Natural remedies have been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. When I was growing up, my mother practiced natural cures such as tea bag baths for sunburn, homeopathic remedies for colds and allergies, arnica oil for sprains and bruises and, of course, chicken soup with garlic was always a staple. I’ve used this passion to fuel my journalism, non-fiction, and cozy mysteries too. Today, I’ll show you how I did it and how you can too!
The Path to Finding My Passion
My journey to becoming a published writer/author began after I graduated from Boston University with a degree in communications. But it wasn’t a straight path. I was young, I was unfocused and I tried everything. I had over sixty jobs, including working in advertising, newspapers, radio, and television writing and production in Hollywood. But none of it felt like the right path.
After much soul searching and advice from others, I decided that I wanted to be a magazine writer. The idea of being my own boss was very appealing and I also wanted to help others by providing useful information through the written word.
So, in 1998, I moved from California back to my hometown of Greenport, New York, and started my new career. I knew I wanted to write about health, specifically natural health. Once I focused on what I wanted to do, my passion became clear. Since then, I’ve written articles about natural health for many magazines including Woman’s Day, Natural Health, Better Homes & Gardens, Vegetarian Times, and Remedy.
This led to writing non-fiction books about natural remedies: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Natural Remedies, The Country Almanac of Home Remedies with herbalist Brigitte Mars, and the Beat Sugar Addiction Now! series with Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, a holistic MD.
Writing Cozy Mysteries, Naturally
When it came to fiction, my agent Ann Collette of the Helen Rees Agency in Boston, suggested I use my background in natural remedies to create a cozy mystery. The Natural Remedies mystery series was born and thankfully contracted by Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster in 2011.Writing mysteries is the most fun because I get to create my own unique universe and populate it with interesting and lovable characters. I’ve chosen to make my protagonist a naturopathic doctor named Willow McQuade, ND, who also owns and runs a health food store called Nature’s Way Market & Café in a three-story Victorian in the heart of Greenport. Her boyfriend is a hunky ex-cop named Jackson Spade and she has a rescue dog named Qigong (which is an ancient Chinese practice).To reinforce the natural remedies theme, I decided to feature a natural remedy at the beginning of each chapter and sprinkle them throughout the book. I focus on a different type of natural cure for each mystery. Scent to Kill focuses on aromatherapy, Death Drops focuses on various natural cures, and the book I’m writing now Garden of Death focuses on medicinal plants.
How to Find and Write About Your Unique Passion
Now that you’ve read about what I’ve done, it’s time to think about how you can discover your own passion! Try looking at these categories and see if it sparks an idea you can use:
Your passion might be:
- A famous person: Mystery author Joanna Slan writes the Jane Eyre Chronicles, Susan Wittig Albert writes the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. What famous character or person inspired you? Who do you want to know more about?
- A time period: Do you live for the Victorian era, or anything from the 1700s? The 1800s? 1900s? Now? The future?
- A place: Another one of my driving passions is my hometown, Greenport, New York. This sleepy fishing village is now a thriving tourist destination. What place do you love to visit or dream of visiting? New York, Hawaii, or one of my favorite cities, London?
- A pet: Author Linda O. Johnston writes a cozy series about pet rescue, and I include this theme in all of my books too. Ending pet abuse is one of my passions. Do you love animals? How have they made your life better? How can they inspire your writing more?
- A practice: Tracy Weber, runs her own yoga studio and is now writing mysteries about yoga. Author Rosemary Harris is a master gardener and writes mysteries about gardening. Is there some practice you do that you have a passion for?
- A hobby: On the My Killer Hobbies site, the blogging sisters and I talk about how our hobbies inspired our murder mysteries. Anne Canadeo and Betty Hechtman blog about knitting, while I blog about natural remedies. Think back . . . What were your hobbies when you were growing up? For example, did you enjoy scrapbooking, photography, drawing, or collecting books, stamps, or dolls? What hobby do you enjoy now? Can you see a way to write a story about it?
