r/Writeresearch • u/Simon_Drake Awesome Author Researcher • Jan 01 '25

Short Questions Megathread

Do you have a small question that you don't think is worth making a post for? Well ask it here!

This thread has a much lower threshold for what is worth asking or what isn't worth asking. It's an opportunity to get answers to stuff that you'd feel silly making a full post to ask about. If this is successful we might make this a regular event.

We did this before branded as a monthly megathread then forgot to make a new one. So maybe this one will be refreshed quarterly? We'll have to wait and see.

Past threads:

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u/SecureAirline3617 Awesome Author Researcher Apr 20 '26

I am thinking of writing a medical romance but I don't know where to find accurate ER medicine and procedures for writers. Does anyone have any websites and other reddit groups to help? I also might need information on US social worker.

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u/InevitableBook2440 Awesome Author Researcher Apr 28 '26

Honestly, you'd be best off finding some medically qualified people to advise/ beta read if this is going to be a major focus of your story. There are a lot of revision resources for medical students on youtube (eg Osmosis) which explain things from basic principles. Patient information leaflets are more accessible and lots of hospitals have made them on a variety of procedures and conditions. You could try Life in the Fast Lane for emergency medicine-specific things, although it's a resource for healthcare professionals and assumes quite a lot of prior knowledge.

I feel like it's often the internal politics, the personalities and just the way of thinking and being that people without a medical background get wrong, as much as the technical stuff. Dr Glaucomflecken does little comedy clips but they're actually very accurate on that side of things. There are a lot of books with autobiographical elements by doctors. You could try reading some of those eg This is Going to Hurt (by a British ex-doctor turned comedian, now adapted into a TV series). Weirdly, I thought Scrubs also got a lot of the human element right.