fellow writers out there--how are you playing up your craft??

Applying to College
1

How do you all make writing into your “hook”? Do you get published? Win awards? Edit newspapers or literary magazines? Post on your own blog? Start a writing club?

I’m trying to make writing into my hook but so far I don’t have a lot going for me other than being one of the editors of my school’s literary magazine, winning a couple of regional Scholastic Awards, and getting published in a couple places (nothing very impressive) How do I make myself look like a more appealing applicant? Help! O_o

2

Put the information about your writing clearly and accurately. Whether it is hook depends on where you apply.

3

I’m not applying as an English major or anything (engineering actually) but writing was a big part of my application because it’s something that I love to do and something that I think I’m pretty decent at lol. The first would be (duh) to just get consistently very high grades in English classes (up to AP/IB) and similar writing intensive courses. Get one of your recommendations from a teacher who is very familiar with your writing who can speak a lot about that. Personally, I’m editor-in-chief of my school’s literary and arts magazine, and I’ve known my teacher adviser since freshman year. Since she happened to be my AP Lang & Comp teacher junior year and I did very well in that class (she said I was the best writer she’s had in years), I got a recommendation from her because she could speak to my writing ability and my leadership as well with the literary magazine. I’ve also won scholastic writing awards, some more local writing awards, and some national writing contests, like the New York Times editorial contest (I was a runner up but still top 25 out of around 8,000). You should look up writing contests, there are a bunch of those that you can submit to for free. If their are any selective writing summer camp things or internship type opportunities you should try to do those but I never did because I’m a prospective engineering major lol.The last thing would be to just write AMAZING essays for your applications!!! The awards can only get you so far, you need to show that you can actually write!!!

4

There are lots of freelance writing opportunities out there. I’ve done everything from article s in teaching, travel and parenting to quite a lot on math websites.

Google “freelance writing” or “magazine submissions guidelines.”