Writing Dental (Part Two)

Welcome to part two of Writing Dental, blogs which correlate writing and dentistry. You can find part one – principles one to three – here: Writing Dental

There was a comment on Writing Dental last month, which read: ‘Sometimes writing feels like pulling teeth!’

Perhaps paralleling writing and dentistry is not so strange, after all.

 

GDC Standards.

There are nine principles registered dental professionals must keep at all times.

 

Principle Four

Dentist: Maintain and Protect Patient’s Information

Writer: Maintain and Protect Subject’s Information

 

As a devotional writer, I often write about Bible characters. Principle Four got me thinking about maintaining and protecting Bible character’s integrity.

Staying true to how the Bible portrays them.

 

Principle Five

Dentist/Writer: Have a clear and effective complaints procedure

 

I recently billed someone incorrectly for an order they made via my website.

It was entirely my mistake, and I emailed them and apologised.

They emailed back, assuring me they’d check their account.

I gave them a discount for their trouble.

They immediately said they’d donate the discount to charity.

They had not complained. Would they have done so had I not pre-empted?

I don’t know.

But the outcome was good.

 

Principle Six

Dentist: Work with colleagues in a way that is in patients’ best interests

Writer: Work with colleagues in a way that is in readers’ best interests

 

I recently posted on social media about my forthcoming book. I suggested people might like to pre-order online or direct from me. Someone commented: ‘or from bookshops’.

I immediately edited my post.

How could I have forgotten the bookshops?!

I needed someone to point it out. As I needed my editor to point out errors in my manuscript. As I needed a cover designer to do what I can’t. As I needed my publisher to take the book-concept on in the first place. As I needed….

 

I once needed surgery: not dental, but perhaps still applicable to dentists and Principle Six.

When I came round from the anaesthetic, I was told that the surgeon had nearly given up. They’d opened my back, looked at my spine, and thought the surgery too difficult. They’d nearly closed me back up again but, at the last minute, had consulted with a colleague. Which led to the surgery being completed after all. The colleague had given a different angle on it.

When we work together, with editors/beta readers/ACW colleagues, our books will be the best they can be. Which is certainly in the readers’ best interests.

 

Jane Eyre has, in its closing chapter, the famous line ‘Reader, I married him’.

Throughout the novel, the reader is directly addressed over thirty times (thanks, Google).

Charlotte Bronte kept her reader in mind throughout.

Perhaps the book itself became a colleague she worked with.

There’s a thought….