2018: A Year in Review

Sorry, not sorry, dear readers. This vet blogger has a taste for year-in-review posts this month and shall partake in the reviewery herself. It'll be short and sweet, don't worry.

• Best fiction book read: ooooooh, a tie between Red Clocks by Leni Zumas and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

• Best non-fiction book read: The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston

• Best song: "100 Years" from Florence + the Machine's album High as Hope

• Best quote: nothing new here and not even new to me this year, but felt poignant and relevant:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasm, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and how at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." -- Theodore Roosevelt

• Best writing advice: from John Steinbeck: "Just set one day's work in front of the last day's work. That's the way it comes out. And that's the only way it does."

• Best animal news: Justify winning the 2018 Triple Crown

Becoming a Writer.... via The Beach Boys

One aspect of writing that people, including writers themselves, often don't realize or appreciate is that the art takes time. Sure, there are writers (and journalists of course) who work to a tight deadline, turning out excellent copy like a riverboat chopping at the Mississippi. But many writers, whether fiction or nonfiction, need weeks, months, years (dare I say decades--Donna Tartt, I'm looking at you) to piece together the bits of a puzzle that inevitably will make the final product. 

To that point, on a much smaller scale, I first read about veterinarian-author Dr. Jim Murphy in an article from Veterinary Practice News late last fall. Jim had just published his first book, Becoming the Beach Boys, 1961 - 1963. It wasn't until late spring of this year that I took the opportunity to talk with Jim about his writing and it wasn't until right now that you're seeing the fruition of our conversation. 

So it goes.

On a much grander scale, it took Jim eight years to write this book, which has been described by the author as "...an academic look at the band's origin," including over 80 interviews, twelve appendices, and 1,100 foot notes. 

Aren't you curious how and why Jim did this, while still finding time to practice veterinary medicine in DC? I was. So I asked him.

"I was still practicing part-time," Jim says. "On days off I would try to write as much as I could." On work days, he would write at night. "I had charts on my wall, Post-It notes all over the place--where should I start, where did this person or that person enter the story. You know, writing is really about solving problems. I had three dogs while I was writing the book. Sometimes, before writing, I'd take them for a walk in the park. It was so relaxing and I would think about the problems I was having and more often than not the solution would just come to me."

"I loved it because you learn so much when you write a book, especially that first book." 

Jim was candid about how much time the sometimes-tedious research process took. "Writing non-fiction is a lot of research, involving digging into the Library of Congress, making phone calls, finding people, going through old high school year books," he says. "That part is really time consuming, really taxing. You spend hours and hours and hours which is ultimately productive but can be a drain. You've got to really love that sort of detective work. Then doing the interviews and figuring out what part of it can I use, then writing it up, transcribing--all of that. It's really a different type of writing than fiction."

Dr. Jim Murphy

As Jim continued to write, his draft grew. And grew. Then grew some more. At one point, it clocked in at 180,000 words. "It was crazy," he says. "I had all kinds of side stories. I culled a lot of that stuff, saved it and included it on the website for supplemental reading for diehard fans. But I loved it because you learn so much when you write a book, especially that first book. And I looked at it like, OK, this is cool, I'm learning and I'll forgive myself for making these mistakes. And if I write another one, whether it be fiction or non-fiction, I will have learned a tremendous amount about this process and I won't make these same mistakes again." 

"Life is short, time is finite, you never know how much more time you have so there is nothing, in my opinion, that is more important than doing something that brings you joy."

Dear readers, I cannot fathom working on a single project for eight years. Maybe I have a fear of literary commitment. A copy of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest waits, unread, on my bookshelf. And that's just reading. But when Jim explained his reasoning behind keeping his nose to the grindstone, it made sense. "The thing about The Beach Boys book, in everything that's ever been written about them in dozens and dozens of books over the last 55 years, no one had gotten the origin story correct," he says. "And I felt like, I can do this. I think I can find some of these people. That's what kept me going. There were times when the structure was all messed up and I was moving things around, backing up every night, frantic I was going to lose something because the document was so big and the only thing that really kept me going was: I think I can do this. I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel."


"[Writing is] frustrating, it's difficult, but it's so fulfilling when you get the words right."


At the end of the day, Jim says it comes down to doing what you enjoy. "That's something important in writing," he says. "Life is short, time is finite, you never know how much more time you have so there is nothing, in my opinion that is more important than doing something that brings you joy. When I was writing The Beach Boys book, there was not a day when I could not wait to sit down, turn on the computer, crack my fingers, have a cup of coffee, and tackle it. I was like a kid on Christmas morning. It's frustrating, it's difficult, but it's so fulfilling when you get the words right."

So what's on Jim's to-do list now? Fiction. He's working on a novel. "It's animal related," he says. "It's inspired by the [veterinary] profession. And it's so different. I don't have to interview anybody, and I'm free to create whatever I want to create. What I'm finding now, I kind of like this [fiction writing] because you can be as creative as you want. It's an open world. It's liberating. You can go anywhere with it."

