Magazine or a Journal, What’s the Difference? by Alicia Blando, MD

Magazine or a Journal.  What’s the Difference? by Alicia Blando, MD

My parents emigrated from the Philippines to pursue a better life for their children. It wasn’t hard to become fluent in the English language since American television shows were popular in the islands. All throughout grade school and high school, my father would take my siblings and I to the library to browse the books.

It was an outing that we rarely missed. I would check out the next book in the Little House on the Prairie series of children’s books by author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, then, I would sit in a comfortable arm chair by the windows to look at the fashion magazines. The periodicals were not allowed to be checked out. I would start with Seventeen magazine, then Vogue, and Cosmopolitan, skimming through the pages taking in all the colorful fashions and trendy accessories until my father finished reading Newsweek and Time magazines and signaled that we should head home. 

Although I had no trouble expressing myself, I would mix up certain concepts. I would say, “open or close the light,” instead of “turn on or turn off the light.” When I first got into medical school, during discussions, I would reference the medical periodicals as magazines. The periodicals seemed the same to me. Magazines had stories that were more colorful and had articles pertaining to theme of health concentrating on creating beauty. Journals also had articles on health and pictures, but of charts and statistics. Both had goals to communicate information and were bound in the same format. After being corrected several times by my mentors, I made it a point to “say journal, instead of magazine.” It was conveyed to me that journals were periodicals with scientific information geared toward the medical and scientific research communities. Magazines were for entertainment and provided education in a lighter manner for general consumption. 

When I began to write research articles for journals, I stressed sterile facts. When there were side effects or adverse findings, the words used to describe them were precise and concise. “Twenty percent of the patients who tried the medication experienced nausea and vomiting. After the first week, fifty percent of the patients discontinued medication use.” The patient was portrayed as a vessel being studied to clarify the activity of the medication or procedure. No emotion was reported from the participants.

So, when I decided to right a memoir, I had to switch my thinking from primarily using the logical left side of my brain to incorporating the more creative right side. I didn’t know how to start writing a book, so I started by taking writing classes at the local bookstore. I decided to begin by writing short stories like the ones I read in a magazine.

I put pen to paper the experiences that I remembered to be funny, poignant, or caused me great anguish. A lot of inspiration came to me while walking and I carried my smart phone so I could dictate details. I would wake up during the night and scenarios would pop into my head. The smart phone was kept next to my bed since it was handy, as free-flowing thoughts and images moved faster than my hand could write. I could mumble into it without greatly disturbing my return to sleep. Later, I would type all the information into a Word document. 

The weekends were the time I would complete my stories. I would have to sit down, close my eyes, and imagine myself back in the time I was writing about. I would remember where I was, who I was with, what the room looked like, and, most importantly, what I felt like. I also used the phone during that time to record my thoughts because when I would type what I was imagining, I would get sidetracked by technical issues: use of grammar, spelling corrections, and searching for synonyms or adjectives. 

I tested my writing with my writer’s critique group. They gave me my first lessons in critical feedback. I took all the comments in stride and just kept writing anecdotes that were significant to my astrology journey. If anything, I would have an archive of events that I could later sequence to form the scaffold of a manuscript.

Effective written storytelling is difficult as it has to recreate events in an orderly fashion while evoking emotion and stirring the imagination of the reader—without the aid of the storyteller’s vocal inflections, hand gestures, and eye contact to engage the reader. It was an art I had to learn to write my story. After ten years of “magazine” writing, I was able to sequence the catalogue of my experiences leading to a memoir about my journey to studying astrology. 

             I learned the difference between magazines and journals lay not in their goal, but in their content, context, and audience. Both have the objective to reach the public with their unique message.

I believe that my memoir, Open for Interpretation, is a combination of both styles of writing. I hope to entertain, educate, and inspire curiosity in my readers.

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Dr. ALICIA BLANDO trained and practiced in the medical specialty of physical medicine & rehabilitation. While working as a physician, she became interested in how indigenous healers diagnosed and treated their patients without the technology present in modern medicine. This curiosity was supported by what she learned about herself through the study of astrology. As a Western physician who has followed the tenets of astrology in her life, she believes that the practice of astrology can function as an adjunct method to study many aspects of life, including the tendencies for certain disease processes. Dr. Blando works as a medical consultant. She currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Open for Interpretation: A Doctor’s Journey into Astrology will be available in June, 2023. Alicia Blando MD can be contacted at www.aliciablando.com.

Open for Interpretation: A Doctor’s Journey into Astrology

As a young doctor working in the middle of the HIV epidemic in the early ’90s, Alicia Blando feels unsure of the effectiveness of the medical profession. To gain insight into her life’s path, she seeks advice in some unconventional places, and lands on astrology as her way forward. Astrology, based in astronomy, has specific rules; it can’t be easily manipulated. The scientist in her can’t help but respond to this idea.

At a pivotal group demonstration, Alicia finds a mentor, Iris, who introduces her to the study of astrology. By learning to read the horoscope, Alicia gains insight into her potential and manifests her ambition to travel and explore healing techniques from indigenous cultures. Eventually, her search for new teachers and past knowledge takes her from Manhattan to the Peruvian Amazon, Belize, and Bolivia, where she discovers ancient ways of healing among people who consider the sky to be a continuation of nature on earth. She connects with the tenets of astrology as the language that describes man’s connection to the sky environment. The horoscopic map gives information that can assist in making better choices in life, Alicia learns; it has the potential to analyze a person’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and health concerns.

Alicia’s journey off the beaten path ultimately leads her to true self-exploration and connection with the world around her, as well as a desire to share her knowledge. In Open for Interpretation, she shares her story of finally finding the map she’s been seeking―and explains how we can all use that map to access our true selves and untapped potential.

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Category: On Writing