On returning to writing

I usually don’t do New Year’s resolutions for all the usual reasons. This year though, it just so happens that my desire to get back into writing regularly coincides with the calendar date.

A semi-intentional resolution

I used to write often, both nonfictional essays and fictional stories – in sixth grade I wrote about 100 pages of a “short” story that no longer qualified for the name – but lately I’ve allowed that muscle to atrophy. It’s all too easy to make excuses: I have too much homework, I need to prepare for a big presentation, the A train was late, my coffee was cold. At the same time, I find myself composing sentences at the most inopportune times, organizing mental debates about a podcast I’m listening to on the subway and arranging phrases while in the shower. Given all that, I think it’s time to write more, to practice editing my own work ¹, and to improve my abilities to organize my own thoughts.

The hardest part is getting started, so I figured I might as well take advantage of the state of the calendar to get started on writing more. As an initial, clearly defined goal: I want to write at least one post per month in 2020.

A blog

First, a bit more about me:

• I’m currently a master’s student at the New York University Center for Data Science; in the past, I’ve been head of the Copy department at UCLA’s student newspaper The Daily Bruin and conducted research for various UC labs.
• I’m interested in data, journalism, media, technology, power, and information, and all the intersections between them.
• I care about ethics and justice – I don’t know all the answers, but I at least want to engage with the important questions and listen to those most affected by an issue.
• I love reading books, eating pies, running, and listening to podcasts.

As you might have guessed, I also enjoy writing and stories, and I believe that words have power. This isn’t the first time that I’ve tried to maintain a blog, but my past attempts have targeted a specific topic or a strict timeline. While I typically like strict deadlines when it comes to work, I’m also trying to be intentional and honest here – and honestly, I’ll likely need to prioritize deadlines for school or my job over this. I think it’s worth giving myself some flexibility for the purposes of getting started.

In that vein, I envision this blog as a general space to work out ideas on topics of varying degrees of professional and personal interest. (The formality of my writing will vary accordingly as well). To put it a different way, there are a number of posts I could see myself making. I’m constantly learning and reading about new methods in data science: I might want to take notes on my learning process or describe different portfolio projects here. While the methods are useful, the effects of technology within a larger context of existing social power structures are often more important and less widely discussed. For that reason, I anticipate writing reviews, reflections, and responses to articles and books about information, ethics, media, and power. I’d also like to write about some of my favorite podcast episodes, mostly for my own benefit in remembering them. In my opinion, there are too many podcasts and not enough reviews about the good ones. Finally, I might have some more “short” stories still left in me.

For now, all of this is just a beginning, just about getting started. We’ll see what happens as things progress – and I’m sure that it’ll all be very different by 2021.