playing was Daughtry’s “Life After You” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvm2OYF2p7E). Take a listen after you read. It just works!
What is one thing you want people to take away from this story?
There is no “correct” way to deal with loss. Grief is intensely personal, and coming to terms with living without someone you love is not easy. But you do not have to suffer alone. Family, friends, mentors, teachers, and counselors can help shoulder the burden and facilitate healing. Rely on them; they are there for a reason.
Thank you again for the nomination. Now let loose the flying monkeys! I mean - questions!
(Life After Grief)
How did you come up with the plot for this story?
This story was originally written for Hawthorn and Vine’s Treasured Tropes fest in September 2012. (Sadly, and despite several very generous extensions, I missed the submission deadline, so this story wasn’t actually part of the fest.) A trope I like and had never written before was Healer/Patient, so I picked up this prompt submitted by Unseen1969: Both Draco and Hermione are Junior Healers, and have a fierce competition going on to see which of them is better than the other. A mysterious, almost-always-fatal ailment has appeared in the wizarding world, and each of them take different approaches to finding a cure. When one of them comes down sick with the very same disease they are trying to cure, it falls to the healthy co-worker to Heal the sick one.
How did it develop?
My usual strategy with prompt-based fests is to find some way to turn the prompt on its head and create something unexpected while still remaining true to the original idea. Not so with this one. I liked the prompt’s direction, and I liked the twist. I feel like it’s one I would’ve thrown in myself, had it not been included!
Ook’s well-developed idea turned into a quickly-developed plot. I knew what I wanted to happen and (mostly) how I wanted it to resolve. What took the most time was my research. I have a pre-med/genetics/microbiology background because of college, have worked in a laboratory for going on five years now, and have always been interested in science. I wanted the disease I created to be as real as possible, to be as frightening to my characters as influenza or smallpox or Ebola is to us. Same thing goes for their efforts to find a cure. I wanted to capture the difficulty of the science they were attempting, the randomness that often accompanies any great medial breakthrough, the utter desperation to succeed, and the heartbreaking consequences of failure.
What is your favorite thing about this story?
I loved having the chance to finally combine my passions: science and Dramione fanfiction. I hadn’t read a lot of Healer/Patient or St Mungo’s-based stories that really dove into how Healing differed from doctoring, what safety protocols might be in place, how incurable infections were handled, etc. I liked adapting the day-to-day, medical-procedural details that are so commonplace to anyone who’s been in a hospital or watched television to the Wizarding world. I feel like my story is unique in this way, and that makes me incredibly happy.
Is there something about it that surprised you?
The emotional reaction to this story has been absolutely staggering. If I ever need to feel better about myself as a writer, all I need to do is revisit some of the truly amazing reviews left by my readers.
Was there a part that was difficult to write? If so, why?
All of Chapter 5. I am not exaggerating when I said this chapter took three complete rewrites. As painful as it was to discard the first few drafts, I am immensely glad I did. Though there were minor issues with voice and plot resolution, my major issue - and the cause of the rewrites - was finding the correct emotional tone.
I performed a lot of research on viruses and vaccines, but I probably did more on grief. I started by browsing psychology sites to learn about the Kubler-Ross “five stages of grief” model, PTSD, and other reactions to loss. That information provided me a good framework, but it was all so clinical and (weirdly, though perhaps understandably) easy to write about. What finally worked, and what I probably should have started with, was drawing from my own experiences with loss. Reflecting on the losses I’ve suffered and my reactions to them helped me to fill in my framework and make Chapter 5 everything I needed it to be.
How did you come up with the title?
Since I relied so heavily on the Kubler-Ross model, I played around with incorporating the “five stages” into my title, but I thought it was too obvious. I thought about referencing the disease’s mode of infection, but I wasn’t crazy about it. Then, I facepalmed.
I usually write with a bit of a soundtrack, and one of the songs I kept playing was Daughtry’s “Life After You” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvm2OYF2p7E). Take a listen after you read. It just works!
What is one thing you want people to take away from this story?
There is no “correct” way to deal with loss. Grief is intensely personal, and coming to terms with living without someone you love is not easy. But you do not have to suffer alone. Family, friends, mentors, teachers, and counselors can help shoulder the burden and facilitate healing. Rely on them; they are there for a reason.
Thank you again for the nomination. Now let loose the flying monkeys! I mean - questions!
(Life After Grief)