Much like a Legendary Character in a story, without the adversity caused by misfortune, we have no reason to grow or change.
It was probably the worst week of my life, Story Quester.
Just a simple mistake.
One of my fellow dance classmates stepped backward out of our final formation and put her heel squarely onto my foot with all her weight. It hurt a lot, but I thought it would get better.
Long story short, it didn’t.
Just a little bump on the road.
My husband wasn’t even going that fast. But my car was already 14 years old and had seen better days.
Yep, totaled. Goodbye, Seraphina, I hope it’s nice in car heaven.
Just a little email from the publisher.
My novel had just come out 3 months earlier what could be—?
They were shutting down the whole imprint and my book would be out of print 5 months after it released. Fantastic. It had taken longer than that to write it.
And things had only gotten worse from there.
But that’s how it is at the beginning of any story, right? The Legendary Character is slapped with the major problem stick and they either break or they move forward in a new direction.
And it had been the same for me. That broken foot changed my whole life and 11 months later, I was diagnosed with not 1 but 2 rare chronic illnesses. But by then, I’d already started on a new journey.
So why bring this up now?
Because today is Rare Diseases Day. Yep, they picked the rarest day of the year. And on days like today, we inevitably think about how things like illness and injury ruin our lives and destroy our dreams.
But what if misfortune actually brings us more in alignment with them? I mean, it does for the characters in our stories so why couldn’t the same be true for us?
Want a concrete example of what I’m talking about?
Alright, here we go, Story Quester. Had none of the misfortunes above happened. Had my foot not been broken, had they not discovered I have 2 rare chronic illnesses, had my car not been totaled, and had my publisher not disbanded the imprint that published one of my novels then this book Predestined would not exist.
plush zebra for Rare Disease Day in Atypical Trigeminal Neuralgia stripe color + Predestined by Kat Vancil
Yes, you read that correctly. My first Boys Love novel Predestined that released last fall would not now exist if none of those things had happened to me.
But it’s more than that. Because if none of these things had happened, I wouldn’t have had a reason to change at all.
I wouldn’t have developed the journaling and notetaking method I’ve used since 2018 or the new way I construct stories. I wouldn’t have learned Procreate or Vellum. But most importantly, I wouldn’t have found my true calling in storytelling—writing Boys Love.
I’m completely serious. Right now I would still be struggling to understand why I was dissatisfied with the stories I was writing without any way to find the answers.
Because much like a Legendary Character in a story, without the adversity caused by misfortune, we have no reason to grow or change.
So, Story Quester, is this the moment you choose to become the Legendary Character of your own story?
Until next week, this is your friendly neighborhood storytelling Kat signing off.
