The AAMC team sat down to talk with Vanessa Le, author of The Last Bloodcarver and second-year medical student at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. Vanessa shared how writing and medicine are intertwined in her life.
What sparked your interest in medicine?
I’ve always been between two things — writing and medicine. I started seriously wanting to get into medicine when we started dissection in my high school anatomy class. That interest continued into college. I became an EMT on campus during undergrad. Being able to be there for people when they were at their lowest point confirmed that medicine was the path for me.
When did you know you wanted to be an author?
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. My early work was inspired by things I was reading, things I thought I could write differently from my perspective.
How did you decide to pursue both writing and medicine?
I didn’t think it was possible to pursue medicine and be a writer professionally. But when I was a junior in college, the pandemic hit. I took my junior and senior year classes from home and found myself with a lot more time. I used this time to start writing again. I took two gap years between graduation and applying to medical school. Because I was used to dedicating so much time to school and studying, I found myself with a lot of free time after work. I continued writing and decided to look into agents.
What does a typical day look like for you?
It depends on if I have a deadline or not. What’s pretty standard is I wake up as late as I can to get ready for class or the hospital. I typically start my day with about half an hour of Anki review and then go to class. I set a schedule for myself by creating school-related Google Tasks to accomplish for each day. When those are complete, I transition from med school time to writing.
A lot of people ask how I do it. But writing really is an outlet for me, like therapy or watching TV. It’s how I unwind at the end of the day. I just happened to get lucky that my hobby is a field I can publish and make money in.
What parts of balancing your writing and med school do you find most challenging? What parts do you find most rewarding?
The most challenging thing is just the pure amount of time in a day. I get 24 hours each day to dedicate solely to writing and medicine. In addition to being time-consuming, writing and medicine are both rejection- and stress-heavy jobs. And as someone who likes to be in control, they are both so out of your control in many ways.
Still, I find there are more rewards than deficits. My writing is medicine-inspired. Being able to combine my passions and find a creative outlet for my scientific interests is extremely rewarding. It allows me to see medicine in a different way and has elevated both my writing and my medical practice to be able to connect the two.
How do your experiences as a med student contribute to your writing? And in what way does your writing benefit you as an aspiring physician?
It’s very important to me that every book I write is honest to myself. My books reflect my lived experience. Having experiences is necessary to being able to craft a meaningful story that connects to people. Medicine informs my writing; it gives me something to write about. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Writing, on the other hand, helps me remember that medicine is not my life 24-7 and lets me have a creative outlet. It also really sticks in your mind when you write something. I’ll never forget the things I research for my books. They often become plot points in my writing but also serve as a way to retain the things I’ve learned.
What advice do you have for premed and med students who want to pursue passions outside of medicine?
Don’t be afraid if your passions take time away from your clinical interests. The med school application process is a lot more holistic than you may think. Test scores are incredibly important, and I don’t want to insinuate otherwise. But at my school I’m surrounded by amazing people, and what makes them amazing is the people they are outside of medicine. I was interviewed many times during my application cycle, and the thing I was always asked about was my book. While pursuing a time-consuming passion comes with sacrifices, it’s been incredibly worthwhile for self-fulfillment and professional development.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I’d like to wish everyone good luck. My dad often says, “Everything is a steppingstone.” You’ll get there eventually if you want it hard enough. Don’t be discouraged if it takes a while.
To keep up with Vanessa and her work, follow her on Instagram or visit her website.