Health Writing? Start With Cancer And Drill Down

 

Health writing is about bringing hope to the afflicted. Cancer writing, not so much. One is about the future and the steps to make it better. The other is layered with dread.

 

One is about improving conditions, about personal bests, about gains; the other is layered with dread.

 

Health writing brings nutrition, fitness, bigger arms, toned abs, more cardiovascular endurance to the front of the line; cancer writing may try, but the reading audience already knows the outcome too well.

 

Medical Writer

 

Medical writing is different than health writing because the author needs to be believable. Are they a doctor, a nurse, a PA?

 

What authority does a medical writer bring to an article that keeps readers engaged?

 

Health Writer

 

A health writer could be a personal trainer, nutritionist, or gym rat with practical insight. Or a coach. Their authority comes from personal experience.

 

The celebrated trainer with famous clients, the controversial nutritionist working the edges of fit or fat, the ripped gym rat who explains how to look like them in ten minutes a day all have a story.

 

Coach Writer

 

What about the coach writer? Are they really the writer, or did they ghost up to get a book out while they were a hot topic.

 

“Do it like I say and you can have the results I had,” seems to be the coach message.

 

Cancer Writer

 

Cancer writing is dicey at best. Do you want to know about medical procedures, side effects, and floundering? That’s cancer writing. Need to read about someone’s last lecture, their last Tuesday?

 

The gut churning, tear duct draining, story of someone’s death when they had so much more to give, so much life left to live, is out there. I’m not sure about the lasting message beyond live life every single minute of every single day. It’s a good message no matter who you hear it from.

 

D. A. Gillaspie Health Writing

 

I take things another direction by including everything on the periphery of disease and discomfort and the bullshit that ‘Everyone is different.’

 

Sure, you’re different than your neighbor, I’m different than you, but instead of focusing on that, I look for the strings that bind us together, the ties that don’t untie. And I’m still looking.

 

So far I’ve heard about optimism and wrestling with cancer. The optimism part came from Pamela Tom and her important blog HPV And Me.

 

The sports part, the wrestling part, appeared in Coping Magazine.

 

Another version made it to Shot by Shot.

 

David’s story? Not all one sided. I had help. Thank you, Tammy.

 

The help part is key. If you’re not helping, what are you doing? Health writing includes a world of hope. Where do things go without that? People who feel tapped out see things not visible to others. Call it intuition, or foreshadowing, but some people see the light in others, some see the darkness.

 

Here’s a tip: We are not related to the sort of maladies that drain our energy, our life force, our ability to made the day worthwhile. Some get it, some don’t.

 

This guy is someone I discovered in a search. We didn’t hit it off. He’s on a different trajectory than I am, though we share a common problem. From the time I first read about him until now, he’s progressed poorly, quitting the sort of medical treatment that left him feeling more lifeless than the stuff he was getting treated for.

 

Quality of life, or quantity. He chose quality. Why? Maybe he’s been down so long it looks like up? Or he doesn’t want the final memory he leaves others with is him lying in bed? I understand what he’s doing. I’d do the same under the same conditions.

 

But what’s that got to do with you? What’s your takeaway?

 

My goals were simple, they still are, and I’ll share them so you can share them with someone you know.

 

First, stay with the program as long as you can.

 

Second, stay off the hard drugs, the pain drugs, as long as you can stand. Medical marijuana is your friend.

 

Third, avoid the sort of procedures that lead to secondary infections. The fewer holes poked into your body, the less chance for opportunistic problems.

 

Those are my three keys, that’s my story. What’s yours?