I shouldn't have mentioned my uncle. Honest to God, when I brought this up in the first place, my family had nothing to do with it. They still don't. I'm trying to work out what I want to do with my job/career.

It's okay. I am happy to talk about your career with you. Hell, I'll be honest, I think it's cool that you and Meara "get" my references to work stuff (esp. on LJ).

Now, when you say that "medical writing" stuff is sent your way, as it comes (even if rarely), does that mean it's overflow from another department? Or do you not have a medical writer team on staff? We don't have one - we use consultants or CROs like Constella. So, that could be one option for you to explore.

We have one in-house medical writer who sits in Regulatory; she's my main hope for projects like protocols and the like. We do seem to outsource most of our major writing projects. Opportunities in drug safety are generally only SOPs and safety narratives (which is what got me into the company in the first place and what I cut my teeth on, medical writing-wise). It seems like a lot rests on the future of the new products we've acquired; when they get going, there will be many documents to create. I don't want to just be spinning my wheels until then, though. (I also don't want to leave before getting a promotion, since that will look good on my CV. And stability this year would be nice. But I was really hoping that I would be a real live medical writer by this fall, and that's not going to happen. This was supposed to be The Year. Guess I could push it out.)

We do seem to outsource most of our major writing projects.

Is there any opportunity to talk your manager(s) into letting you tackle some of this in house? It would save them money, and everyone likes that. Writing MedWatches and SOPs is boring; it's no wonder you want meatier stuff. The trick might be getting some of the stuff sent to the vendor sent to your desk instead. ETA: the other route could possibly be for you to join Reg as an associate and tackle the medical writing there. I know Reg might sound boring, but I really love it. You get to put your hands into everything, and I love the inter-disciplinary aspect of it.

The other thing you've mentioned is that recruiters are calling you - if they're calling you for DS and what you want is Medical Writing, are you mentioning your preference to them?

The other thing you've mentioned is that recruiters are calling you - if they're calling you for DS and what you want is Medical Writing, are you mentioning your preference to them?

Yep.

the other route could possibly be for you to join Reg as an associate and tackle the medical writing there. I know Reg might sound boring, but I really love it. You get to put your hands into everything, and I love the inter-disciplinary aspect of it.

Yeah, I think we're waiting to see when the lone medical writer there can start building a medical writing team. I don't know if there's a spot in Reg for an associate.

Is there any opportunity to talk your manager(s) into letting you tackle some of this in house? It would save them money, and everyone likes that. Writing MedWatches and SOPs is boring; it's no wonder you want meatier stuff. The trick might be getting some of the stuff sent to the vendor sent to your desk instead.

I'll definitely look into that. I think I just need to start being more aggressive. Problem is, my drug safety duties are still taking up a lot of my time; they were supposed to decrease once we hired more people on but the workload hasn't changed! If anything, it's increased.

can start building a medical writing team. I don't know if there's a spot in Reg for an associate.

Oh, got it. I tend to think of the Reg hierarchy irt "associate" when what I really meant was a medical writer position in that group.

I'm headed to bed now, but it looks like you're headed in the right direction. 'night.

Ah, crap, did I miss the big P-C Hug-off? Ah well.

puts boobies away

So, mind-bogglingly, I have written almost 60,000 words of a story in the past 3 weeks. (I reckon by tomorrow it'll be finished, and 60,000 words.) I'm going to maybe go and count up how many words I've written since January, because, holy mother of God, I'm kind of stunned at how prolific I've been. It's like the muse for writing fanfic just ate my brain. Which hasn't happened in YEARS.

Crazy. (I mean, prior to this my Big-Ass writing thing had been a Harry Potter novel, which, okay, was about 90k - but that took me YEARS to write, for the love of heaven. Not weeks.)

puts boobies away

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

As always, it is way too early to be sitting in the boarding area. No luck with a first class upgrade, but at least I got an exit row. That also put me in boarding group 9 so hopefully I can get my bag overheard. The real fun is I get to fly back out here on Monday.

Anyone around?

ND, are you headed home? I hope you can get some rest before flying back out there.