I’ve been writing articles since the mid 1990s and although I’ve lost count of the number of articles I’ve had published, I rarely get ‘writer’s block’ – but I have one at the moment! Hence, I’m writing about writing. When writing for the now-defunct Financial Pulse, the articles in the main were commissioned and I tended to float ideas and await approval before starting to write. The editor, with whom I worked closely, always wanted 1,000 words and I took great delight in the art of precis, always trying to hit the word target on the head. I also left writing the paragraph headlines and overall title to the editorial team. The editor’s advice was never to get upset about any amendments that were made to the body of the article. In fact, I hated reading the finished product and if I did, I actually had trouble remembering that I’d written it. There were also deadlines, usually a few days before the official magazine-publication deadline. That was often a challenge in itself.

Do you remember ‘Ask Jeeves’?

In my early days, the internet was limited in its content and accessibility. It was difficult to use for research and very slow, but there were plenty of practice management and management text books to browse through. Nowadays, I probably spend as much time researching on the internet as I do compiling articles. Do you remember ‘Ask Jeeves’? I did find recently the National Newspaper Archive and on it the minutes of an Insurance Committee meeting held in 1914, which referred to the doctors’ panel.

The origin of the species

So why did I start writing, particularly as I hate reading – especially fiction? In the 1970s, working in a Family Practitioner Committee, I spent a great deal of my time writing medical service committee reports, sometimes 60 pages long, and although I started by handwriting these lengthy reports I soon found it quicker to type them myself, much to the disdain of my boss, who simply said, “We do employ secretaries to do that!” In the mid 1980s, I edited a trade union journal for five years for the Association of NHS Officers. It was called ‘The Officer’ and had a distribution of 5,000 members; I ended up writing most of the articles myself. I think I edited over 100 issues and made the step from a black-and-white broadsheet to a colour edition, which didn’t go down well with the treasurer as it cost too much!

Writer’s block – All’s well that ends well

As long as the ideas are flowing, I usually have more than one article on the go. Normally, writer’s block lasts for a few days or a week, but there’s always something that triggers my writing again. It might be newspaper articles or something on the BBC News website. It might be a thread or a blog on the Practice Index site. It even might be something that has happened to me personally, connected to general practice or the NHS.

I’ve used a variety of computer devices to prepare articles. These days articles are drafted on an iPhone, transferred to an iPad and finalised on a laptop. Added to that, the iPhone has become the prime device for drafting threads and blogs. I used to write while travelling on a train. Nowadays, it’s sitting anywhere quietly.

Word counts

Most writers have a process to their writing and mine starts during the first three waking hours of the day, between 6am and 9am. There’s an initial frenzy to get down as many words as possible. At this stage, there are paragraphs but no paragraph headings. I take care not to repeat words and pay attention to spelling, something that has got me into trouble in the past (‘awe’ and ‘oar’!). The most words I’ve written amount to 80,000 – the Practice Manager’s Manual (first version) – while the shortest articles tend to be around 1,000 words.

Review and revise

Once the first draft is down, I tend to leave the draft for at least a day and then review and amend it. The longer it gets, the harder it is to keep rereading it. At this stage, I’d probably add a title and paragraph headings. I like to choose a theme for my headings. I might use song titles or well-known quotations. I might extract a key sentence from the text and use it as a heading. Although I’m dreadful at telling jokes, I do try to use humour and anecdotes to help me make a point. Sometimes it’s the punchlines that hit home rather than the bulk of the text

So that’s basically the story of how I write blogs.

Tributes

Let me, in conclusion, pay tribute to the blog writers on the Practice Index website. Firstly, you have to find the time and then write with conviction and humour. I have to say, I see all of that in the contributions and I congratulate you all.

Here are some key points:

Select your subject – do you know much about it?

If yes, start putting the words together

If no, do some research!

Spell-check your draft

Avoid using long words – limit words to three syllables

Use humour

Check your facts, carefully

Avoid controversial comments

Be aware of confidentiality and the possibility of libel

Author: Robert Campbell