Three MedComms Skills to Stuff in Your Brain: Do These
Ahhhhh, January. The month too cold for Santa; not even the waning light from Rudolph’s formerly exalted nose can penetrate the dank, clandestine evenings. The Easter Bunny won’t touch it with a barge-pole. The Tooth Fairy might be about, but it’s less fun collecting teeth at -5. Or is it? [Disclaimer: question added to avoid insulting the Yeti].
Anyway, let’s get on topic. It’s now nearly February, which means my little #MedComms crusade is well on its way to surviving another winter (bringing the grand total of winters survived to 1. Cause for a McFeast? You betcha, Ronald). And since my last post, I’ve got MORE to share. Yawn. OK, OK, I’ll make it brief.
Without further ado more fuss I’ll eschew, I bring you THREE new tidbits that I’m keen to share with you: collect these runes of MedComms might to empower your pen.
1. Have a play with Google Trends
So, there’s hot gossip right now in the MedComms community. No, not legendary Peter’s little shoutout for our recent MED COMMS FLYTING game…
Thank you, Peter Llewellyn, of www.medcommsnetworking.com.
If you don’t already (I’m sure you do), grab his MedComms Networking newsletter! Screenshot is of his January issue. 100% owned by the man himself.
Want to hurl some medical insults my way? Do it here: Med Comms Flyting
No, nor is it the slightly terrifying-in-a-Skynet-from-Terminator-coming-online-kind-of-way rise of AI tools like ChatGPT. It’s the ever-growing importance of arming yourself with SEO basics in medical writing. Because, let’s face it, if our words aren’t internet search literate, nobody’s gonna bother tracking our work down with a cheeky visit to the recycling bin at the Bodleian Libraries. While, of course, our creations don’t always need to be scanned by Optimus Prime, I think it certainly helps to understand why and how things online are accessed.
I’ve done this recently: try out Google Trends (or Semrush if you don’t mind setting up a free trial). Pop in your search terms of interest, and you’ll get a load of information about how often people search for them – along with (rather usefully) related words, searches, and questions that people use when exploring various topics. Writing a blog piece for a client? Prime it (not Optimus this time) for success by packing it full of common search terms related to your topic, and you’ll transform your project into a sweet victory. Sorry. I’ll roll out.
Give it a go here: Google Trends
2. Unleash your inner artist – you ARE creative!
Too many times have I heard my fellow MedComms brothers and sisters worry that they are not creative – or that they are ‘just’ technically minded. Just yesterday I had a lovely chap, with a ferocious intellect and humble manner, tell me he can’t make nice PowerPoint decks.
Here’s the thing. You ARE creative. Because how do you know you’re not, if you haven’t tried creating something outside of what you do normally? And if you’re a medical writer, then by its very definition, you create because you write. You only need pick up Harry Potter (and put it back down – to pick up Lord of the Rings) to know that words create worlds. Perhaps in MedComms, this life-bringing metaphor can be taken a little more literally, because writers (often) ultimately aim to assist healthcare professionals in caring for patients.
So, give it a try! Pop out of your comfort zone and check out these FREE resources to get your paint flowing on the virtual canvas:
Free Photo Editor (A Bit Like Photoshop!)
3. Go down a rabbit hole of obscure scientific literature – like (probably) in your uni days
One of my most recent projects involved complex viral infection mechanisms and structural information on mysterious pathways untouched by the modern world. Well, not quite, but some of these papers were quite old.
It got me thinking. Isn’t ‘older’ scientific literature so much more beautiful? I’d take the musings of the gentleman and gentlewoman ecologist over ultra-processed AI bytes (that have a morbid fear of word counts) any day. Just have a read of some old (and it’s not even that old) Dawkins.
It’s a useful exercise for us writers, because it reminds us that the art of crafting sentences is just that: it’s art. Or, it can be. Weave your narratives with pride, because no other person on Earth could weave them exactly the way you do. I can’t speak for writers from Jupiter, though. They probably could.
Ah, I can’t do it. I’ve lied to you, and I’ll come clean. I didn’t go down rabbit holes of literature in my uni days. I was too busy playing the guitar.
On the subject of 6-stringed distractions, check this out. Lovely.
OK, that’s it, for now.
Thanks for reading! Catch you soon (no, really – who’s that behind you?)…