- An interest: Are you crazy about coffee like Cleo Coyle or nuts about cheese like Avery Aames? What can’t you get enough information about? What kind of magazines do you read? What articles interest you the most?
Let Your Imagination Run Wild!
One of the first steps in finding your passion is to think about these categories.Let them run through your mind when you walk your dog or take a shower or are cooking dinner. Play with them, imagine, and keep the portal open. Write down all of the thoughts and don’t judge them! You are learning about yourself, what interests you, and what you want to pursue and create around.
Once you figure out what your passion is, consider how you might use it in your writing:
- If you want to write a cozy mystery think of a world you could create that features your passion. What might your protagonist do for a living? Where do they live?
- If you want to write a novel, think about how your passion might make your characters more three-dimensional and real.
- If you want to write non-fiction, think about how you might translate your passion into a non-fiction book proposal.
- If you want to write a story about your hobby as a journalist, research publications that might be interested and pitch ideas to editors.
Whatever you do, remember, the most important thing is to relax, open your mind and have fun with the process! Please share what you’ve learned.
If you post a comment here about your passion you’ll be in the drawing for 2 copies of my new book Scent to Kill: A Natural Remedies Mystery!
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About Chrystle Fiedler
This sounds like an awesome thing to do. Unfortunately, I’m not sure what my passion is. Well, I have a few, traveling, writing, reading and listening to music but they’re so broad I’m not sure what to do. I don’t seem to have one passion I know enough about to get me started… It’s a bit depressing, sometimes.
Thanks so much for sharing with us today, Chrystle!
Hi Stephanie – Thanks for stopping by! The key is to keep an open mind. Just asking yourself the questions can lead to some surprising answers!
Thanks for having me KM!
A friend sent me this link on FB. Your passion sounds related to mine, and I’ve done something similar. My novel Raspberries and Vinegar: A Farm Fresh Romance will be out in August, paying homage to my love of farming and local foods. I enjoyed seeing your take on related subjects!
Hi Valerie – Thanks for stopping by! I can’t wait to check out your new book! If you’d like to guest post on my blog at http://www.chrystlefiedler.com please let me know. I know that people would love to hear from you!
First time posting…my choice of writing mostly fanfiction has kept me from saying much until now 🙂 My passion for a person and historical era is Hatshepsut, 18th Dynasty, Egypt, and has been since I was a little girl. I just completed one phase of “barely fanfic” that has the two main characters reincarnated as Hatshepsut and her advisor. Readers have told me it would be worth it to excise the fanfic parts out and re-write it as a stand-alone story, which is tempting, but daunting.
This site has been hugely helpful, by the way. Following suggestions about Pinterest really boosted my descriptions and settings!
This is great advice. It’s something that I have been doing,unintentionally but it’s great to know that tapping into your passion is a way to get started.
I’m a “new” writer and still trying to figure out my true personality and writing self and passions; sometimes I get discouraged because I feel so lost, not knowing what it is I exactly like. This was a great post for getting ideas, and I intend to sit down soon and go through each of these sections and write stuff down. I have a passion for writing fantasy, that I know, but I also want to write some modern-day stuff and I think this would be especially helpful in that area in making the characters more real. Thank you, Chrystle 🙂
Great blog post. Great website! I’ll definitely have to check into some of your virtual pages more closely 🙂 I’m a fitness instructor and author who enjoys learning more about holistic living.
I’m kind of in the same boat as Stephanie. My interests are wide and varied and while I love science fiction, I’d like to write something a bit more terrestrial. This has definitely given me food for thought though. 🙂
Hi Kathryn: Your passions sound fascinating! I urge you to follow your heart with your writing and pursue these interests in your work!
Hi Vanessa – Thanks so much! I’m glad that my post struck a chord. Keep doing what you are doing!
Hi Sarah Ellen – I’m sure you’ll find things that will surprise you and help your writing! Please let me know us know what you find!
