Behind the Scenes: Writing Inspired by Nursing

Writing Inspired by Nursing: The Lost of Ridgefield

Some stories don’t begin with imagination. They begin with experience. The Lost of Ridgefield was born from a chapter of my life that stayed with me long after it ended—this writing was inspired by nursing.

For eight months, I worked inside a psychiatric facility in Mississippi. It was intense, eye-opening, and, at times, deeply emotional work. I cared for vulnerable populations, including adolescent girls navigating mental health challenges that were often complex, layered, and misunderstood. Those experiences didn’t just shape me as a nurse—they shaped me as a writer. They made me ask questions. They made me look backward. And eventually… they made me write.

Where History Meets Experience

While working in psychiatric care, I became increasingly interested in the history of mental health treatment—especially how it once looked for women. That curiosity led me into the 1800s… and what I found there was unsettling. Women could be institutionalized for reasons that had nothing to do with true mental illness—defiance, independence, grief, even speaking too loudly or challenging authority. In many cases, they had no legal voice, no protection, and no way out.

Psychiatric facilities weren’t always places of healing. Sometimes, they were places of control. That truth became the foundation of The Lost of Ridgefield.

From Reality to Fiction

Katherine Ann Taylor—the protagonist of The Lost of Ridgefield—represents many of the women history tried to silence. Her story is fictional. But the world she lives in is rooted in very real history. As I wrote her journey—being forcibly committed, struggling to maintain her sanity, and fighting for freedom—I found myself drawing from both ends of the timeline:

• The past, where psychiatric care was often misunderstood and misused.

• The present, where I witnessed the humanity, compassion, and progress that now define modern psychiatric nursing.

  
  

That contrast mattered to me. Because while the past holds darkness…the present shows how far we’ve come.

Why This Story Matters

Psychiatric nursing today is built on dignity, advocacy, and patient-centered care. It is not perfect—but it is profoundly different from what existed in the 1800s.

Writing The Lost of Ridgefield was my way of honoring both:

• The patients I cared for, whose strength and vulnerability left a lasting impact.

• The women of the past, who were never given the voice they deserved.

  
  

This story is not just about one woman escaping an asylum.

It’s about reclaiming power. It’s about truth. And it’s about remembering a history we should never repeat.

A Personal Reflection

Nursing gave me more than a career—it gave me perspective. It showed me the resilience of the human mind. It showed me how fragile and strong people can be at the same time. And it gave me stories… the kind that don’t fade.

The Lost of Ridgefield is one of those stories. If you read it, I hope you don’t just see fiction. I hope you feel the history behind it. The humanity within it. And the reason it had to be written.