Why do you suppose he said that? I'll tell you why. Once upon a time, doctors doctored. That's all. They diagnosed and treated patients' ailments. They were trained to figure out what was wrong and how to fix it. Not any more...
That particular physician was a personal favorite of mine. He made wart removal look like a magic act, eliciting oohs and aahs when the medicine (in a coffee cup) vanished in air during mid-throw. It didn't take long walking around his waiting room and down the halls of his back offices to see he came from an illustrious musical and artistic family. His mom was a painter, his sister a cellist, his brother also a musician of some sort. His father was a world-famous sculptor who designed the Grizzly Bear on the University of Montana quad.
One day, I asked my doctor wherein lay his talent. He laughed. "I don't have any. That's why I became a doctor!"
Unfortunately, being a doctor wasn't any fun for him anymore. Insurance companies and Medicare, all the organizations and institutions paying for his patients' treatments, were piling more and more paperwork on him. There were more and more codes to use for all the ways he managed pain and disease processes. More and more alternative and cheaper routes to offer care. He couldn't keep up with it all and actually practice medicine.
Isn't that a sad story? It's getting worse. Eventually, AI will do it all. I ain't whistling Dixie either. You input all your ailments into a program and out spits the cheapest treatment option. If that don't resolve the issue, you try the next and the next. Until, finally, you get to see a real live NP or PA. Soon, there will be no more General Practitioners. All anyone will go to medical school to become are specialists.
So, what the hell does this have to do with me????? I'll tell you in a nutshell. I write novels. I get into characters' heads. I make them do stuff, say stuff, feel stuff. I create story lines, develop plots and subplots, and mold characters all along the way until the final act when they finally do that penultimate thing, say that penultimate word, feel that penultimate emotion that ties the whole mess together into a feel-good tale of triumph.
That's what I used to do, that is. Now, I'm struggling to meander my way around complex websites, inputting data and clicking this and that. Just to market my stories. I don't have time to simply write. But, this must be done. Since the advent of the internet, it's become more and more necessary to develop proficiency is finding the right search words for all the myriad search engines in order to reach my reader niches. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
That's why I decided to develop a blogsite. One that has wide applicability. While I'm trying to market my novels, I get to talk about them and tease interest in them. One of these days, I'll figure out the ins and outs of how to fully use it to connect with readers on a grand scale.
In the meantime, I continue to write. And my characters' story evolves. I love my characters. They chose me to tell their tale. And to introduce them to the world. And make them famous.
Boy, are they asking a lot.
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