Last week, you might have seen the How to Pitch feature on Cure. With magazines such as that, Seed, Scientific American and medical journals, there is a huge potential for writing about science and medicine. If you don't have a base knowledge of science writing, it can be difficult to write about the topic, but it is possible.

"Never in a million years would I have thought I'd end up doing medical writing. (I mean, I barely passed Biology 100. Not 101. 100)," says a writer here in Chicago. "I got an entry-level editing job at a a trade magazine of a pathology association, and they basically trained me to recognize common terms (even if you don't know what it is, you can at least know if it's spelled right). It helped that it was a magazine and not a journal, so the writing was more informal, involved a lot of quotes from doctors and so on."

"I definitely don't think you have to go the grad school/specialized degree route to break into health and science writing," says Brenda Goodman, a science and biology writer who has published in places like Scientific American. "Look at Bill Bryson, for instance. He's just really interested in physics. He had a lot of questions about science, and he did the patient work of tracking down experts who worked precisely on the things that he had questions about (this often takes more time that people are willing to give it.) But he tracked them down, he called, he asked genuine, if simplistic, questions, and several hundred interviews later he had A Short History of Nearly Everything. I mean, there's a regular guy who fully geeked out and won awards for it. I think newbies who really love health and science can do very well at it, but they need to be prepared to work twice as hard to learn about something before writing about it. (As would be true if you were venturing into any realm of writing--business writing or travel writing.)"

"About half the science writers I've met started in science and half were journalists by trade who gravitated to science and medical writing. I don't think you need an advanced degree, but some college-level science courses definitely help," says Dan Ferber, who has written for such publications as Popular Science. "The key ingredients are insatiable curiosity about science, medicine, and how the world works, and an ability to ask a lot of dumb questions, questions that the scientist or doctor might regard as basic but provide much-needed background for the reader."

"One thing I learned quickly was that if you're editing something you don't completely understand, you have to be very, very careful not to inadvertently change its meaning," adds the Chicago writer. "So you have to get paranoid and stay paranoid. One time I changed "a real case of anthrax" to "a confirmed case of anthrax." Well, as I found out, they're not the same thing. Oops. Eventually I started writing stories for the magazine that didn't require a lot of medical knowledge--obituaries of doctors, summaries of conferences, things like that--and once I got familiar enough with the various names and functions of laboratory equipment, I started writing round-ups of those. 'Hey kids! Here's the latest in laboratory automation systems!' My editor liked those so much that after I quit, she asked me to keep writing them as a freelancer. So there you go. That's how I ended up with this odd little specialty that has no bearing on the rest of the stories I write. But it pays well, they like me, and I might as well take advantage of this little bit of esoteric knowledge I've acquired."

"The amount of background knowledge necessary depends on the publication," says Damon Brown, New Orleans freelance writer who has published in Playboy, SPIN, WIRED and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association and author of an upcoming pop culture book about video games. "Trade publications may be more technical, but because they have a harder time attracting freelancers compared to consumer pubs, they are often more willing to get an eager contributor up to speed. For instance, I didn't have a science degree when I began working with the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, but I had two degrees in journalism and a willingness to learn more about science writing. The editors helped point me in the right direction, and I did the heavy research necessary to understand the technical aspects.

"Consumer publications such as Popular Science or Psychology Today can be challenging to break into just because they are being bombarded by pitches, some from actual scientists who are also writers. In this case it is the idea that gets you into the publication, as you can't really compare credentials with a biochemist. So the strength comes from having a killer idea, something an ivory tower contributor wouldn't be aware of, and writing a query that shows that you know what would make the story important to the scientific community. For instance, I got into WIRED with a short piece on a modified Playstation 2 that allowed you to make your own games. It was in my field (video games), yet applied to technology (their field), and it was something that their stable of hardcore technologists wouldn't be aware of. My query proved that I knew why it was important, even though I didn't have any technology-related clips. It's almost like acknowledging that your background can't compete, but that your idea can.

"Either way, research skills are key, as well as the ability to adapt to THEIR magazine culture. Science and medical readers are usually hardcore and in the field. They know what they want, and the editors know what the readers want, lingo and all. Listening to the editors and understanding the rhythm of the publications and its audiences is important. Get a copy of their style guide, read the actual studies their latest articles are based on, determine what local medical or science library you can use for research - do all you can to understand their line of thinking and their culture."

"I'd say that if you're not a doctor or really well-versed in the field, you need to know the AMA style cold," says another writer I know, who focuses on creative writing but makes rent money off science journals. If this is an area you're thinking of branching into, one resource you cannot live without is the Amercan Medical Association Manual of Style, so pick one up from the AMA ASAP.