Hate everything I write

College Essays
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<p>Hello, I'm rising senior who's having a lot of trouble writing the CA essay. My English class was the only class in my whole school, not to work on their essay, my teacher assigned it to us, never collected it and only worked with her favorite students privately. That's besides the point though. I have tried writing numerous amount of times and I normally am a very good writer who enjoys it, but I don't really like writing about myself. Everything I do try to write doesn't feel right, or I feel like it doesn't make sense, or I just don't like it. I feel like what holds me back is that this year my English teacher stressed us not to use to be word forms because they make writing sound less intelligent so, I feel like when I write I'm trying to think a lot about that and I cant say anything the way I like because of this. I've been having a lot of anxiety and stress because of my essay troubles, so if anyone has any tips or can help me I would appreciate it.</p>

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<p>Have you looked through this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-essays/1526461-pitfalls-traps-new-common-application-essay.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-essays/1526461-pitfalls-traps-new-common-application-essay.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I have and it helped a little bit, but I’m still having trouble and disliked what I wrote based on that.</p>

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I can relate to both :o</p>

<p>You already seem to have identified one problem. Stop focusing on what your English teacher taught you last year. If it’s hard to ignore her advice, try doing it with some things you enjoy to write first, before trying to write your college essay.</p>

<p>Don’t stress. You have a lot of time left before submitting your apps.</p>

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<p>Keep brainstorming. Carry a notebook with you for the next month and write down any ideas that come to you. Essay writing is tough work. The best advice I can give you: Forget about the big picture – that might come later in the process. Start with something small – maybe it’s an idea or a conversation you had with someone – and build on that. Personally, I like starting an essay with a snippet of dialogue, as it uses fewer words, draws the reader into the story by setting the stage and let’s the reader use their imagination. And it also allows the writer to start with something small and build upon it.</p>

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<p>I’m with you on this one, OP… the struggle is REAL.</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone for the advice, I will try and try some more, but this has to be the hardest part of my applications. Everything else seems in place for the most part
@cakebatter The struggle is definitely real.
I’m a perfectionist with certain things and I can be hard on myself, and I feel like this is something I can control so if it sucks or I don’t get admitted to a school because of this. I’ll feel awful.</p>

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<p>I’ve been doing this for over a year and I still can’t flipping write my essays. It sucks.</p>

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<p>@halcyonheather same here lol (gotta love the notebook app. on my phone). But I do think taking away topic of choice has a lot to do with my writer’s block.</p>