From Nonfiction Health Resources to...Fiction?

I write both nonfiction and fiction, and have found that each can have a role in offering support to readers. Here’s an example of how both nonfiction and fiction centered on the same topic can be useful.

I wrote a nonfiction book The Parents Guide to Hip Dysplasia, and I also volunteer for the International Hip Dysplasia Institute (IHDI).  

Hip dysplasia is a condition in which the ball at the top of the thigh bone is not in the correct position inside the hip joint. I have hip dysplasia, which is how I became interested in this topic.

Full disclosure, I’m on the IHDI Advisory Board. I don’t get paid to be on the board, but the IHDI did fly me out to Orlando, Florida once so that I could meet members of the Medical Board and learn more about the organization. In a few instances they have hired me to write specific topics for their website, but mostly I volunteer.

Between my book and my volunteer work with the IHDI, I correspond with lots of people about hip dysplasia. I’ve chatted with parents of children in treatment, with adults who have hip dysplasia, and even with some teenagers.

When Fiction Is Easier to Follow

Here’s where the role of fiction comes in. Teens who need treatment for hip dysplasia go through major hip surgery. They’re old enough to understand a lot, but not many want to read a nonfiction book about hip dysplasia.

I got to wondering, what would be the best way to offer teens support—to help them get through this surgery?

I gave it some thought and came up with the idea of a young adult novel about a teen who loves to dance and undergoes hip surgery. I wanted to write a book that would appeal to teens in general, but also offer extra support to teens who have hip dysplasia. The novel would be based on the emotional journey that real teens experience, and the medical details would all be fact-based.

I floated the idea to my online teen friends, and was met with a resounding “yes, please write the novel,” type of response. (In one sense, the previous sentence is fiction because they didn’t use those exact words, but it’s also true that they loved the idea of this book.)

Why Not Give It a Try?

Figuring nothing ventured, nothing gained, I decided to go ahead and write a novel —in my spare time, mainly on evenings and weekends, working around my technical writing contract work. I didn’t know if I could do it or not. I’d written short stories before, and some had been published, but I’d never written a novel.

Well, I did make it to the end of my novel last November. Since then I’ve gone through it several times, making revisions. The working title is Dance, Interrupted.

I’m not sure of the timing because of my other writing commitments, but I hope to start the process of finding a literary agent this year. The publisher that handles my other books does not publish fiction, so this is uncharted territory for me. I’ll let you know how things go in future posts.