This, I'm sorry to say, has absolutely nothing to do with fiction. I know I'm way behind on doing anything remotely related to my creative writing, but I blame school. I've had more time recently to do stuff, but I've also been trying to study for the second biggest exam of medical school. Only a couple more of these things and I'll actually be able to practice medicine.
Anyway, I'm working on my application for residency. Getting letters of recommendation, writing a personal statement...
Stop there for a moment. Personal statements. The free-flowing words that's supposed to describe absolutely everything you want to convey to an admissions committee. Or in my case, a residency director. For medical school, the whole point of the essay was to describe why I wanted to be a physician. Easy enough, once I got started. Now, I'm going to be a physician regardless. Maybe not licensed, if I can't land a residency, but a doctor none-the-less. So I have to start from scratch. And describe why I want to go into my specialty of choice.
It's hard. Because it's not good enough to say that I feel at home, or I'm just happier when I'm in my specialty of choice. No, I have to explain why. This essay has seriously taken up probably 30 hours of my life so far. I've written three drafts. Hopefully I'm close to the finished product now. I've submitted the most recent draft to my advisor for feedback. We'll see what she says.
A couple of my friends have said that since I'm a writer, this should be an easy task for me. Let me tell you... writing fiction and writing about yourself are two completely different things. I suck at writing about myself. I'm not too great at writing fiction either, because my language isn't very flowery, but I at least manage to get my thoughts down on the page and do a fairly good job at describing what I see in my mind's eye. Editing is what is used to refine something, not the initial writing. I'm awesome at writing rough drafts. I suck at editing.
In a couple weeks, I should have all the stuff I need for residency taken care of. At least for a little while. So when I have a week off and then head off to camp for a few weeks, I'm either going to write or edit. I'm determined to finish at least one book before I finish med school. Heaven knows I probably won't have time to write, let alone edit, one after med school's over.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Fandom For Preemies Compilation
I think I mentioned a while ago that I was making a contribution to the Fandom For Preemies fundraiser. I have done this each time the group has sponsored a fundraiser, and I really do hope I make some impact by doing so.
At any rate, this time, I donated the prologue to Found, since it was easier to donate that than to try to edit one of my old stories into shape.
Unlike what I've done before, in posting the story after a month of exclusivity, I will not be posting the prologue here. You'll still get excerpts every now and then, but you will not get the prologue in its entirety, unless I publish someday.
So, I encourage you all to head over to Fandom For Preemies to find out how to donate. Basically, if you donate $5 to March of Dimes by 1/1/13 and forward your receipt to them, they will send you the compilation.
March of Dimes is a worthwhile organization that has been so effective in their crusade that they had to change their focus from eliminating Polio to reducing the incidence of birth defects and premature births. I encourage you to check them out and donate whatever you can to help their cause.
At any rate, this time, I donated the prologue to Found, since it was easier to donate that than to try to edit one of my old stories into shape.
Unlike what I've done before, in posting the story after a month of exclusivity, I will not be posting the prologue here. You'll still get excerpts every now and then, but you will not get the prologue in its entirety, unless I publish someday.
So, I encourage you all to head over to Fandom For Preemies to find out how to donate. Basically, if you donate $5 to March of Dimes by 1/1/13 and forward your receipt to them, they will send you the compilation.
March of Dimes is a worthwhile organization that has been so effective in their crusade that they had to change their focus from eliminating Polio to reducing the incidence of birth defects and premature births. I encourage you to check them out and donate whatever you can to help their cause.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner! (NaNo Day 30)
That's right! Despite not writing a total of 7 days this month, I managed to squeak by and get 50K words down. AND, I managed to actually finish the plot of my novel. Now, I need to go back and do a lot of character building, because I was focusing so much on the plot that I kinda made some rather large jumps in the personalities of my characters.
But that's what December is for. Or something.
Some stats:
Days: 30 (minus 7, if you want to be technical)
Words: 51358 (by my word processor; 50659 by NaNo's validator)
Pages: 164
Characters: 7 involved in the action, one more that plays a key role in the story, and four others that are named.
Happy Ever Afters: 4, I think. But the readers only explicitly know of one.
Sequels: ???
Number of headaches: 1. Right now. I'm going to lie down now.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Teaser Tuesday (NaNo Day 27)
It's almost over. Almost. I can just about taste it.