Dear readers, I hope you're going where you want to go in your own reading and writing. Until next time, happy reading, happy writing, happy vetting.  

Medical Writing: The Cool, Smart Practicality of It All

OK, folks. Let me bend your ear (eyes?) a little bit. There are many facets to writing. We all know this, but sometimes forget it as we get sucked into our own projects and read our comfort books on our favorite topics. But I'm not talking genre differences--literary versus sci-fi versus romance (oh, but watch me try my hand at some sci-fi this year! Scary in an out-of-my-element sort of way but SO MUCH FUN!). I'm talking fiction versus non-fiction and then traveling one level deeper to break non-fiction into creative non-fiction, technical writing, medical writing... Wait. Did I say medical writing?

Yes. Yes, I did.

Medical writing is a thing. A hidden-in-plain-sight sort of thing I was only aware of at the very fringes. Medical writing to me used to be like a shadow that catches at the corner of your eye--you're not really sure what it is but you're vaguely aware of it.

Recently I talked to Laurie Anne Walden, DVM. Laurie Anne just so happens to be both a veterinarian and a medical writer and she enlightened me on this fascinating writing niche, which I'm thrilled to share with you all now. Ready? Let's meet Laurie Anne.

First things first. Laurie Anne opened her medical writing business, Walden Medical Writing, LLC, in 2014. Her journey to her present professional place has not been the typical path medical writers follow. But, as each of our own lives leads a tortuous path and one never knows where she is going to pop out of the woods, Laurie Anne is taking it all in stride. She went from vet school to internship to private practice for more than ten years before she made the gradual shift to writing.

Here's how she explains her beginnings: "I blame it all on the kids." (I suspected I was going to like Laurie Anne before I talked to her and this confirmed it.)

Seriously, Laurie Anne was a full time small animal vet until deciding to go part time when she had her first child. She continued part time after having her second child, but as the kids got older and went to elementary school, Laurie Anne started thinking. "I enjoyed being in charge of my own schedule," she says. "I wondered what I could do at home as a vet."

"I love editing. It's not about being critical. It's about helping people be clearer with their writing."

Some exploration online and contact with a colleague piqued Laurie Anne's interest along the lines of technical writing. "I had always liked writing and reading," she says. "So, the more I looked, I found out that medical writing was actually a thing."

Laurie Anne got her start editing research articles written by non-native English speakers. She says this experience was interesting and positive, though not a sole way to make a living. "I had so much fun doing that," she says.

With the pay for that sort of editing being quite low, Laurie Anne considered it as sort of her "internship" into medical writing. "It was a way of starting to get home-based employment in the field," she says. She spent a little more than a year editing in this way and loved it. "To me, I love editing," she says. "It's so much fun. It's not about being critical. It's about helping people be clearer with their writing. It's like being a hairdresser to their writing. Especially when their first language isn't even English. I think the fact that they're even trying is great."

After dipping her toes in the self-employed editing world, Laurie Anne got serious. She joined the American Medical Writers Association and then passed a certification exam. She's now on the Board of Editors of Life Sciences. "You don't have to have any qualification to say you're an editor," she cautions. "Just go online and announce you're an editor and there you go. I decided a certification would be at least something I could show people." After earning her editing certification and a writing certification from the AMWA, Laurie Anne says she feels better about her editing credentials.

Currently, Laurie Anne has shifted to writing more copy. While she still does editing (because she loves it so!), she primarily is now a medical writer. Laurie Anne is an interesting example of a freelance medical writer who--important point here--still practices part time. "Most people who do medical writing either work for drug companies or for medical publication firms," she says. "So starting as a freelancer is not the way I'd recommend doing it. I never wanted to quit practice so working full time at a company was not an option for me."

"Actually, veterinary training prepares you really well for being a medical writer. You understand the language of medicine."

Opportunities for freelance medical writers can vary widely. Currently, Laurie Anne has a bulk of work writing articles that summarize recent research in the scientific literature. "I'm summarizing what's relevant in these articles and what will make veterinarians' lives easier," she explains. She says this work has been interesting and challenging. "Some of the research articles I have to summarize are not in the areas I have any expertise in, so it's great that I have this opportunity to learn about new stuff," she says. And then Laurie Anne taps into one of every clinician's fears: hard core radiology. "I have had to edit some radiology documents that were basically all physics," she says. "Oh god." I feel your pain, Laurie Anne. I feel your pain.

Radiation physics??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

She's also recently written various client education articles, which she enjoys, as it's a marriage of her clinical and writing skills. "Actually, veterinary training prepares you really well for being a medical writer because you understand the language of medicine and understand where it all comes from," she says.

Laurie Anne stressed that her path isn't likely the most usual path for those interested in pursuing a career in medical writing and encourages folks who might be interested in medical writing to do their research first. The American Medical Writers Association is a great place to start and has lots of resources.

Until next month, happy reading, happy writing, happy vetting!