Your 2011 resolution

Happy New Year from Stone Harbor, NJ
Photo by Ralph S. Pfeifer

Nurses sometimes feel intimidated by the thought of publishing their writing. You might feel better knowing that even the medical editors and writers I’ve worked with over the years did not plan on these disciplines as the primary focus of their work, even those with science or English degrees. They had to learn the ropes, like everyone who is new to a skill set. As an RN, you have what it takes to write for publication; 2011 can be your year to do it. Happy New Year!

A delayed Christmas gift

Stone Harbor beach path postblizzard 12/27
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer

Here’s a fun site to visit when you want just the right word: Visual Thersaurus. It’s particularly good for those, well, visual thinkers out there. And the Double-Tongued Dictionary site will please anyone who wants to understand fringe English terminology. Have fun, and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

To all who celebrate, and to all who do not, here's some great writing:

I have always thought of Christmas time…as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time in the long calendar of the year when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore...I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, "God bless it!"~from A Christmas Carol

Perks of letter writing

Clam Shell in Snow, Stone Harbor, NJ
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer

One of the aims of getting nurses to write more is making colleagues aware of what is going on in health care and sparking conversation and debate. Public venues, like blogs, can also tell you what your patients think about certain issues.  A recent letter to The New York Times by a nurse asked the paper’s health blog writer to talk about how to address elderly patients by name. Take a look at the dialog she generated here. Then think about the issues that are important to you in your practice, and start writing.

Writing up your interview

Beach Sand, Stone Harbor, NJ
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer

If you followed the suggestions in my previous posts on interviews, you already have a deck, introduction, or both, plus your questions. After the actual interview, you may find you raised additional questions and took down several quotes. These all provide the scaffolding for your written piece. Read over your notes, and begin filling in the narrative for the written interview based on how the questions were answered. If you have any additional questions for the interviewee, don’t hesitate to contact them for clarification. Set the piece aside for a day or so if you have the time and are not on a strict deadline, then reread and edit out anything that is irrelevant to the topic. Remember that you do not have to use every quote you got from the interview, just those that shed light on the topic. Be careful, however, not to omit anything that would skew the interview’s point of view away from what the expert and toward any bias of your own. You want the piece to be as objective as possible—the hallmark of good journalism. In general, publications do not want interviewees to review and approve the final product, to assure openness of information. In special cases, however, it may be okay to have the interviewee look at direct quotes for accuracy. You need to know the publication’s exact position on this issue before allowing your interviewee to review anything, including direct quotes. An excellent resource for detailed principles on reporting is the Association of Health Care Journalists. 

More support that nurses should write

Seagull Following Cape May-Lewes Ferry
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer

In light of some recent news, I’m posting an aside that adds support to why I think nurses, who rarely consider medical editing and writing as a career, should at least write about what they do. Recent Gallup poll results show that Americans rank the ethics and honesty of nurses higher than several other professions; a result consistent for 9 years in a row. What you write will receive attention and consideration, particularly if you write informatively for a lay audience. Of course this faith in the profession mandates accuracy and clarity, but you can present your content that way—it just takes practice and commitment. So don't be afraid to take off and fly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

White Coral, Dry Tortugas National Park, USA
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer

Next week, we'll get down to writing that interview. Until then, best wishes for a wonderful weekend to all of my readers (I know you're out there:-).

Conducting an interview

Monarch butterflies on sedum.
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer

If you've done your homework, as outlined in my previous posts, a few tips should do here:

à Show up or call about 5 minutes before your scheduled interview

à Introduce yourself and say a few words to make the interviewee, especially neophytes, comfortable

à Get down to business with your questions, and keep the conversation on time and on track

à Take careful notes, and restate what you’ve been told to be sure you have recorded your quotes correctly. Some journalists will tape an interview, with the interviewee’s permission. I rarely do so, as taking notes helps me attend to the conversation more carefully.

à Close with this question: Is there anything else you’d like to say for the record that I haven’t asked you?

à Thank the interviewee for his or her time and let them know you will call if you have any other questions. Let them know they can call you as well if they think of anything else they want to say.


Now, let's get down to writing!

