In our Labless series, we’re going to learn about scientists who work outside of the lab. We’ve spoken with people both in and outside of Abcam, and collected some great stories of success and scientific curiosity, all without any hint of bench work. Even if some of us do still long for that subtle smell of agar in the air, the constant sloshing of tubes on rotating platforms, and occasional whirr of the microcentrifuge…
In this episode, we hear from yours truly, me: scientist-turned-writer.
The Writer
I’m the Senior Editor at Abcam. It’s up to me to keep an eye on the copy that goes out to our customers and publications. This mean I have to make sure it has the right message, the right tone, and it’s in line with our brand values. It also needs to be useful and interesting!
It’s awesomely varied work: one day I might get to write a piece on neurodegeneration or create an advert to go into a major journal, and on another day I might have to edit email or website copy. And then, of course, there are days when I get to do Tipbox stuff! Which is pretty great.
But I never wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a scientist. Or, like most biologists, David Attenborough. But since David Attenborough was busy being David Attenborough, I decided to be some sort of scientist. I went off and got my undergrad in marine biology and then went and did my master’s in marine biology (but focused on ecotoxicology). Of course, the next logical step was a PhD in evodevo (that’s evolutionary developmental biology) – obviously… That went awry when someone stole all of my data (and the all of the belongings from my house – long story) at the end of my final year. So, I had to submit for an MPhil rather than the PhD. And so, without the doc for a post-doc, I was forced to pick things up, re-evaluate stuff, and find a new career path. And along came writing.
Young and beardless, back when I used to do the science, rather than write the science.
I’ve now worked as a medical writer in big agencies, interacting with Pharma and writing in medical journals; as a science writer in small agencies, creating all sorts of content from trade articles to infographics for clients; a freelance writer, which mainly meant rarely getting out of PJs and writing at weird hours; and finally I’ve settled on working ‘client-side’, here at Abcam.
The best thing about working as a science writer is that over the years I’ve been able to get my fingers in all the juicy science pies: medicine, technology, research – you name it. This is massively appealing to me as I’ve never been quite sure which area of science to specialize in; I always found all of it interesting and neglecting some of it felt like a waste. This way, I get to learn about things I would never normally have come across in the academia.
Conversely, the hardest thing is a lack of freedom in the early years. When you first start out, you essentially write whatever the client needs. I found that difficult coming from the lab where you have almost total autonomy over your work. Thankfully, as you progress, you start to have a lot more input into the creative direction of things.
If you want to get into writing, start writing! Seriously, start a blog, write about what you’re interested in, practice writing every day. It’s a skill (which as you can see, I’m still mastering!), so you have to work hard to improve it. When considering your first writing job, remember: agency work is varied but can be quite intense; freelancing has loads of freedom but can lack security; and client-side work sits nicely in the middle – for me, at least.
The world needs greats science communicators so don’t be afraid to take your scientific knowledge for a bit of a romp outside of the lab!
