HOW TO WRITE MEDICAL FICTION CORRECTLY! The long overdue list of links to good resources: One book I always recommend when I teach “Novel Malpractice” is Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper. One of my day jobs for over three decades has been case-managing transplants, and she even fooled me with the twist! It’s not only an outstanding story told by …
How to write about Dissociative Amnesia AND GET IT RIGHT. WHO AM I? WHO ARE YOU? Really– who am I? This is the question asked repeatedly by a person suffering from Dissociative Amnesia. It’s distressing to say the least. Who are you? Is the other question they ask over and over, because they may have no memories of their …
Writing about Tick-borne Illnesses and Alpha-Gal Syndrome My first encounter with a tick-bite illness . . . Occurred when I was a Pediatric Intern at a large major city hospital. A child arrived to the ER, quite ill with a rash and fever, and the concern at first was the child had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF). While treatable …
RETROGRADE AMNESIAS Recently, I got the privilege to assist Denise Hunter with her latest book “Before We Were Us” (just released in September, it’s great – go read it!) where the heroine suffers a severe head injury and gets amnesia. Denise needed to use temporally-graded retrograde amnesia for this story. The heroine forgets her current boyfriend (the hero had the …
This time of year, people love to be out hiking in cooler weather or participating in winter sports such as skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing and ice fishing. Normally, nothing bad happens. But what if someone is unexpectedly injured? Like you cross paths with a bear, or miss a step and break your ankle? When humans wander out of their normal …
In all honesty, at times the writing about coma (disorders of consciousness) in television and movies can be laughable. A character on a soap opera awakens dramatically after years in a deep coma and talks perfectly with no confusion. Right. Robin Cook’s second novel Coma is considered the genesis of a new suspense genre called medical thrillers. I might argue …
Updated 7/17/2026 Do you know how to write about heatstroke and heat-related illnesses? I have a new saying for Indiana: it’s a given the hottest day of the year will be your class reunion, with the second hottest being move-in day at college in a dorm with no AC nor elevator, and the third hottest will be the first day …
Updated 8/20/25 Do you know how to write about Hypothermia? Have you, as an author, committed “novel malpractice”? Can you write authentically about medical issues? Most writers without a medical background struggle with that. Writers, television shows, and movies often get it wrong. If the writing and story are good, readers may overlook mistakes, but I want to help you …
As a physician for four decades, I’ve worn many hats. From a busy Family Practice office, to an occupational medicine clinic (workers’ comp) to onsite health centers in local industries. Then a medical school mentor called and asked, did I know how to use a computer? That call launched my thirty-year career as a medical director starting at Anthem. The …