Constructing interview questions

Getting the questions down

In my first question, shown below, I included a succinct intro to the topic that expanded on the deck (see my November 12 blog post):

“A television news program journalist asked if you were sorry you used the word “cure” in the paper, and a report about the Lancet article appeared in Science magazine regarding your use of the “C word.” Why is mentioning “cure” in the context of HIV research so provocative?”

This question was constructed to jumpstart our conversation. You can see how it’s open-ended, so there can be no single-word response—those tend to bring interviews to a dead end. I used the same technique to write questions 2 and 3. Read the whole interview here.

It pays to think carefully about question construction in this regard so the conversation keeps moving. If the answers you get to your questions are too vague or skirt the issue, don’t be afraid to push a little for more specific answers—politely, of course.

Any questions? 

Interviews: Developing your questions

The basic concepts

You don’t have to be an expert to interview someone on a topic, but you do need to do your homework to develop intelligent questions.

I suggest 5 solid questions for a 30-minute interview. In fact, 3 are usually enough if they are well-constructed open-ended questions and leave a lot of room for reply—whatever you do, do not use “yes” or “no” questions. I keep the last 2 questions in my back pocket in case I need them.

Often the reader needs a setup to understand what the interview is about. Thinking about the setup also helps me to narrow my focus and develop strong questions. So let’s start by looking step-by-step at the editor’s page interview I conducted and wrote for Contagion. We’ll begin with the deck, which is a short intro explaining what the reader can expect and why they should continue reading.

Here’s the deck on my deck: I knew that there had been a misunderstanding in the media’s interpretation of Dr. Margolis’s research results, and that became the springboard for constructing the questions I planned to ask. I was also knowledgeable about the direction of HIV/AIDS research at the time, because of the editorial content I worked on. That might not have been the readers’ experience though, so I wrote a brief deck to set up the background for the reader, and to focus where I would start my questions, as follows:

The deck: Dr. David M. Margolis and colleagues’ recent proof-of-concept study on depletion of latent HIV-1 infection in vivo created a bit of a media stir when it appeared in the August 13, 2005 issue of The Lancet. I asked our HIV/AIDS section editor-in-chief to discuss the fuss with us in lieu of his usual editor’s page. Our conversation took place by telephone and e-mail.

~Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA, Editorial Director, Contagion.

Read the pdf file online

So that’s the deck, and my next posts will take you through the questions, one by one. Ask me your own questions along the way.

Interviews continued: The setup

Setting up: Location and photos

Once you decide you have what you need for your interview—an intriguing topic, someone knowledgeable who will talk to you about it, and an interested editor, set up time to meet with the interviewee. (See my November 9 post on what comes first, the query to an editor or the knowledgeable person.)

Location: The best interviews are in person, because the environment will provide you with some clues, perhaps some discussion points to put the person at ease if needed, and allow you to take photos if permitted. Telephone interviews are the next most acceptable—and likely the most common way—to conduct an interview these days because of time constraints and busy schedules. E-mail is okay in a pinch, but it’s not ideal, because the further you remove yourself from the person, the less flexibility you have for getting into deeper questions that might be triggered in a phone or face-to-face conversation.

Glacial ice, Alberta, Canada
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer

Photos: Always have the person sign a permission form allowing you to take a photograph for publication before doing so. You can get an official form from the publication you are writing for. Prominent folks usually have headshots they can send to you. Digital photographs must be high resolution (350 dpi or better) for publishing purposes, so bring a camera that allows such settings if you are taking the photos yourself. You want the photos you submit with your article to be crystal clear.

Time: Plan to take up no more than 30 minutes of the interviewee’s time at his or her convenience. Be prompt with your arrival or phone call and plan your Q&A for that time frame. (See the next post on Q&A development.) But—and this is important—allow extra time if the interviewee needs it. Even initially reticent interviewees are often excited about what they do and may talk more than you expect. Tapping into that excitement may bring you the best quotes. I’ll talk about developing questions my next post.

Interviews: The query, the interview, and writing the story: Part I

What comes first?