All I have to say is that I'm really glad that I: 1) had Thanksgiving break this month, otherwise I would not have been able to survive, and 2) have been on Family Medicine and thus have had time (during lunch!) to actually do this. I have a little less than 6,000 words to write to finish this thing up, and it's going to be tough. I'm eating dinner at a friend's house every night this week (I'm a guest chef on Friday), plus I have choir practice tomorrow night. Thankfully, my Fridays are half days, so I should have a few hours to get caught up before making a mad dash to the finish by midnight.
I hope that my word count isn't too far off the NaNo validator's word count. I'm not sure how many extra words I'll be able to squeeze out before midnight Friday.
At any rate, here's a teaser for this week. This is one of the first intersections of the paths of the characters that did not previously know each other. The others come in a little later.
“Can I help you?” Dawn asked, putting on her business smile.
The woman turned and a look of surprise graced her face. “Sorry, I was admiring this beautiful wheel from outside and wanted to get a closer look.”
Dawn smiled. “It belongs to my grandmother. An old family heirloom that she's rather proud of.”
The woman smiled and gestured towards it. “May I?”
“Of course,” Dawn replied, taking a step towards the window. The woman stepped up to the display and ran her fingers over the wheel, turning it a bit back and forth. She followed the thread back to the spindle and glided her fingers over the tip of the spindle.
“You say this is an old family heirloom. How long has it been in your family?” the woman asked.
Dawn shrugged. “Generations. Nana hasn't told me all that much about it. She keeps telling me that one day she'll tell me the story behind it.”
“Are you not curious to know the history now?” the woman asked, raising her eyebrow.
“It's been a while since I've thought about it. The display just adds a nice touch to the shop.”
The bell jingled again, and Dawn turned to see Rowan stepping into the shop. He glanced at the woman suspiciously and gave her a wide breadth as he walked over to Dawn. “Who is she?” he asked softly in Dawn's ear.
She smacked his shoulder lightly. “Don't be rude. She's a customer. Or rather, she saw the wheel outside and wanted a closer look.”
He continued to watch the woman wearily. “Something's off about her,” he muttered.
Hope you enjoyed it. I'll post again on Friday or Saturday with a final teaser for you, as well as my final word count. Wish me luck!
All I have to say is that I'm really glad that I: 1) had Thanksgiving break this month, otherwise I would not have been able to survive, and 2) have been on Family Medicine and thus have had time (during lunch!) to actually do this. I have a little less than 6,000 words to write to finish this thing up, and it's going to be tough. I'm eating dinner at a friend's house every night this week (I'm a guest chef on Friday), plus I have choir practice tomorrow night. Thankfully, my Fridays are half days, so I should have a few hours to get caught up before making a mad dash to the finish by midnight.
I hope that my word count isn't too far off the NaNo validator's word count. I'm not sure how many extra words I'll be able to squeeze out before midnight Friday.
At any rate, here's a teaser for this week. This is one of the first intersections of the paths of the characters that did not previously know each other. The others come in a little later.
“Can I help you?” Dawn asked, putting on her business smile.
The woman turned and a look of surprise graced her face. “Sorry, I was admiring this beautiful wheel from outside and wanted to get a closer look.”
Dawn smiled. “It belongs to my grandmother. An old family heirloom that she's rather proud of.”
The woman smiled and gestured towards it. “May I?”
“Of course,” Dawn replied, taking a step towards the window. The woman stepped up to the display and ran her fingers over the wheel, turning it a bit back and forth. She followed the thread back to the spindle and glided her fingers over the tip of the spindle.
“You say this is an old family heirloom. How long has it been in your family?” the woman asked.
Dawn shrugged. “Generations. Nana hasn't told me all that much about it. She keeps telling me that one day she'll tell me the story behind it.”
“Are you not curious to know the history now?” the woman asked, raising her eyebrow.
“It's been a while since I've thought about it. The display just adds a nice touch to the shop.”
The bell jingled again, and Dawn turned to see Rowan stepping into the shop. He glanced at the woman suspiciously and gave her a wide breadth as he walked over to Dawn. “Who is she?” he asked softly in Dawn's ear.
She smacked his shoulder lightly. “Don't be rude. She's a customer. Or rather, she saw the wheel outside and wanted a closer look.”
He continued to watch the woman wearily. “Something's off about her,” he muttered.
Hope you enjoyed it. I'll post again on Friday or Saturday with a final teaser for you, as well as my final word count. Wish me luck!
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