Mile 1125: Writer's Block

Above: The Robert Ross Parkway that runs in front of Ross University in Dominica.

"EASY READING IS
DAMN HARD WRITING."
Nathaniel Hawthorne

One of the reasons I started up this blog is I wanted to get used to writing about myself. And a year later, I feel that I've definitely opened up to the web with my experiences (it's still a work in progress, however). I'm not perfect though, and I'll be the first one to admit it. Here are several bad writing/proofreading habits I'm prone to:

1. The pothole - Some entries I type a lot of stuff, without thinking. Then I'll have a great idea, and think that putting a whole bunch of ideas somewhere else would be better. Ctrl+C... Click cursor in appropriate place... Ctrl+V. Then, my mind will have another great idea... and soon I'll forget I just forgot to fill the hole I just made with something. Well, now you know what happened when I started talking about medicine and probably ended up jumping to talk about potato chips, without a transition.

2. Circumlocution - A strategy I had in trying to talk Spanish rears its ugly head with writing. The concept is that if I can't find a word, I try to word around it. For instance, if for odd reason I couldn't come up with the words "potato chip", I'd probably end up saying "thin-sliced potatoes that are fried." So, if you see some unbearably long parenthetical expression or phrase (that could be defined as one word), this is why.

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With a whole slew of students starting to write their personal statements for residency, I decided to put my pen to paper (or in the digital world today, more like my hand to the keys), just to see what would come out. Even after months to write about myself, I found it hard to start something. I had many ideas, so many, that I wanted to put them all together. But nothing still came out.

Some people have mastered the art to writing about themselves. To me the challenges are, making sure I can present myself in a concise manner (okay, circumlocution is something I need to work on), selecting the right qualities of myself to present in that short essay, and writing something that doesn't seem like another "personal statement." It's tough to write, but fortunately in the digital age I only need to click and delete, making writing better a much faster process. I won't be killing trees by free-throwing my failed drafts one-by-one into a wastebasket.

At least I know I'm doing the environment a favor. Awesome!

Starting next week, I'll be starting my drive down to Miami, FL for my next rotation for Family Medicine. More on that soon...