You remember the old chicken-vs-egg saying. Well, interviews present somewhat of a what-comes-first dilemma: do you query the editor with an idea first, or do you make sure the interviewee will give you the time to ask him or her questions? A lot depends on the person you have in mind, so think it through. It really can go either way, depending on your network and contacts.

For example, if you plan to speak with First Lady Michelle Obama on what she thinks of the nurse’s role in health care reform, you had better be sure that landing an interview with her is within your ability to do so before you query an editor about his or her interest in publishing it.

On the other hand, if you want to interview a colleague you work with about an issue, and you know they will talk to you about it, then go ahead and query the editor. As you decide what to do first, keep in mind that you do not want to get a reputation for promising an interview article and not being able to deliver it.

Here is an example of an interview I conducted with my HIV editor-in-chief, David Margolis, for Contagion, an ID review journal I worked on in 2005. Take a look and I’ll go through the interview process in more detail in my next few posts.

Author guidelines

Blue heron takes flight. Stone Harbor Point, Stone Harbor, NJ.
Photo by Ralph S. Pfeifer

When writing anything for submission to a newspaper or magazine, look for author (aka writer or manuscript) guidelines first, and follow them to a “T.” Most, if not all publications have them, even for letters to the editor, and they’ll give you a lot of useful specific information.

If you are reading this blog, you’re likely Web savvy, so visit the home page of your target newspaper, magazine, or journal, and look for a link to “author,” “writer,” or “manuscript” guidelines. If they are not immediately apparent, use the search box or peruse the drop-down menu options, and you’ll be sure to find them.

Guidelines will offer you the specs for preparing the manuscript, citing references, what style guides are preferred (American Psychological Association [APA style], American Medical Association [AMA style], etc. They often include the content the publication is looking for as well, such as continuing education (CE) articles. Separate guidelines for specific departments and tips may also be provided. And you’ll learn what kinds of articles they accept: essays, interviews, etc.  These are all helpful to read before you start writing, and they are essential for polishing your paper before you submit it.

Here are some links to author guidelines for the American Journal of Nursing, Nursing Spectrum CE articles, and Advance for Nurses, to get you started. I have written for all of these publications as well as for lay and trade magazines, such as Clay Times and Ceramics Monthly. I’ve always found guidelines indispensible for getting published. They show an editor you read and care about the quality of the publication, and if your article is accepted, they make the editor’s work much easier down the road. Once you have that kind of writing reputation, you’re more likely to get further work.

Key summary notes on query letters

à Research the publication you want to write for.

à Address the editor by name if at all possible.

à Keep them short, professional, and to the point.

à Include what you want to write about and why there is a need for such information.

à Highlight why you have the expertise to write on this topic.

à Include your contact information.

à Proofread your letter and e-mail cover note; typos could get your query tossed.

My next post will be on the importance of author guidelines: how to find them and how to follow them.

Querying basics: Clinical articles

If your idea is to teach other nurses what you know about a content area, a query to the editor an absolute must. First make sure the content fits the publication and that they have not recently covered your topic; if you don’t subscribe to the journal or paper, find it online or at your local library and peruse the past year’s issues. Nursing information does change rapidly, but most journals want their information to be as fresh as possible, and they do not like to repeat content within a year or so. Clinical articles take the most time to write, and if you have the right journal for your content and the editor responds with interest, you can be pretty sure it is going to be published, although you may be asked for revisions after it goes through the peer-review process.

After you have done this preliminary work, write a letter asking the editor whether they are interested in your topic. Include a brief statement about why you are qualified to write the article, such as, “I am a certified diabetes educator, who implemented…..[fill in the blank].”  The query should not be more than one typed page, and you can attach it via e-mail with your resume, which provides further evidence of your expertise. A sentence or two describing your interest in writing an article and telling the editor you have attached a cover letter and resume should go into the body of the e-mail message.  Here is a sample e-mail note you can tailor to your liking:

Dear [Editor’s Name],

I would like to write an article for [name of journal] on [topic and brief description] and have attached a cover letter describing my idea as well as my resume for your review. I am a nurse and [other certification or degrees]. My current position is [title] at [name of institution]. Thank you in advance for considering my idea. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards,

[Your Name]

[Address]

[Contact information]

Querying basics: POV articles

If you are investing time in a point-of-view (POV) essay, make sure the publication you are aiming for has a column devoted to opinion. Some do not. Once you know your targeted venue has such a column, it’s best to query the editor about your idea. First, though, take a look through several past issues of the magazine or newspaper and make sure someone hasn’t written about a similar topic recently. 

