I' ve Been Here Before: Writing, An Author’s Perspective

Deborah Cohen has been on both sides of the studentBMJ. Since she is one of our student advisers, she has been part of the team which judges submitted articles. However, she is also a regular author and has had her own work judged. Here she shares some pearls of wisdom that she’s picked up from both experiences

When I decided to write about my experiences of writing for the studentBMJ, I had to sit down and really think about the issues that most affected me when I first started sending in work. I later spoke to a couple of friends, who also write fairly regularly for the journal and many of their thoughts echoed my own. We all agreed that seeing our work in print is rewarding, but it can be difficult to know where to start and the editorial process has the potential to be demoralising.

On the whole, writing for the studentBMJ tends to be a much less soul-destroying experience than working for other large publishing houses and I try to always bear this in mind. It’s a much more writer-friendly experience, both in terms of guidance before and after rejection, and the fact that it also give authors the opportunity to rewrite copy if they like the idea ? which is something almost unheard of in journalism. But that’s not to say it’s all been easy.

Ideas
The first hurdle has to be coming up with good original ideas and I personally find it one of the most difficult parts of writing for the studentBMJ, but it’s often easier for others. Because there are no hard and fast rules about where to look for inspiration, it’s a case of trying to keep my eyes and ears open. But, having said that, I use some tried and tested sources of ideas ? newspapers, journals, magazines, books, museums, art galleries, television and radio documentaries and phone-ins, the internet, and the best of all, talking to contacts and personal experiences. It sounds obvious, but if I do think of an idea, I try to write it down as soon as possible and actually follow it up. I now constantly look at everything and ask myself whether there’s a potential article.

What section?
Once I think of a story or have an idea for an article whatever section it’s for, I now tend to ‘pitch’ it at the editor first by contacting them with a brief outline of what I’m proposing to write. I usually make contact by phone or email depending on how soon the journal is going to press or how urgent the issue is. Briefing the editor has saved me putting time and energy into something that might not be suitable, has been covered before or should be handled differently. If they’ve been interested, they’ve recommended an angle, given a deadline and a word count and answered any other queries that I’ve had. And it’s advisable to follow their instructions ? they’re more receptive to future ideas. But not all stories can be pre-planned or foreseen and on such occasions, I write without briefing the editor and then send in my submission as an email attachment.

Following the guidelines
Whenever I write for the studentBMJ, I try to use the guidelines that are supplied on the website, which help to direct my thoughts safe in the knowledge that I’m going about writing it in the correct way. Then, I’ll keep asking myself ‘what’s interesting about this?’ and ‘how can I make it appealing to the reader?’

Keep it simple
One big mistake I made in the first article I wrote is that I tried to sound overly academic by writing in wordy sentences with the intent of impressing the readers. I reread that cringe-worthy article now and manage to confuse myself even though I know what I was trying to say.

The best advice I can give you is to "keep it simple." Never assume prior knowledge, always explain everything and always write in the first person (that is, I and you as oppose to one and it.)

Since the studentBMJ incorporating studentbmj.com is an international product, I try to imagine a student in another country reading my article and trying to understand it. British students might know what the General medical Council (GMC) is for example, but would Romanian or Bangladeshi students for example? A brief explanation never goes amiss.

The process
Very few things are accepted for the studentBMJ without going through the monthly Student Editorial Committee. This is where at least five student advisers and the student and senior editor of the studentBMJ discuss all the articles submitted that month and decide whether they are worthy of publication or not. This is a democratic process. Some of the main reasons that articles are rejected are: 1) not original enough (so do your research before hand); 2) reads more like an essay (we can always spot the ones that are taken straight from Special Study Modules (SSM) modules); 3) no expert co-author (for editorials and education articles); 4) no references; 5) not of interest to international readers and 5) badly written.

Dealing with rejection
One of the hardest lessons to learn has been that not everything I’ve written has been good enough even though I’ve followed the guidelines; these articles have either been rejected or sent back for a rewrite.

The articles that have been rejected have been returned with a letter explaining what was wrong with them, which is difficult not to take the letter personally even though it’s supposed to be helpful and not insulting. Getting it right is a case of practice makes perfect and even now, it’s rare that anything I write will make it into the journal unedited. Having copy edited can be frustrating ? what I think is important can differ completely to what the editor thinks. And it is now practice that if your article has been edited quite heavily, you will be emailed the copy for approval prior to publication.

I used to be quite protective and possessive over my work erroneously thinking that the need to edit meant the copy was poor. But in fact, it’s incredibly hard to spot your own mistakes and rework your own sentences.

I also learnt not to constantly query the changes the staff on the studentBMJ made to my work, as an editor’s job is to edit; they know the market and style of the journal the best. Complaining didn’t help me. I’d just become frustrated and it’s a nuisance to people who are doing their jobs. It’s better to look at what they’ve done and think about why they’ve done it. It’s worth it in the end!

Further Reading:
Albert, Tim. A to Z of Medical Writing. BMJ Books
Evans, Harold. Essential English for Journalists, Editors and Writers. Random House.
Hennessy, Brendan. Writing Feature Articles. Heinemann Media Series
Harris, Geoffrey and Spark, David. Practical Newspaper Reporting. Heinemann Media Series.