Hi Leah – I’m glad that you found my site! I try to cover a wide variety of natural remedies and natural living tips. It makes me feel good to help others. Please stop by again!
Hi Brohne – I hope that my post gets your motor running! Doing the exercises with an open mind can lead you to places you never dreamed of that can energize your writing!
I love this post and the insight of how you, Chrystle, have used your passion in writing. Your points of interest brought several ideas to mind for me. I’m currently writing memoir and have varied passions to explore. I can see a series that addresses each concept in a different story. Great advice. I look forward to reading your books. Write On!
Thanks so much Rhonda! I’m glad to help! It really is pretty amazing how it all worked out.
The other thing I might like to write a cozy about is organic gardening, although I have included gardening or gardens in each book so far. The book I’m working on now Garden of Death: A Natural Remedies Mystery features a new medicinal garden next door to Willow McQuade’s health food store. I’m going to include info about different plants at the beginning of each chapter.
If you like, please visit http://www.chrystlefiedler.com for more tips about natural remedies and writing and to sign up for my newsletter! Thanks all!
Thanks for this helpful post.
Oh gosh, I have too many interests, it’s easier to say what I DON’T like.
But at the top…
-reading (anything and everything)
-learning
-science (particularly nanotech and biology and the future)
-enviromentalism
-superpowers (think DC and Marvel)
-mythology
-Victorian times
-Industrial Era
Wow, I have more interests that run deeper than I thought…
I think I’ll continue the list in my notebook, rather than take up space here. Thanks for all the ideas, and thank you for writing this post! Set me into musing about how to deepen my stories.
What a great post, thank you! Your books sound interesting (and right up my alley–I write mysteries, too!)
I definitely incorporate my interests into my books. Most of my characters are either from Kansas or Kansas City, and depending on the project, the setting could vary from present day, to alternate reality, to future. My favorite set of characters to work with are involved in politics–which has been one of my long-standing passions for more than half my life. 🙂 Bringing it to a more local setting than D.C. is proving to be interesting–at least to me (I’m just fleshing that project out right now!)
Thank you so much for posting this––I’m glad I was able to find your blog, its been helpful. 🙂
I find it impossible not to incorporate who I am, my passions, and my interests into my writing. It just comes naturally. I write what I’d want to read, and I write what I love, so my work is always enjoyable for me.
Though, I’ve always been insecure about writing in a densely overpopulated genre, and am afraid that in spite of writing from my heart, and from what I know, I will still fall short in the long run: being the author of vampire fiction is a tedious business now-a-days.
Happy writing!
Hi Allison! It sounds like you have a great start when it comes to pursuing your passion! If you continue to ask yourself questions you’ll be sure to discover more or zero in on what matters most!
Hi Liberty – what a wonderful name you have! It sounds like your passion for Kansas and Kansas City mirrors mine for my hometown of Greenport. Even though I’ve lived in Boston, NYC and LA, I find my home town best. One of my other favorite places is London. I have visited twice and each time it feels like home! Politics are a great area to focus on in your mysteries too!
Hi Justine – It’s great that you are so focused on what you love and that is what makes your work play. I think there is always a market for good writing so just be concerned with that, and not your genre. I write cozies and there are TONS of those!
Thanks everyone for stopping by!
Chrystle
A wonderful post. Your passions have given you a fulfilling and healthy life. Mine is learning languages and travel, although since my illness last year I haven’t been able to travel but hope to resume soon.
Hi petite – Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are well again very soon!
I’ll announce the winner of the 2 copies of Scent to Kill next week so keep leaving comments!
Passions? Hm…Japan. Anime. Fanfiction. Cosplay, though I haven’t had the chance to do it myself. I like Young Adult and Teen. Of course, I like Supernatural and Fantasy too, but I’m not sure how good I’d be at those.
And military!fantasy. I want to write one but action for me is very difficult. I do want to get better at it.