Living from one Not-A-No email to another

As most freelancers will attest to, the next best thing to getting a “yes, go ahead and write that amazing article/story/book” email or phone call is getting an email that asks for further clarification of a query or proposal, says that they’re considering it, or that they are still discussing the upcoming calendar. That means… it’s not a “no” yet!

I received one of those emails yesterday. A couple of months ago, I sent a query to a magazine that I would love to write for. I hadn’t heard back so I sent the editor a follow-up note two weeks ago. She responded, telling me that they were going to be meeting soon to discuss calendars. Great, I thought. That’s a not-a-no. :-) Yesterday, I received another email from her asking for some more information about my query, which I promptly sent off. That’s another not-a-no. :-) So, even now if she eventually comes back with a no thanks, although I’ll be disappointed, I am happy to know that at least my query had enough merit to catch her attention and maybe I’ll come up with a more fitting idea to try again. Notice that I didn’t say a better idea – I think my idea is good and obviously she thinks it has merit too. If it is refused, it’s because it doesn’t quite fit and that’s ok.

I don’t mind the rejection notes, that’s part of the freelance life. In fact, I prefer a rejection note to sheer silence. That’s frustrating because you never know if your idea was ever considered. I know that my writing isn’t a good fit for all magazines or journals and that not all topics are what they want at that time. Not to mention, I’m not exactly a household name and my publications in non-health related stuff is pretty slim. So, rejections are all part of the game. But I’m just so tickled when I know that my ideas are being considered at least.

So, some people live paycheck to paycheck – I live from not-a-no email to not-a-no-email. Works for me.

News for today:
HPV vaccination plan should be halted, reviewed: researcher
New breast cancer type has poor prognosis
Research suggests 1 joint equals up to 5 cigarettes
Rotating shift workers have lower levels of serotonin
Hostile Men Could Have Greater Risk for Heart Disease, Study Finds

Writing to Grade Level

I’ve been asked how to write patient education or information sheets for the general public, ensuring that it is at the appropriate grade level. Some people feel that it is very easy to “write down” to a lower reading level, while others are very intimidated about the very idea.

In my opinion, writing to a lower grade reading level, most often Grade 8, is not writing down. Nor is it when I’m asked to write to a Grade 6 reading level. Writing down or, as some say, dumbing down, insinuates that the people who are reading the copy are not as smart as we are. I had a rather lively debate with a fellow writer once about this. This writer said that the best way to see if your text was good for a Grade 6 reading level was to find some children in that grade and have them read it.

Although I understand the reasoning, I disagreed with that approach. An adult with a 6th grade reading level has way more than 12 years of life experience. So, their ability to understand certain concepts could greatly outstrip those of a 12-year-old. Just because one’s reading is at a certain level, doesn’t mean that the comprehension or the experience is at that level.

There is a movement called the plain language movement. It came to be because so much documentation is written in such complicated language that it is getting ridiculously difficult to understand. In fact, according to the Plain Language website, in June 1998, US President Bill Clinton issued a memo requiring government agencies to write in plain language.

That all being said, plain language varies between reading levels. So, how do we tell what reading level we have?

The easiest and most commonly used judge of reading level comes with the Microsoft Word program, the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test . It’s not extremely accurate because it uses the number of words per sentence, the number of syllables per word, and so on. This is a big drawback when you are writing patient education sheets because there are times when you need to use bigger technical terms and they automatically shoot up your reading level. In cases like this, if I’m using the FK test to check my reading level, I will take out the complicated medical terms for the assessment and then get a more accurate reading level that way.

There are companies and experts who can tell you reading levels, but I prefer to use the common sense approach. This means things like:
No long sentences
Limited or no use of semi-colons
Bullet lists whenever possible
Short paragraphs
Simpler words over the multi-syllable words.

Just those five points make a big difference in reading level.

If you want to write simple, concise, and easy-to-understand material, think short and sweet. Read your text out loud to yourself. Use active voice, avoid passive. The sentence “The patient took the medication and felt much better,” sounds a lot easier to understand than, “The medication given to the patient provided significant improvement.” Are there any sentences that leave you gasping for breath because they’re so long? Do you have any lists that could be bulleted? Think about simplicity. Explain all your long or complicated terms the first time they’re used and then abbreviate or use the everyday term when possible.

Just out of curiosity, I checked the Flesch-Kincaid reading level of this piece to the above paragraph: it clocked in at grade 9.9. When I removed the bullet list above, it jumped to 10.4.

I truly enjoy the challenge of meeting different grade levels. One client sometimes asks me to write the same patient education information in both grades 6 and 8 levels. Grade 8 is a piece of cake most times, I think. Grade 6 can be enormously challenging, but it’s a challenge I like.

We want to encourage people to read our work, we don’t want them to get frustrated, and we don’t want them to feel as if we’re talking down to them. That’s important to remember.

News for today:
Folic acid cut birth defect rate in Canada: study
Quality of life for obese kids same as cancer patients: analysis
Patients With Early Parkinson's Exhibit Sleepiness, Hallucinations

I love my work

Have I mentioned lately how much I love what I do for a living? I have to give my husband a lot of credit for not saying anything when I announced to him that this is what I wanted to do – freelance full-time. Whether he had reservations, he never said. He knows that I can do a good job, but doing a good job and translating it to a full-time income isn’t always the same thing. I’ll always be grateful for his support.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve worked on so many different things that I can’t get bored; I don’t have time! Right now, I’m writing some patient education material (my favourite work), procedure summaries, wellness messages, nursing articles and article/study summaries. I’m editing a CME newsletter and gathering together information for an up-and-coming website. And that’s just the main stuff. I have a few other things in the works as well and I’m really enjoying it.

It’s funny because I have worked from home since the late 1990s, but I was never as happy and relaxed as now. I’ve always said that I’m not organized enough to do this because it’s more than just writing. You have to market yourself, you have to keep track of your clients, you have to keep track of your projects, and you have to make sure you invoice your clients and get paid. Oh, and then there’s the taxes and expenses, and everything else. When I was freelancing on the side, I was right – I wasn’t organized to do a good job keeping things straight. While I kept my clients straight and the work, I was awful at keeping my records straight. But now that I’m doing it full time, I’m as organized as can be. Everything is being logged in the right places and paper work is done on time as it should be. I barely recognize myself. Now, if I could figure out how to organize my office so it doesn’t look like a tornado hit it.

Making the jump to full-time freelancing is scary. There’s so much of “what if” that it can start playing games with your mind. What if you can’t find the clients? What if the clients aren’t happy? What if you can’t deliver? And on and on. Of course, there’s also the other worries like, what if you get sick and can’t work? What if…..?

But, if the what ifs start to get too overwhelming, it’s time—I think—to ask, what if I get too much work? What if I have to start turning down work? What if I can’t take a vacation? Wouldn’t those what ifs be so much more fun to ask?

I’m determined to make this work. I would really like to spread out though. Although the medical and health writing is interesting and can be fun, I would love to be able to write more general things. I’ve started querying some magazines with some ideas I have. It probably won’t be easy being able to switch mindsets sometimes, but it will be worth it. I’m sure of it.

Today’s News:
Calgary Health Region issues TB alert
Caught sleeping on the job? No worries
Antipsychotics increase death risk among seniors