A Writer's Guide to Medicine: Volume 1: Setting & Character

From injuring your character to depicting scenes set in the morgue, let Natalie Dale, MD be your guide to writing about medicine.

“A highly valuable guide for any writer of fiction whose characters will face any medical dilemma from accidents to aneurisms, torture to toxicity.”

• #1 New York Times bestselling author Scott Turow

Medicine is a world unto itself; lives can be changed in an instant and decisions are truly life-or-death. But it’s also a bizarre and alien world, full of unique settings, confusing acronyms, and a confounding array of different conditions.
No wonder writers love to write about medicine. No wonder they get it wrong.
In the Writer’s Guide to Medicine, Dr. Dale shows you how to accurately depict the world of medicine in your writing and points out the most common clichés and medicine-related pitfalls.
In Volume 1: Setting & Character, you’ll learn:

• How medical professionals approach an emergency
• Key sensory details for unique medical settings
• How to avoid medical clichés.
• Facts about death and dying
• Specifics about comas, consciousness, and the infamous “medically-induced coma”
• The truth about hospital food
• And more!

“An author’s one-stop oasis of medical information that will supply verisimilitude to not only characters’ situations, but also to their likely reactions, physical and emotional.”

• James Conroyd Martin, author of Fortune’s Child and The Poland Trilogy

“In this brilliantly conceived, well-organized, and superbly executed guide, Natalie Dale has created an invaluable resource for writers. Whether you want to make sure your hospital setting is true-to-life, or emulate how medical professionals really talk and behave, this is the book you need.”

• Lidija Hilje, Editor & Book Coach