Making Time to Write?

Permit me to add a belated thank you for publishing Dr. Candib's essay on making time to write. I have always wedged (in my writing and sketching), but after reading this piece I'm determined to schedule as well.

Why, when, where, and for whom we write are eternally valuable topics for discussion. I'm still not convinced, however (unlike my otherwise thoughtful fellow respondent Dr. John Scott), of the need for some separate "pioneering" discipline called "narrative medicine," since that's what good doctors have been doing as second nature all along. It's ironic, too, that this coinage should have come from New York (my home town), which is one of the weakest places on earth for family medicine. I would also question whether folks at family medicine-phobic medical schools ought to be trumpeting their introduction of programs in medicine and the humanities that others have been doing without fanfare for years. At Baylor College of Medicine in the late-1980s, for instance, Dr. Warren Holleman single-handedly created the college-wide lecture series, "Compassion and the Art of Medicine," devoted to personal reflections on the experience of illness. The course has become among the most well- received and unifying curriculum innovations in the school's history.

Competing interests:   None declared

Thank you, Lucy, for giving us categories to place ourselves as we in Family Medicine encourage ourselves and our colleagues to write about our programs, our ideas, our research, our experiences. I want to be a scheduler, but the realities of my work and family life make me a wedger-- writing on napkins, envelopes, and anything in my line of vision when the idea hits.

More to the point, I come across talented people doing innovative work in Family Medicine every day, and want so much for this work to be shared with a larger audience, for us to continue creating a culture in academic Family medicine where our faculty participate actively in an exchange of ideas outside of our local community. And that means writing.

In our department, I've taught a monthly Professional Writing Seminar for our fellows and junior faculty for almost 15 years (described in *Piercy, McDaniel & Sprenkle, 1996). It is one of the most fun things I do, and I thank Rick Botelho for dragging me into doing it. It's a wonderful, cost-effective vehicle for any department to decrease the barriers to publication for junior faculty and trainees. All it takes is someone with a passion for writing--a deck clearer, a wedger, or a scheduler. The rest happens naturally.

And finally, thank you, Lucy, for continually bringing us new perspectives and challenging ideas through you own characteristically clear and thoughtful writing. Any publication with "Lucy Candib" at the top is one I read immediately.

*Piercy, F., McDaniel, S., & Sprenkle, D. 1996 Teaching professional writing to family therapists. J of Marital and Family Therapy, 22:2:163-180.

Susan H McDaniel PhD, Professor of Psychiatry & Family Medicine, Associate Chair, Department of Family Medicine, Director, Wynne Center for Family Research, University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry, Rochester NY

Competing interests:   None declared

As physicians we are frequent witnesses to the grand expanse of human beings-from birth to death, joy to sorrow, and ecstasy to profound depression. Yet witnessing often seems insufficient to the grandeur of the events. The birth of a child, the loss of a dear friend, a vivid dream, or a brilliant sunset are triggers that may compel me to write.

Writing helps me integrate the depths of what I have witnessed into my own self. The written word serves as a balm to ease the pain of sorrows I have absorbed, or to ensure clear memories of details that may become foggy with time.

Writing is a conduit through which I can absorb and reflect the world through myself. Writing helps consolidate my relationship to others and to the world.

Competing interests:   None declared

I appreciate Lucy Candib putting this topic on the table-- acknowledging the difficulty in finding/making time to write, and giving voice to the urge so many of us have to express ourselves in this way.

A few thoughts:

None of us does as much writing as he or she would like--and we generally confess that to one another the minute the subject comes up. Most of us, I think, feel guilty about not writing more. I offer no advice about the guilt, but would like to acknowledge its universality. The competing demands are many, as Eliza Chin so aptly notes.

Why do I write? For the same reason, I think, that others garden, or cook. It’s a form of self expression. It’s also a kind of meditation, centering me in the here-and-now. And I find, as John Scott points out, that it helps process the slings and arrows of medical and personal life.

One reason that we haven’t enough time to write is that it pays so damned poorly (as do gardening, cooking, acting, singing and other liberating pursuits). A few years ago, I had the outrageous good luck to submit a few columns to a magazine that bought them for a dollar a word. Wow! I can’t tell you how affirming that was--and how much easier it was to find time to write when I knew there would be a check attached. (Of note: the magazine folded. I don’t think my columns were the cause.)

A while ago I changed my work schedule to 95% time, giving me three out of four Fridays off. The ostensible purpose was to write and to spend more time with my family. I can’t claim that I’ve spent all those Fridays writing, but it has ventilated my schedule a bit. If I stay up ‘til all hours Tuesday night, the week that stretches ahead isn’t quite so forbidding. In the article’s terminology, I’d hoped to become a ”scheduler” but instead am probably still a “wedger.” (It’s now Sunday afternoon. What am I doing indoors on a beautiful day like this? What, indeed?)

I hope within the coming year to launch a magazine--with institutional support from Montefiore, my new employer--that will give voice to our personal experiences as physicians. When this publication takes off, it will need your contributions. Stay tuned.

And thanks for this important discussion.

Competing interests:   None declared

My dream, I suppose, has always been to be a "wedger," one who "lives to write" and one who creates masterpieces during stolen moments. A colleague of mine described it quite aptly when she confessed that she wrote on any medium at hand, whether it be a scrap of paper or piece of toilet paper. But I am a deck clearer, one who waits for everything else to settle down before the real work of writing can begin. The trouble, though, is that with three young children, a part-time practice, and a surgeon-husband, things never quite settle down in our household. And so the book project that I started over a year ago, continues to collect dust on the pile beneath my desk, waiting for a time that never seems to come.

I was inspired by Dr. Candib's article. Ultimately, those of us who value writing must set aside time for this pursuit. So next week, I'm going to schedule it in, just like I would my kids' swim lessons. And maybe, just maybe, that manuscript will finally get finished.

Competing interests:   None declared

We have all wished for the ability to warp time and ring a few more hours out of each day like the spice traders from Dune. Alas, as our colleague from Massachusetts counsels us, there is no easy way to increase our writing productivity but to set aside the necessary time to do so in our complicated personal and professional lives.

This essay is must reading for the serious, successful writer as well as the novice, for good guidance is given. Those of us who have followed the siren call of the ‘blocks’ or ‘wedgies’ techniques and approaches will just smile ruefully. As the author demonstrates, there is no substitute for disciplined, persistent regularity of protected time in bringing success to the job of writing. And with this fidelity of purpose, joy can be and often is achieved. All of us, including this reader, should thank the author for her sage advice.

Competing interests:   None declared