Resources: Some Places to Start

Happy Saturday, all you writers and anyone else who may be reading this!

Here's hoping you've all had a great Saturday evening. I've been looking at apartments in New York City all week and am just happy to be home! BTW, if anyone knows of a nice place in NYC, west side, not too expensive, view out the windows of something other than a brick wall, June 1 move-in...

Ok. Now to the reason why (I hope) you're actually here. This blog is intended to be a resource for writers of both fiction and non-fiction. It's a place to turn when you need a bit of medical insight to make a story ring true.

I added a couple of links to the sidebar today, and I'll add more as I think of them. eMedicine and the Mayo Clinic are my current favorites for medical information written in ordinary language. They cover a wide range of health issues and disease states. Articles are either written or reviewed by M.D.'s and the information is usually up to date. Medline Plus, from the National Institutes of Health, provides links to health-related sites run by reputable organizations. Some of these sites are updated more often than others.

Speaking of which... Out-of-date information can be a problem, both on the internet and out there in the non-virtual world. There's also a lot of info that's erroneous or, worse, deliberately incorrect. It's important to be able to tell when you're looking at reliable info and when you should be skeptical.

Next time I'll give a quick overview of the types of medical web sites--and some ways to decide if you're looking at one you can trust.

Welcome!

They say you should write what you know.

But where's the fun in that?

Being a writer means you get to make stuff up. You get to invent characters and breathe life into them. You can build houses, design workplaces, even construct planets if you want to. You can write about aspects of life you've never experienced. You can give your characters jobs you've never done.

If you're writing about real-life stuff, though, you'll want to make sure you've got your information right. You'll want your cave explorers to use the proper gear. Your congressman to know some legal lingo. Your doctors to talk like they went to medical school.

That's where I come in.

I help writers get their medical facts straight.

I'll make sure your passionate pediatrician knows her medical terms and how to use them.

I'll save your hero, the world-famous surgeon, from swooping in to do surgery when all the patient needs is a band-aid.

If your dashing detective discovers the patient was poisoned, I'll help you figure out exactly what the killer used--and whether or not the victim would have noticed a funny taste in his coffee that morning.

I can tell you what life's really like in the hospital. What happens in a typical day. What doctors talk about when the patient's out cold in the operating room. I know what's behind the scenes in a country doctor's office and in a big-city practice. And if I haven't been where your characters need to go, I probably know someone who has.

Before you send that medical story off to an agent, a magazine, or a book publisher, check with me.

The Fiction Doctor. It's like malpractice insurance for your story.