Why writers stay in the work

Medical writing can offer intellectual stimulation, useful contributions to health and a satisfying working life. Interest can also develop through skill and be renewed by changing projects, learning and choosing meaningful work.

Rewards in the work itself

For clinicians and medical educators, reasons to write include the following. ¹

1. Gain intellectual stimulation.
2. Share ideas.
3. Report research.
4. Express an opinion.
5. Generate discussion.
6. Advance a discipline.
7. Assert ownership of a topic.
8. Attain promotion or tenure.
9. Report a case.
10. Enhance personal reputation.
11. Preserve ideas for future readers.
12. Earn income.

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Researching a protocol, grant application, research report, review or chapter can provide in-depth self-education in its subject. ¹ Intellectual stimulation comes from learning about a topic, imagining how to present it and finding the right words, and published work can generate discussion. ¹ Enjoyment of writing itself can sustain an author through repeated rejection when recognition or other external rewards do not. ²

A regulatory writer with about twenty years’ experience in 2010 found the greatest reward in combining data into a coherent story informing the risk–benefit analysis of a potential therapy, particularly in oncology where new safe and effective treatments were greatly needed. ^{3, 4}

A freelancer reflecting in 2015 valued varied work and access to emerging therapies because she loved science and became bored by repetition. ⁵ A former public-health microbiologist valued reaching a broad audience and conveying enthusiasm for science to people who might otherwise find it intimidating or dull. ⁶

Another writer valued contributing to individuals’ understanding and a wider public good, including through precise punctuation that made information clearer. ^{7, 8, 9, 10} Writers without clinical training can still contribute as members of a team seeking better communication and health outcomes. ¹¹

Rewards beyond the task

One writer valued using scientific education and skills while continually learning the latest science, alongside flexibility, home-based work and friendly colleagues. ¹²

In 2015, a pharmaceutical writer described a career that had provided comfortable support for a family and considerable enjoyment, with work he considered solid, often secure and well paid. ¹³ A writer with eighteen years in the field described variety, employability, reasonable pay and continuing interest as reasons to stay for the rest of her working life. ^{14, 15}

For clinicians and educators producing scholarly work, a 2018 account described advertiser-supported articles often paying a few hundred dollars, book royalties generally modest beside clinical income, and chapters, editorials and research reports paying little or nothing. ¹

Interest developed through skill

The craftsman’s mindset in Cal Newport’s So Good They Can’t Ignore You focuses first on acquiring competence, proposing that interest and enjoyment develop from skill for many people rather than needing to precede it. ¹⁶ A medical writer who initially lacked passion for the work applied this argument to his own career. ¹⁶

Renewal during a long career

Nine suggested practices for maintaining enthusiasm through a lengthy freelance-writing career are as follows. ¹⁷

1. Vary project types.
2. Seek projects that match personal interests.
3. Keep learning within the profession.
4. Keep learning outside work.
5. Take refreshing holidays.
6. Choose decent people to work with.
7. End relationships with insufferable clients.
8. Reduce stress and take care of personal wellbeing.
9. Help others.

^{17, 18, 19, 20}

Varying therapeutic areas, audiences and media can keep the learning curve active, particularly during the first several freelance years; specialising in a disease or medium offers a different route to expertise while new research continues to provide learning. ¹⁷ After ten to fifteen years in freelance medical writing, a reasonable share of projects should feel meaningful and worthwhile to the writer. ¹⁷ Possibilities include subjects such as nutrition, pet health, alternative medicine or heart disease, consumer articles, scripts and film production, interactive education or non-profit work. ¹⁷

Purpose in everyday work

A professional legacy can be understood as the way a person lives and influences others now, including through the next action or sentence, rather than only as achievements left at the end of a career. ²¹ Three suggested steps put that view into practice. ²¹

1. Define what matters now, whether large or small, while allowing that purpose to evolve.
2. Commit to mastering it through devotion, study, learning and repeated mindful practice.
3. Live that purpose daily, including when it is difficult; sustained commitment can bring satisfaction and unexpected possibilities.

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