What a former medical student with a severe case of imposter syndrome wants you to know
John Lawrence’s laugh-out-loud new Playing Doctor memoir is a candid and unfiltered look at what you can expect as a medical student.
Playing Doctor: Part Two: Residency (Blundering along with imposter syndrome) is due out in December and covers residency training with increased responsibility and fear.
Indeed it follows on from Lawrence’s recent Playing Doctor: Part One: Medical School (Stumbling through with amnesia) about transforming from an uncertain, head injured, liberal-arts student into a medical doctor.
Certainly Lawrence was not a typical med student. For example, he snuck out of hospital while on-call to audition for television shows so that he could pay the rent!
But his writing has been praised by No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Lauren Weisberger (The Devil Wears Prada and When Life Gives You Lululemons).
Lawrence caught up with Forever Young Autobiographies recently to tell us more about his new life-story book, the writing process and offer tips to fellow writers …
Related article – Publishing: The ultimate guide to publishing a life story
Related article – Case study: Adopted twin sister Julie Ryan McGue on penning her family search memoir Twice a Daughter
John Lawrence’s Playing Doctor series
A long ride to med school
I joke that I was initially a reluctant doctor.
For example, when my undergraduate career counselor asked what I was considering doing with my life, I wasn’t sure.
But I told him the one thing I did not want to be was a doctor.
So when I actually attended medical school, it was after a more atypical and circuitous route than most med students.
Previously I worked as a paralegal and applied to law school, was a ski guide in France, a river-rafting guide in southern Utah, worked in a ski store and took acting classes while completing the pre-med classes I never took in college (i.e. all of them).
Also I was a bagel baker and started an environmental company marketing disruptive energy-efficient and economically sound environmental products to Second World countries.
Finally, I went to medical school — which I started with amnesia.
This was after suffering two traumatic head injuries from bike crashes a month before, and then again the night before, medical school started.
So, my medical school experience was a bit unconventional.
However, people seemed to enjoy hearing my interpretations, which were mostly self-deprecating as I felt quite lost academically.
But I could at least observe and comment on medical school life and the post-graduate training.
Related article – Funny stories: See how easily you can be humorous and write a funny story
Why write Playing Doctor: Part Two: Residency?
I was already writing, mostly screenplays, while in my residency training.
But when I was on call working overnight in the hospitals, I would send out group emails (this was pre-blog era) summarising the blunders, hilarity and mishaps in the hospital.
So I had a lot of great responses to those stories (although the 3am rambling left more than a few friends worried I had broken into the hospital pharmacy!).
And eventually someone asked if they could publish a bunch of those emails.
I told them, just hold on, why don’t I write out the entire experience?
So, I did.
But over the years it got pushed back while I worked on other projects, occasionally stepping back to re-edit chapters, but never completing it properly.
Then a few years ago, I was pushing to get a television show idea launched.
And after a lot of time and effort, my partner bailed on me — and he was the one with the Hollywood connections.
Next I wanted to get something else going, and this personal manuscript was something I always enjoyed myself and hoped others would too.
So I broke the one large story into several smaller ones and re-edited it over the last few years.
Then I self-published book one in the series, Playing Doctor: Part One: Medical School, last year.
And Playing Doctor: Part Two: Residency comes out in December.
Support for the series
You never really know how supportive friends and family will be!
They have all seen me talk about projects and films, theater, screenplays … and I think sometimes they are fed up with my talking about it all along.
Then again, they’ve seen me produce plays, direct a feature film and move ahead with Playing Doctor: Part Two: Residency.
Certainly I’m super fortunate to have a wife and family and friends, all of whom are supportive.
And my wife grants me the time to work on my creative projects as she knows this is what I love to do.
Writing and finishing Playing Doctor: Part Two: Residency
Getting started
The earliest scraps of this series go back to my medical school and residency days in the mid to late 1990s.
As mentioned above, I was not the typical medical student.
I never really planned to go to medical school, had a liberal-arts education and when I finally did start, had a really nasty case of short-term memory loss/amnesia.
So, while I was not the uber-competitive student, I did find humour in the whole situation and would be listening to patients and scribbling dialogue to remember.
Then throughout residency, I sent out long emails, which later proved to be great sources of content for the book.
Therefore the series itself was something I just set out to write in chronological order from medical school through residency.
So I sat down and wrote. Almost every day.
Combining all the aggregate time together for the writing, it took over 20 years to get to the point that it was published!
Overcoming writing challenges
The writing part, probably similar to most writers, just required the not-always-easy-to-come by discipline to sit down and work.
And once you sit and write every day, it becomes more enjoyable with less resistance, to the point you don’t feel complete without it.
Certainly the idea of learning to self-publish and advertise was difficult as I am not naturally someone who likes to market or post about myself – and this book was directly about my story.
But the hardest part was probably the internal struggle to actually think there was any reason that people would want to read my story.
Why would anyone read this story as opposed to watching a top-rated Netflix show?
And then your mind spirals down, that the writing is not good, the stories not interesting, etc.
So there was some work to do regarding the internal critic.
However, I actually found this challenge to be a good opportunity to work on that part of myself that worried about what other people would think.
I tried to relax, with thoughts like, if this makes one person laugh, it’s worth it all.
Therefore knowing that not everyone would like it, that it wasn’t to their taste, and not to take it personally was a helpful idea/mantra.
Related article – Good writing: Writing tips on how to become a better writer (plus writing prompts free training)
Uncovering writing rewards
The feedback when friends, and people I don’t know, write to tell me they were laughing out loud, and ask when Playing Doctor: Part Two: Residency is coming out.
Certainly that’s a tremendous feeling.
And knowing that my voice resonated with readers was really empowering and gave me the courage to proceed with the next books in the series.
Also each chapter of Playing Doctor: Part Two: Residency reads as its own short story or essay and I find humour or heartache in a lot of the chapters.
Having just worked on some final edits, I will say while I have some favorite anecdotes that still make me laugh, the favorite part of the book is witnessing, in the last chapter(s), the start of an arc that the main character (that’s me) is starting to feel confident as a doctor.
So what makes it fun for me is that I did not feel that realisation when it was happening but only recognised it consciously now, 20 years later, in these last edits.
Tips for new writers
Write, write and write.
Certainly I think writers hear it all the time, but your writing craft is like a muscle that needs to be exercised and it gets easier the more you do it.
So just commit and start it.
Second, put down a deadline to start, then sit and write every day.
Eventually you have a book. And then the writing really starts!
Indeed the cliche that writing is rewriting is absolutely true.
In short, it’s so much easier to work on your project once there is writing on the page versus staring at a blank page with ideas floating in your head.
Related article – First draft: Don’t start writing a first draft before reading this!
Final say: Playing Doctor: Part Two: Residency
Playing Doctor: Part Two: Residency (Blundering along with imposter syndrome) by John Lawrence is a funny medical memoir born from chaotic, disjointed and frightening nights on hospital wards.
However, it highlights that how we handle difficult situations is what counts.
So take a read for yourself when Playing Doctor: Part Two: Residency comes out on December 27 as a paperback and ebook at Amazon (pre-orders available now).
Also connect with Lawrence at his website and on Facebook.
Happy writing!
Free gift!
Need a hand interviewing a loved one to record their life story? Check out the Your Family Stories System. And sign up here to get the first few sections for free.
Your say
Do you have a funny story from when you were a student? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Send me an email or leave a reply in the comments section at the end of this article.
Get in touch
Have you hit a roadblock planning, writing, polishing or finishing your life story? Let me know here so I can help!
Don’t miss an article
Sign up here to get instant notifications when new material is published.
