LinkedIn Logo Instagram Logo

Blog

We blog from Toothy’s Wordshop – mainly about writing, science, remote working, business, culture, parenting, tech and gaming. Sometimes superheroes too. Stick around for tips, tricks, hacks and perspectives.

Categories
Uncategorised

Medical writing explained (badly)

“So… what do you do?” If you’re at a wedding or a networking event… or even making polite chat with the bloke servicing your boiler, chances are you’ve been asked this question at least a dozen times. I’ve been a medical writer for the best part of a decade, yet I still struggle to answer […]

Categories
Uncategorised

History of Med Comms

It’s difficult to imagine a world without healthcare communications. Commercials, TV advertisements, articles featured in newspapers and journals, or brochures found at your local GP’s ­– the impact of Med Comms is undeniably strong nowadays, but this wasn’t always the case. For the past 40 years, the Med Comms field has experienced its most dramatic growth […]

Categories
Uncategorised

Solving a puzzle with Agatha Christie

Often enough, piecing together all of the elements that make an outstanding brief feel like solving a puzzle. You have the captivating title, an impeccable introduction to the therapy area that flows perfectly into the problem at hand, culminating with the efficacy of a wondrous treatment that’s long been needed. Sounds simple enough, right? It’s […]

Categories
Uncategorised

Freedom and fireflies

Re-discovering childhood wonder (and stuffing it into your writing) The other day, I was on a ref pack job. So, I pencilled in a long lunchtime walk instead (only joking: it was a Veeva job). WHAM! Out of the blue, it took me by surprise, like a U-boat at a kids’ swimming pool. I had […]

Categories
Uncategorised

Multiverse: fact or fiction?

Our universe is incredibly big, encompassing hundreds of billions of galaxies, each containing an unimaginably vast number of stars. But is our universe the only one? Lately, the word ‘multiverse’ has become a part of the regular lingo in pop culture (mostly thanks to Marvel) and if you are like me, you’ll throw the term […]

Categories
Uncategorised

Making sense of Med Comms through D&D

An associate medical writer’s adventure So, for the first time ever, you find yourself in the midst of the medical writing field, not having a clue how you got here or where the nearest tavern is. Perhaps one of your team members accidentally cast Plane Shift when you weren’t looking, or you walked through an […]

Categories
Uncategorised

Med Comms Day 2022

Illuminating the path towards healthcare communications Without a shadow of a doubt, medical communication has influenced most people’s lives one way or another throughout the years. From cleverly-placed TV ads teaching us the importance of brushing our teeth twice daily (sharing the opinions of ‘9 out of 10 dentists’), to respecting social distancing policies and […]

Categories
Uncategorised

Editorial Quality Control like a Terminator

For errors, it’s Judgement Day Writers often use the term, ‘eagle eyes’, to affectionately describe a colleague’s fierce attention to detail while proofreading and completing editorial quality checks. However, this may not be as complimentary as it initially seems. While eagles have approximately 10 times greater visual resolution than humans1, they would clearly suck at […]

Categories
Uncategorised

Reimagining ‘The Metamorphosis’ by Franz Kafka

Thought experiment series: famous writers of history PART 3 For our third thought experiment, we take a look at the work of this piercingly-eyed, well-dressed gentleman: Franz Kafka. His work, so surreal and macabre, led to the coining of the term ‘Kafkaesque’, defined as, ‘having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre or illogical quality’.1 As no strangers […]

Categories
Uncategorised

Toothy’s Dream

I dreamed a (medical writing) dream… Every night, as Toothy laid his head down on his pillow and closed his eyes, he had the same dream… In it, he was transported to an awe-inspiring world; this was a land where like-minded monsters could realise their full career potential. He imagined a world where medical writing […]

Categories
Uncategorised

The great mechanical takeover

Who’d a thunk it? The end of the world (for writers) won’t look like your run-of-the-mill apocalypse; there’ll be no catastrophic environmental disaster, nor will there be issues with food shortages, pandemics, the threat of war… oh. Hold up. Let’s start again, in a manner suitable for a 2022 audience. Who’d a thunk it? Although […]

Categories
Uncategorised

Amazing scientific breakthroughs

Read through to discover four amazing scientific breakthroughs that may change our lives for the better. Here at Word Monster we love both science and words (who would’ve thunk it!?). While working in the field of med comms gives us the opportunity to bask within a lyrical bathtub of bubbling hot biology, it also exposes […]

Categories
Uncategorised

Why medical writing is more Sith than Jedi

Do we need to brush up on the Sith and Jedi codes before we continue? If so, and I can’t believe I’m doing this, I will refer you to this source1 (yes, I’m citing Star Wars lore. What kind of writer am I, again?). Before you ask: no, this post won’t mention the ABPI’s code, […]

Categories
Uncategorised

Things I wish I had known as a junior writer

I did all the research. I passed all the writing tests. I smashed all the interviews. But nothing could prepare me for my first day as a junior medical writer. Suddenly, I was thrown into a pretty niche (and secretive) industry with lots of strange rules and even stranger lexicon (symposia? Who is she?). As […]