<p>So I've attempted to start on my college admission essays. Unfortunately, I have no idea what to write about! Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get my ideas going?
Thanks!</p>
<p>So here’s what worked with me. Open a new page and write down activities you’ve participate in that mean something to you, experiences that have been important in shaping your life, dreams you have, movies or books or specific characters that have inspired you, or that you simply like, your little unique quirks, quotes that inspire you or make you laugh, or just random things you think are funny or scary or sad or really, any emotion at all. Don’t think of how you’d make it into an essay at all. Just write; stream of consciousness style. When I did it, I didn’t stop writing till I’d filled multiple pages; doesn’t matter how silly the stuff is. It also might help to do it by hand, instead of on the computer. By the time you’re done, basically everything that’s important to you should be there on that paper. </p>
<p>Then sit down with it and connect and combine ideas. Figure out what goes together to highlight certain things about yourself. What are the most important things you have written down? What ideas are being repeated over and over? What do you want to tell the admissions officers about? Continue joining ideas until you have enough to build a possible essay on, and for me at least, it just flowed from there.</p>
<p>As you write, keep going back to that page, adding ideas, rearranging them, organizing them and mixing them up. Try to include as many of these little ideas as you can, and make sure you’re building a complete picture of yourself. Write rough drafts, combine topics, revise topics, change topics. This process can take ten minutes, or it can take ten hours.</p>
<p>By the end of this, you may have an essay that’s ready to for its final edit, or you may not even have a solid topic yet. But, I hope at least, that you’ll have a stronger understanding of what you want to include in the essay. Or at least it’ll get the creative and writing juices flowing. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Lol. I wasted a lot of time while I wrote my essays. Sat on them for days on end because I wanted them to be perfect. But right now, just write anything about anything. Even if it's horrible, bland, disgusting, w/e. Once you have a skinny, you can improve it. Or it might give you an idea to start something brand new. But start! And don't worry about the quality as yet, you'll have time to improve that later.</p>
<p>See my post in the Tips thread (#8): </p>