Executive Summary

This is a unique course in which you will learn how to write a successful and memorable medical memoir from Michael J. Collins, MD and Ross A. Pennie, MD; physicians who have brought their medical experiences to life through published memoirs. It is an ideal preconference for physicians who have a story to tell and is specifically designed for physicians interested in writing a medical memoir.
 

8:30 - 9:30 Personal Success Stories
Michael J. Collins, M.D. and Ross A. Pennie, M.D. will explain how they turned their experiences, in a four year residency at the Mayo Clinic and as a medical volunteer in Papua New Guinea, into memorable and successful medical memoirs.

9:30 - 9:45 Memoir vs. Autobiography: What is the Difference?
Faculty will discuss the similarities and differences between an autobiography and a memoir. The faculty will explain the need for fine writing, accurate detail, entertainment for wide readership, and humor which are the hallmarks of successful commercial memoirs.

9:45 - 10:30 Journaling: The Key to a Successful Memoir
Michael and Ross will explain the importance of keeping a journal and how a journal can be used in helping you create your medical memoir.

10:45 - 11:15 Resurrecting Your Memories
Michael and Ross will discuss the techniques they used to resurrect and recapture their "memories" including: reading diaries, looking at picture albums, letters, newspaper clippings, retrieving letters, reminiscing with friends and family, and making a date line of events. Their research techniques will be explored.

11:15 - 12:00 Finding Your Voice
Ross and Michael will explain and demonstrate through the use of their memoirs how to develop your own unique "voice" to make your memoir memorable, entertaining and commercial.

1:00 - 2:00 Increasing Readability: Just Because it is True Doesn't Make it Interesting
Ross and Michael will discuss how to increase the readability and commercial viability of your memoir by increasing the resonance for your readers and their engagement with your story. Techniques such as show much tell little, dribbling dry facts, including dialogue, highlighting the quirkiness of your characters and much more will be covered.

2:00 - 2:15 Transitions: How to Make Them Feel Natural
Faculty will discuss how to make your transitions easy, natural and how to use them to help drive your story.

2:15 - 2:30 Respecting Privacy: What Should You Not Say?
Michael and Ross will explain how they deal with the issues of privacy, propriety, and accuracy.

2:45 - 3:30 Driving Your Narrative: How to Develop a Sense of Forward Progression
Faculty will discuss how to develop a framework for your stories and maintain a forward progression throughout your medical memoir.

3:30 - 4:15 Getting Your Medical Memoir Published
Michael and Ross will discuss getting help, finding an agent and publisher and making the breakthrough with your medical memoir.

4:15 - 4:30 Concluding Roundtable Discussion
Ross and Michael will open the floor to any additional questions.

Faculty

Michael J. Collins, MD, has been an orthopedic surgeon in Chicago, IL since 1983. He has been writing professionally for over 20 years. His first book "Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Year" is being published in February 2005, by St. Martin's Press. It reprises Mike's terrifying and hilarious stint as an orthopedic resident at the Mayo Clinic. It has already had 2 starred reviews, and a book sense selection in Reader's Digest Condensed Books domestically and internationally.

Ross A. Pennie, MD, is a professor and infectious disease specialist affiliated with McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario. Ross is the winner of numerous teaching and literary competitions. His medical memoir "The Unforgiving Tides" published by Manor House Publishing, Inc. is a touching testament to the strength of the human spirit and the limits of modern medicine. It is the award winning creative telling of his true adventures as a 25 year old medical volunteer in Papua New Guinea.