{"id":32355,"date":"2013-07-16T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2013-07-16T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/?p=32355"},"modified":"2013-07-16T22:47:24","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T02:47:24","slug":"writing-a-more-believable-medical-heroheroine-day-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2013\/07\/writing-a-more-believable-medical-heroheroine-day-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing a more believable medical hero\/heroine… Day One"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Medical<\/a><\/p>\n

Image \u00a9\u00a0Shannon Matteson<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Dreamstime Stock Photos<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

A few years ago, I attended a conference. \u00a0One of the workshops was on romantic suspense and building a more believable bad guy.<\/p>\n

This is good stuff, I thought, stuff I needed to know. So I trotted on to the workshop, notebook in hand…it was a handy notebook. I still have it. \u00a0I made notes on the villain I came up with, because sooner or later, that will be a story.<\/p>\n

The last…eh…thirty minutes or so weren’t bad. \u00a0She gave useful info and I was able to use some of the info she gave me to help build more believeable bad guys. \u00a0Like the one in the Ash trilogy.<\/p>\n

Normally, I’d be all over buying her backlist, because her info was\u00a0solid<\/em>…as far as that goes.<\/p>\n

She lost me out of the gate, though.<\/p>\n

All because of this…<\/p>\n

\n

So when I decided I’d be writing a romance with a doctor for a heroine, the first thing I did was order eight seasons of\u00a0<\/em>ER.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And UP goes my hand.<\/p>\n

I tried to be nice. Really. It was her workshop.<\/p>\n

But that was some bad advice and I couldn’t, in good conscience, let a bunch of writers think that ordering ER was solid research.<\/p>\n

She looks at me, smiles… and I go… “Ah, ER is really not very useful for medical research. \u00a0Maybe you could try talking to doctors or nurses.”<\/p>\n

And she tells me…\u00a0doctors and nurses are busy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Okay, then. To be fair, I did buy her book. I read it. And yep, even though trauma isn’t my thing, the medical stuff didn’t come off as remotely believable. Not from a nurse’s POV. \u00a0If she’d\u00a0asked<\/em> a nurse, or\u00a0asked<\/em> a doctor, a few little things here or there, would have made it more workable.<\/p>\n

TV is a piss-poor excuse for research. \u00a0I’m not a cop, but I’m not going to assume that\u00a0Law and Order<\/em> is seriously what happens in law enforcement.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0only<\/em> medical show I’ve ever watched that didn’t make me want to either\u00a0laugh<\/em> or bang my head was\u00a0House<\/em>. Grey’s\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0ER\u00a0<\/em>often just made me snicker or roll my eyes so I didn’t bother watching.<\/p>\n

But House?<\/em>\u00a0That one I liked,\u00a0because the main character was such a bastard. I loved him.<\/p>\n

Some (possibly little known\/understood) info about the medical profession, and nurses in particular:<\/p>\n