There are lots of books out there that will tell you how to write snappy query letters, but, as an editor who reads a lot of e-mail, I suggest you make it short and to the point, just like your writing should be. And use your spell check; nothing turns an editor off to your pitch like one with typos. For POVs, which are generally 1 to 2 typed pages in length, you should be able to describe your idea in a sentence or two. These queries can also be sent via e-mail in the text of the message, without an attachment, much like your letter to the editor. Remember to include your name and contact information.

Aside: If you don’t have one, create a professional sounding e-mail address when you write to an editor. Names that you think sound cute with friends, like “Iamaslug@xxx.com,” will just end up in the trash or in the editor’s spam mailbox. And they certainly don't lend themselves to a good first impression!

Querying basics: letters to the editor

If you have decided to write a letter to the editor, just go ahead and do so; no preliminary queries are needed. My advice on writing any correspondence to a newspaper or a nursing journal/newspaper is to do a little research first. Most publications will tell you where, and sometimes to whom, you can send letters. The contact information is usually near the masthead of the publication or on the page where letters appear. My local newspaper includes contact information at the bottom of almost every article written by a staffer and by authors with syndicated columns. If they give you a name, use it. In general, you can type your comments into the e-mail message itself, without attaching a separate document. Make sure your letter is brief, to the point, and free of typos. Include your name, address, and contact information, as some publications will want to verify your comments with you before publishing. And this could be your first step down that publication road!

A good example of an op-ed piece by an educator

This is an example of a well-written POV article published in my local newspaper. Read it for structure. Even if you don't agree with her premise, she makes her point clearly and well. It's a good model to follow.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/commentary/article_16379aa4-1b7e-591d-8556-ad0f60ffb85a.html

Your story—permission to write badly (at first) & some questions to ask as you write

It’s pretty common to start writing and then get stuck. You put a paragraph or two down and then think, “What do I do now?” It’s a good question. First, don’t interrupt yourself by criticizing what you have, which will only discourage you and put a stop to your effort. There will be time to edit later. (And you will edit heavily, I promise.)

But your idea does need an audience, so the next questions are “Who do I want to talk to?” and “Where do they read their information?” If you aren’t sure yet, here are some ideas:

A letter to the editor: You’ve read something you like or disagree with or have found a content error you want to point out. These letters should be short (about one-half page or 250 words), courteous, and to the point. Newspapers, magazines, and professional journals all love to get reader feedback, and, if your letter is accepted, this may be your first published piece.

A point-of-view (POV) article: You want to share your perspective on a health care or nursing issue with the public (newspapers or magazines) or colleagues (nursing trade newspapers or journals). These articles should state your POV clearly, and then support it with evidence. That evidence can be experiential or reference based, but make sure that what you provide is accurate. Never, ever, take anything from a printed source or the Internet without attribution. And anything you do use should be very short, using direct quotation marks as needed to respect any copyright restrictions. This type of article usually runs about one typed page in length, or 500 to 600 words.

A clinical article in your specialty area: You want to discuss a nursing approach that you or you and your team have developed or provide an update on content you have become expert in, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, public health nursing, etc. These articles are the longest and can run from 1000 words to upwards of 5000, depending on the journal’s guidelines (more posts on guidelines will be upcoming). They require some literature research savvy, which I will also blog about in an upcoming post, and strong referencing, with citations and references formatted according to journal requirements. I recommend querying the journal or magazine editor before starting an article like this.

An interview with an expert: Both lay and professional magazines often feature interviews. You likely know more experts than you think, and nurse experts tend to be generous with their time on issues they are passionate about. But you need to be well prepared with several cogent questions that can be answered in the amount of time the interviewee can spend with you, which is usually 30 minutes or less. (I’ll post a separate entry on interview techniques in the upcoming weeks.)

