Dr Michelle Johnston on a Career Balancing Medicine and Literature

In this episode of the CCIM podcast, host Dr Elise Putt sits down with Dr Michelle Johnston, an emergency physician at Royal Perth Hospital and a published novelist. Dr Johnston discusses the challenging balance between her clinical role and her passion for writing, emphasising the highly controlled environment of emergency medicine and the struggle to find time to write.Sharing her writing journey, Dr Johnston recounts early failures and rejections, learning from feedback, and progressively improving her craft. She describes the long journey of her first serious work, "Dustfall," detailing the timeline and process of eventual publication in 2018 after numerous rejections.Emphasising the slow, incremental nature of writing progress, Dr Johnston speaks about the significance of patience and focusing on the quality of work over the outcome. She identified herself as a "pantser" who does not outline her plots or characters beforehand, underscores the essential role of feedback and learning in developing writing skills.Dr Johnston admires the work of authors such as Rebecca Solnit, Virginia Woolf, Barbara Kingsolver, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and several others, for their beautiful writing and profound sentences. She shares that her most formative books include "Catch-22" and "One Hundred Years of Solitude." For her, the craft of writing is about creating sentences that combine observation, philosophy, and poetry, while also engaging readers with rhythm and musicality.Reflecting on her experiences in emergency medicine, Dr Johnston finds joy in the absurdity and delight in human behaviour and choices, although she is cautious about sharing specific patient stories. She emphasises the writer's role in capturing the unnoticed beauty and humour of the world around us, aiming to help readers see things from a new perspective.Discussing her nonfiction work on the human body and critical illness, sharing challenges encountered when starting with answers rather than questions. Reflecting on the things she learned through writing, the importance of time, and feedback for improvement. When considering an alternative career, Dr Johnston expresses an interest in journalism, highlighting its significance in delivering fair and accurate information.To get more CCIM, subscribe so you never miss an episode, join our Facebook community and subscribe to our newsletter!CCIM WebsiteCCIM FacebookThe CCIM Podcast is part of the Talking HealthTech Podcast Network, offering the latest in healthcare delivery, innovation, digital health, and more. Discover the network at www.talkinghealthtech.com/podcast/network.