Grey’s Anatomy meets Scrubs in this brilliant debut novel about a young doctor’s struggle to survive residency, love, and life.
We chat to author Madi Sinha about her recently published debut novel The White Coat Diaries, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Madi! Tell us a bit about yourself!
Hi! I’m the author of THE WHITE COAT DIARIES. I’m a writer and a physician.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I distinctly remember wanting to write a book about a flying horse when I was seven. I had big plans. It was going to be a series. I got as far as choosing the horse’s name (Whisperfairyblossom. All one word, yes.) and then I gave up because it was all too much work.
The White Coat Diaries is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
This is a tough one. I’m going to go with “Awkward doctor comes of age.” Alternatively, “It ended with an autopsy.”
What inspired you to write The White Coat Diaries?
I did my medical internship (the first year of residency after medical school) at a hospital in Philadelphia. The experience affected me so much, I spent the next several years writing about it. Eventually, that turned into THE WHITE COAT DIARIES.
Did you face any challenges while writing?
I think time has always been my biggest challenge. I still practice medicine and I have young children, so finding quiet moments to write is never easy. I’m also one of those easily distractible people who needs perfect silence in order to concentrate, but it’s never silent in my house. While working on my book, I spent a lot of time writing in my car.
What piece of advice would you give to aspiring writers?
You know, they say “You can’t be what you can’t see” and I think, for authors at least, that’s not necessarily true. I wanted to write a funny-but-also-serious novel about a South Asian doctor set in Philadelphia. It was something completely different, so different that even my agent and editor had trouble coming up with comparable titles. I let the fear that I couldn’t do something that hadn’t already been done stop me from finishing my book for years, until I finally decided that I didn’t care if no one else wanted to read the story I was writing, I was going to write it anyway. So I would tell an aspiring writer that you don’t have to see it, you just have to be able to imagine it, and then go after it without fear.
With the current state of the world, what are you doing to cope with the changes we’ve had to make with our day-to-day?
I feel the changes most in my outpatient practice (I’m not on the front line in a hospital like some of my colleagues are. That is much harder than what I do). I am separated from my patients by two masks and a face shield and a gown, which makes interacting and connecting with them so much harder. As a doctor, it doesn’t feel great to not be able to connect with patients in the way we used to before the pandemic. I can’t hold their hand or communicate my empathy with my facial expressions. Honestly, I haven’t figured out a great work-around for this, but I do try to spend more time speaking with each patient. I try to make every patient laugh at least once during our visit. If I can get them to at least crack a smile, I feel like I’ve done some good.
What’s next for you?
I’m currently writing my next novel. This one’s about a gynaecologist. I’m really enjoying working on it. I’m still spending a lot of time writing in my car.
Lastly, what are you currently reading and do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I loved the medical memoir This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay. I also recommend The Trouble With Hating You by Sajni Patel and Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho, both of which are funny and thoughtful romcoms with strong female main characters.
