Jodi Meadows lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a cat, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. Her first published novel, INCARNATE, is the first in a trilogy about a girl who is the first new soul born in a society where everyone else has been reincarnated many times before. Here Jodi talks about how the themes of her genre-crossing fantasy novel are actually very relevant to real life.
In INCARNATE, Ana faces a lot of feelings of inadequacy, and needing to catch up to everyone else. She especially feels pressure to do well in music, because that's the thing she cares about most.
Ana lives in a world where everyone is perpetually reincarnated, so no matter how young or old they look, they actually have thousands of years of experience with their jobs, passions, and life. They've all done this before. They know what's going on.
In fact, two of the most powerful leaders in Heart are fifteen-year-old boys. One of the best medics is a nine-year-old girl. The most celebrated musician is a boy who appears to be Ana's age.
Everyone has a skill, a calling. Everyone has something that makes them important to society, and they've all been fulfilling these roles for ages.
Ana is a newsoul. This is her first (maybe only) life. She's still trying to figure out what she wants to do, who she wants to become. But no matter what she does, she feels left behind and inadequate.
She taught herself how to read, but other people worked all that out long ago. She figured out easier ways to do her chores, only to discover someone else already figured that out and had not told her. She's passionate about music, but it seems everyone else is better at it than she is.
In spite of all the amazing things Ana accomplishes, she still feels like she'll never be good enough. She constantly compares herself to everyone else, even when it's obviously not a fair comparison. And during one particularly difficult music lesson, she despairs because of her need to be a better pianist.
"Music is the only thing that ever mattered to me," I whispered to the ringing silence. "Every time I hurt, I had one place to turn. I need to be good at it." (INCARNATE - page 226)
These feelings are universal, especially when it comes to things we love, like music or dance or sports.
While it's easy to let the sense of inadequacy get us down, it's more important to remember why we do the things we love: because they're important to us, and because we want to improve. It's important to understand that it's not the end of the world if we're not immediately perfect at something. Everyone --- no matter how perfect they appear --- can improve somewhere. In fact, they're probably struggling just as much somewhere else in their life.
Rather than compare yourself to others, discover what you do well. Discover what new element you can bring to your activity.
And most of all, it's important to enjoy yourself. No matter how adept you become, there will always be someone who appears to succeed without struggling. There will always be someone to compare yourself to, but that will only hold you back.