Now that you know who your audience is, you can go back to writing for them.

Brief time-out: Some helpful books to read as you begin writing

At the risk of enabling your procrastination, I want to take a step back and share some books I found really helpful when I first started to write. Fledgling writers and editors typically think of writing reference books as the style manuals they used in their high school or college term-paper days; manuals like Kate Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, which is really a student’s version of The Chicago Manual of Style. Granted, the latter is widely used in academia and publishing, and you do need to pay attention to the publication’s style—eventually—but I suggest you wait until you are finished writing your story and use those manuals to polish it for submission. (Making an effort to match the style of your target publication makes acceptance much more realistic.)

So here is a short review of and links to my favorite books on writing (I will have more later). Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg, is an easy, delightful read that taught me a big lesson: good writing needs practice. The book is full of ideas on how to “jump in and write,” and a selection of these ideas is available online.

Another outstanding book is by William Zinsser, titled On Writing Well. This book is all about nonfiction writing characterized by brevity, clarity, and simplicity, things that are sorely lacking in most journal writing today. Early in the book, he says, “A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.” From that point on, I was hooked. As a bonus, he devotes a whole chapter to science and technology, which will make you feel right at home. You can hear an NPR interview with Zinsser here or look for a CD of the book, read by the author, to listen to your car.

If you feel insecure about grammar, go to Woe is I, by Patricia T. O’Connor, a great little book that eased my fears and will ease yours as well. She also has a Web site with sections on myths about grammar, other links on language usage, and a blog with lots of Q&A.

If you are sincerely aiming at medical and nursing journals, go to AMA stat for an overview of the key things you need to know from the new 10th edition (which runs on more than 1000 pages and takes some getting used to). I am forever grateful to the guy who put this together, Abel Scribe, PhD (I’m not sure if this name is a joke, but if so, it’s a good one).

Last (for tonight, anyway; it’s getting late) is one of my favorite references for nurses who want to write nursing articles: Medical English Usage and Abusage by Edith Schwager, who also writes a great column in Q&A format for the American Medical Writers Association's AMWA Journal. You can read a sample of that column here.

Okay, now get back to your idea!

Getting started—your story

Once you have your idea, write it down or type it up. Don’t worry about grammar or usage—yet—just get your idea on paper and you can deal with polishing the writing later. Writers often get started in various ways: some like to begin with an outline, others do not. If you aren’t sure where to begin, start anywhere—even at the end—which is the point you’ll want to bring the reader to anyway. It helps to pretend you are having a conversation with your best friend or you are filling in a colleague who was off the day your story happened, and then “talk” on paper. This is what will give the writing its distinct voice—yours. There is no wrong or right way to start. The important thing is to get started. Do it now, even if it's only a few sentences. 

Getting started—a personal story

I became a nurse before I became a writer, so how did that transition happen?

A colleague and I were working as clinical specialists in a small NJ city hospital where the staff was somewhat resistant to our efforts to improve the quality of nursing and patient care. Granted, inroads were made, but progress was achieved at what we considered a snail’s pace. To cope with a particularly frustrating day, we came up with a question for ourselves that turned into an idea for a presentation—“What to do while you’re waiting for change”—and pitched it to the Colorado Nurses Association conference, Chautaugua ’77. At the same time, my colleague had written a letter to the C.V. Mosby Company (now a division of Elsevier) suggesting some topics for publication. A rep called her, she told him about our presentation, and he met us in Vail to better understand what we were talking about. Then he asked us to write a book.

Writing something that length sounded intimidating and time consuming, but we thought we could at least write the intro and a chapter each, plus a chapter together that put our presentation into print. Then we rounded up nurse colleagues we respected and asked them to write chapters for the book as well.

The process from concept to publication took almost 2 years, and then Mosby decided to cancel the series. For all our work, we had a lovely bound book to our credit, but one that didn’t sell widely. Yet we also had a terrific experience that taught us the lesson I mentioned yesterday: nurses have great stories and ought to share them. And, although it can be hard work, it can also be rewarding, fun, and perhaps a leg up on a new career.

I’m not telling you to start with a book—that was a fortuitous event for us—but what started it was an idea. So what is your idea?