Writer's Block!

[tartrate]

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I am trying to write my personal statement, and with time ticking away, I am feeling so desperate right now. I write a sentence, then nothing else comes, so I do something else hoping for inspiration... I get none, so I go back, delete what I wrote, and try again, but it's the same thing. Why is this so hard?! Sigh... I fear another late application because of this.

 

[senorsquishie]

Try free writing?

How about this, can you remember one distict moment you decide to become a Dr?

 

[Local Native]

You have over a month for your application to even be considered "late." If you keep stressing over the deadline it'll just increase your anxiety and keep you from writing. Unless, of course, you're my roommate who procrastinates all of his 10+ page papers for his Creative Writing major and somehow still manages to ace every single one of them.

 

[tartrate]

You have over a month for your application to even be considered "late." If you keep stressing over the deadline it'll just increase your anxiety and keep you from writing. Unless, of course, you're my roommate who procrastinates all of his 10+ page papers for his Creative Writing major and somehow still manages to ace every single one of them.

Oh, the horror. Reading your post suddenly unleashed a floodgate of horrible memories formed whilst in college of working on assignments/papers into the wee hours of the morning.

But you're right, stressing over it doesn't help. But ironically, neither does trying not to stress over it. Got to find that point of focus, which at the moment is not so apparent.

I realize I have a bit of a buffer in terms of time, but I will need that time for my subsequent drafts/editing/working on the other parts of the app, plus the other tons of stuff I have going on in my life. So I really want to get this done with early on 🙁.

 

[Tapepsi]

I'd say sleep on it. Tomorrow start brainstorming ideas about what you want committees to know about you and like seniorsquishie said, think about that moment when you decided you wanted to be a doctor.

Good luck!👍

PS - Local Native: I tried to look away and failed. 🙁

 

[Helen Wheels]

Local Native,

What is that thing in your avatar?

tartrate,

What I did was think about why I wanted to be a dr and why I thought I would make a good one. I also tried to highlight some important experiences (work, clinical, or research) that would show my contact with patients and understanding of what medicine is. But of course, don't just rehash everything listed elsewhere in your app. What makes you "special" and different from other applicants?

Just try writing a paragraph at a time. Don't worry about editing at first. See what comes up.

 

[Local Native]

Oh, the horror. Reading your post suddenly unleashed a floodgate of horrible memories formed whilst in college of working on assignments/papers into the wee hours of the morning.

But you're right, stressing over it doesn't help. But ironically, neither does trying not to stress over it. Got to find that point of focus, which at the moment is not so apparent.

I realize I have a bit of a buffer in terms of time, but I will need that time for my subsequent drafts/editing/working on the other parts of the app, plus the other tons of stuff I have going on in my life. So I really want to get this done with early on 🙁.

The best advice I can give you (I'm actually passing it on since my roommate told me to do this initially) is to write almost nonsensically. Don't try to structure anything or have it relate at all, but think of your most meaningful experiences and just write about why they're meaningful to you. Convince yourself. That'll get your juices going and it may provide a rough outline of what you want to include in the final product.

I'd say sleep on it. Tomorrow start brainstorming ideas about what you want committees to know about you and like seniorsquishie said, think about that moment when you decided you wanted to be a doctor.

Good luck!👍

PS - Local Native: I tried to look away and failed. 🙁

It's like a muted version of the nyannyannyan cat.

Local Native,

What is that thing in your avatar?

tartrate,

What I did was think about why I wanted to be a dr and why I thought I would make a good one. I also tried to highlight some important experiences (work, clinical, or research) that would show my contact with patients and understanding of what medicine is. But of course, don't just rehash everything listed elsewhere in your app. What makes you "special" and different from other applicants?

Just try writing a paragraph at a time. Don't worry about editing at first. See what comes up.

I like to think it's what llamas looked like in the 1960s.