How Writing Fiction about Love and Healing Embraced Me in The Warmest Hug and Forever Changed me as a Writer

January 25, 2021 | By Patricia Leavy | Reply More

When I was ten years old, I first thought in a serious way that I wanted to be a writer. I tried writing a novel at the time—an epic love story between wounded people who help each other heal. Because I was ten, it didn’t pan out. Eventually, I became a full-time writer, but other subjects captured my attention, and any aspirations to write about love and healing had long been abandoned.

Then one day my novel Shooting Stars came to me in a burst, entirely different than any of my previous books. Usually, I stew on the idea for a while and then spend a year or two drafting. Shooting Stars came to me quickly and I wrote the entire first draft in about ten days. I barely slept, I didn’t respond to emails, and if anyone spoke to me,

I’m sure I didn’t hear a word they said. I was completely immersed, more so than with anything before. I spent every moment, day and night, mentally in this story-world. It was completely immersive and wholly engaging. It was an emotional, cathartic experience. While the characters are fictional, I drew on personal experiences and deep wells of feelings. It was the best writing experience of my life.

The writing process itself was also completely different this time around. Typically, I write an outline and proceed in chronological order. This one I viewed as scenes and that’s how I wrote it, completely out of order. In fact, the last chapter in the book is the first one I wrote, then I skipped around to the middle, and the first chapter was the last chapter I wrote. I also didn’t draw on some of the literary devices I’ve used in the past.

There’s no interior monologue nor are there any flashbacks. I wanted readers to experience these characters as they experience each other, together and in real-time through their interactions and dialogue. Most of my novels also follow a three-part structure, but this one doesn’t. The structure of this novel is completely organic. The process was deeply rooted in discovery. This creative process was also so profoundly joyful, it forever changed how I write (I’ve continued writing novels in the same manner).

Shooting Stars opens as Tess Lee and Jack Miller meet one night in a bar. Tess is a world-famous novelist who has inspired people around the globe, but despite her extraordinary success, she’s haunted by the abuse she suffered as a child and she’s been unable to find personal happiness.

Jack is a federal agent working in counterterrorism. After decades fighting the worst of humanity, a residue remains. He’s also haunted by the death of his daughter, the result of a one-night-stand, and whom he only learned about when she was dying of leukemia. These are two people who have done so much to help others out of the darkness and into the light, and yet, they’ve both lived with great loneliness. The night they meet, their connection is palpable. Back at Jack’s apartment, Tess sees the scars on his body and says, “I’ve never met anyone whose outsides match my insides.” They fall completely in love.

There’s a saying that ‘hurt people hurt people’ but sometimes that’s not the case. Sometimes people in pain are able to love others in extraordinary ways, and they only hurt themselves, until the unconditional love of those who truly see them, allows them to move through their pain. The love between Tess and Jack is beautiful, pure, and unconditional. They see each other. They treat one another with grace, showing how we do love, day-to-day; showing us all what love looks like in action.

I absolutely love these characters, not only Tess and Jack, but all their friends. When I finished Shooting Stars, I knew there were more stories to tell and I hoped readers would enjoy following their journey as much as I love writing about them. I realized that I’m using these characters to write a love letter to love, one that will unfold over at least five books. Shooting Stars explored love and healing. It also had a theme of darkness and light.

I’ve just released the second novel, Twinkle, which explores love and doubt, and investigates the relationship of the small part to the greater whole. It’s a deeply human experience for people to think, on some level, that they aren’t enough. This belief causes so much pain and an inability to truly give ourselves to others and accept love in return. Tess, Jack, and their friends use love to confront this innately human fear and help one another learn to more fully love themselves and those around them.

Even though it’s a serial, it was important to me to write each as a stand-alone so that readers can pick up any of them, if they choose. Of course, if you follow all the books, you pick up extra things that add to the story, but each one can be read as a contained novel.

I realize now that I wrote these characters and their unfolding story because it’s what I wanted or even needed to read. I had some questions to answer, like: What happens when people truly see each other? What might unconditional love look and feel like? Can unconditional love change the way we see ourselves? What does trauma-recovery look like when we become truly close to others? How does loving others help us heal?

Through Tess, Jack, and all their beloved friends, I’ve been able to explore these questions and in doing so, I have felt so much of the love that these characters feel for one another. I’ve laughed and cried with them, and in the process, they’ve embraced me in the warmest of hugs, something I realize we all need. I hope they do the same for others.

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Twinkle on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Twinkle-Social-Fictions-Patricia-Leavy/dp/9004447067/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=patricia+leavy&qid=1606837805&s=books&sr=1-5

Twinkle from the Publisher (Brill): https://brill.com/view/title/59481

Shooting Stars on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/900443934X/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Shooting Stars from the Publisher (Brill):

https://brill.com/view/title/58920?rskey=qQCIqu&result=1

About Patricia

Patricia Leavy, Ph.D., is a bestselling author. She has published over thirty books, earning commercial and critical success in both fiction and nonfiction, and her work has been translated into many languages. She is also series creator and editor for ten book series with Oxford University Press, Guilford Press, and Brill/Sense, including the ground-breaking Social Fictions series. Patricia has received dozens of accolades for her books. Recently, her novel Film won the 2020 American Fiction Award for Inspirational Fiction, her 3-novel set Candy Floss Collection won the 2020 American Fiction Award for Anthologies, and her novel Spark won the 2019 American Fiction Award for Inspirational Fiction and the 2019 Living Now Book Award for Adventure Fiction. She has also received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2016 Mogul, a global women’s empowerment network, named her an “Influencer.” In 2018, she was honored by the National Women’s Hall of Fame and SUNY-New Paltz established the “Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice.”

Website: www.patricialeavy.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WomenWhoWrite/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patricialeavy

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