<p>I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with a good topic to write about for my Common App essay. Everything I've thought up of just seems really cliche or horribly boring. :(</p>
<p>Does anyone have any brainstorming tips, writing exercises to get the juices flowing, general advice, etc? Also, what counts as a good essay topic?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Hey I had the same issue and it took me a while to come up with something that worked. What I did that really helped was pretend that the essay is due tomorrow and I need to write extremely quickly. I had someone else choose one of the common app essay questions at random, got out my notebook (or laptop if preferred) and only allowed myself 30 min to complete one essay (kind of similar to the SAT essay). I did this for every topic. And although these essays were usually pretty rough, I actually produced a complete product (a struggle I had). I was forced to write about the first thing that came to mind, topics that may or may not be useful. What you have though now are essay topics that you know you can write about; or in my case topics that sparked some new and better ideas to write about. I hope this helps!! Good luck:) *if you have any questions pm me</p>