Interlude: Creativity, Statistics, and Gifts for Writers

Do you consider scientific and medical writing as creative?

Many scientists and clinicians think that writing manuscripts and grant proposals is technical writing that does not require creativity. But writing is a creative process, even if you're writing about something technical.

If you're not sure you agree, I highly recommend that you read The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. I recently finished this book and was incredibly impressed with the author's insight and advice—too much to share in this little newsletter. I borrowed the audiobook from my local library and have every intention of buying a hardcopy that I can take notes in, so you know it's good.

Now onto the other good stuff...

💌 Round-up

🎉 Featured

​Elected Vice-President/President-elect for the AMWA Northern California Chapter​
I'm thrilled to share that I was elected the 2024 Vice-President/President-elect and the Communications Committee Chair for the AMWA Northern California Chapter. I'm so excited to continue supporting the chapter and its remarkable community of medical writers.

👓 Reading

​Introducing the Guide to Statistics and Methods: A New Series for JAMA Internal Medicine​
"JAMA Internal Medicine is...introducing a new series, the Guide to Statistics and Methods, intended to help clinician readers more fully understand and interpret scientific articles...The focus of each...article will be a specific statistical method applied in a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine and will address why one should apply that statistical method vs another approach. These articles will explain how the findings from the specific statistical method used in the accompanying...article should be interpreted, including consideration of its limitations, potential for bias, and generalizability.”

​Randomized Clinical Trial Visual Abstract Display and Social Media–Driven Website Traffic​
“Linking VAs [visual abstracts] were associated with increased link clicks compared with expandable VAs and article figures. Expandable VAs were associated with increased impressions and engagement compared with linking VAs and article figures.”

🎁 Gifting

​Your 2023 Guide to Holiday Gifts for Writers​
Are you looking for a holiday gift for a writer (or yourself)? Check out this incredible list of gifts for the word nerds in your life. I've got my eye on the Scone with the Wind cookbook and book puzzle.

💬 Quote

"To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science." – Albert Einstein

Thank you so much for reading.

Warmly,

Crystal