Foodmoon
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Healers in Fiction
I'm curious.
How do you do healers in fiction?
Do you call them healers, or doctors, or something else?
Do you do them all sweet and light?
Or are they all gruff and tough?
Do you have certain creeda they follow?
Are they respected or despised?
Do you do all your healers in all your stories the same?
Or do you vary them from world to world as it suits you, like I do?
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SianaBlackwood
JulNo Writer
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JulNoWriMo Title: The Silver Cliffs
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Wow, so many questions...
Yes.
Sometimes, but not very often.
Sometimes. Usually somewhere between sweet and tough...
Aside from a certain ruthlessness in their bedside manner, not really.
Usually they're just like ordinary people.
No.
Er... obviously, yes.
To elaborate a little, whenever I have magic involved in a story healing is something that all magic users can do to a greater or lesser extent. It's
usually associated with the nature of the magic, so for every story I've written that has magic there are variations. The question about the creed
makes me realise that one thing I've never actually had is a group of people who are entirely dedicated to healing. Maybe that will creep into AugNo
now.
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Foodmoon
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Thanks for answering.
Actually, <laugh>, I didn't really mean for every one of those questions to be answered, it was more a guideline to what I was asking overall.
Thanks for elaborating. I think that's a wonderful idea to be able to have everybody able to use healing magic. <Files away theory for later
contemplation.> I tend to write healers in as an organization, if I write them in at all, come to think of it. (Though I did write one where the
healers were not really an organization, and though respected, were also feared and often avoided, because they are all more or less creepy egoists
who tend to conduct experiments on people solely out of their own interest and are generally very self-centered.)
I'd be interested to know if it really does creep into your AugNo. I think its great how writers can influence each other's writing just by
exchanging ideas and views.
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EilonwyG
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In my story, I have a healer and that is what she is often referred to as - Healer. Occasionally medicine woman or herbalist. She has very very
limited healing magic so mostly she uses herbal remedies. She's somewhere between gruff and soft and is a bit of a gossip, although I doubt she'd
admit that (not exactly doing the doctor/patient confidenciality thing). Not all healers are like her, though. There are more powerful healers as
well, and there is one spoken of in my story that can even heal a woman's inability to have children. This man was referred to as a miracle worker.
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Nightsong
Experienced JulNo'er
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Healers are pretty common in my writing, of some variety or another. They're almost always different, but just about all of my novels have some form
of healer, generally because I use them to cheat.
Because I write fantasy, if I were true to medieval medicine than any war or battle would become near impossible to write accurately, since if my hero
got the lightest cut he'd be out for weeks from infection, or something similar (not even being accurate in my explanations, peh). So I use healers
as a way to keep the story moving, and to keep necessary characters alive but still IN active conflict.
They're not always organized (though sometimes...) and while they are generally respected, at least one healer character gets ostracized as a "witch".
The community keeps her close, because they know half of them would be dead without her, but they don't... Well, I was going to say they don't like
her, but that's not true. They don't trust her, I guess? Admittedly, they have reason for that, but most of the town doesn't actually
remember the reason.
JulNo '12 - Synth Spells
I'm great at managing my time, I just don't have enough of it.
-Anwyn
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Foodmoon
Experienced JulNo'er
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Wonderful! Thank you for your answers.
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sarahlea
JulNo Member
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JulNoWriMo Title: Tangled Origins
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I'm working on my first "real" novel, so don't have too much experience before this. But I'll answer your questions based on the current novel.
How do you do healers in fiction? The MC is the combination of two ancient groups of people. One group has more psychic kinds of
abilities (visions) and the other group can heal. So she can do all of it. The healing is more of an energy healing kind of thing, loosely based off
of the energy healings that are currently out there. It's not magic...but more a gift that most people have forgotten or have lost the ability to do.
Do you call them healers, or doctors, or something else? Healers, but many of them become doctors or something in the healthcare
field. My story is mainly set in present day, so they basically take their special abilities and use them in the best way possible for the current
times.
Do you do them all sweet and light? No...
Or are they all gruff and tough? ...and no. The MC is fairly
kind, but she has a nasty temper. Overall the Healers tend to be warmer than the other group, but each person isn't the same. Some are sweet, some are
tough, some are downright mean but justify it with their own reasons.
Do you have certain creeda they follow? Kind of...there's a Council that is supposed to oversee both groups, so they sort of have to
follow the rules set forth. Main rules are that they are careful who they disclose their abilities too, and that the two groups are supposed to stay
apart (or else people like my MC could result, and they don't like that).
Are they respected or despised? Sort of both. Throughout history they've been both, but mainly feared. Even while respected they're
feared a bit. That's why they keep their abilities mostly secret. Other people don't understand and fear them, so they often want to control them.
Do you do all your healers in all your stories the same? Like I said, this is my first novel. But I'm thinking this is the first in a
series. So the healers will be all the same if I continue the series. If I don't, then we'll see.
βAn artist is someone who can hold two opposing viewpoints and still remain fully
functional.β β F. Scott Fitzgerald
JulNoWriMo '11
My first WriMo!
Lineage (in editing stages) - ended up about 92K words
JulNoWriMo '12
Tangled Origins - book 2 in the series
5,320 words
Also working on:
Fading Violet - book 4 in series
2,379 words
Untitled - historical romance story
2,560 words
Total of 10,108 words in July so far... |
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