how do people start on their essays so quickly?

<p>i've seen a really huge amount of people here who are already asking others to critique their writings. they've written two, three drafts and are asking for opinions oin their fourth, fifth drafts.</p>

<p>Me?</p>

<p>i've started, no doubt. but as of now, for a single prompt for early app, i've completely trashed 4 drafts. I just didn't like the way I sounded, didn't like the prompt that i was responding to, and didn't like the idea that i thought was cool at first. and now i'm just re-wrting it for the 5th time, a completely different story for the same school.</p>

<p>is this just me as a horrible writer, or is this somewhat common?</p>

<p>Same here, haha, I've started about 7 drafts, thought they were awesome topics, but dropped them all sooner or later. I'm usually not a bad writer, but right now I feel somewhat desperate because my essays always come across differently than intended.
My problem is that I have extremely high expectations of myself and I can't just content myself in writing a mediocre essay. So I keep looking for the perfect topic even though it's more important how you write rather than what.
Good to know I'm not the only one. It's so frustrating...</p>

<p>banedon~</p>

<p><em>lol</em> I am quite certain that you are NOT a horrible writer, and yes, this is very common.</p>

<p>My son, who went through this process last year, is a kid who works more easily and with better results under a little bit of pressure. He had not started ANY of his essays at this point in the process. I am the same way--I work best under pressure too. And if I do start something in a timely fashion and what I write sits around too long, I WILL change it, whether or not it is really necessary or desirable to do so <em>lol</em>. For my son, the most difficult element of the essay writing was finding just the perfect subject. Once that was in place, the writing of it was relatively easy. </p>

<p>I would suggest that if you are struggling a great deal with this, you might want to take a little break just to think about the various topics. Jot notes if something hits you and keep ideas for each different topic in files. Keep your old drafts...they may be something worth revisiting there. I think that soon, what you want to convey to the different colleges will become more clear to you. When it does, your writing will flow more easily.</p>

<p>Don't panic! You have lots of time! You will do fine, I'm sure. ~berurah</p>

<p>cheesecake_junkie~</p>

<p>My son tends to be a perfectionist also. That can make for a very frustrating writing experience. Don't worry about your essay's being perfect on the first few drafts. Finish it first, and THEN finesse it. Get feedback from others because you may be overy critical of your own work. Don't feel pressured...you have lots of time! ~berurah</p>

<p>Don't worry about it. I wrote 8 drafts for one essay. Sometimes it just takes a while to find the perfect one. Just keep writing... it will be to your benefit!</p>

<p>it's so nice to know that i'm not an exception. i think berurah is right; perhaps i work better under pressure. i was just panicking because if an early app takes such a long time to complete, what happens when the regular rounds roll about, with about 6 more essays?</p>

<p>but thank god this morning i woke up with a flash in my mind about what i should write (don't ask me how that happened). i thrashed my 5th draft already since it's too corny. Gonna start on the 6th one. So what do you guys do if you were me? Do you sit and wait for inspiration, because that's the only way I know. :D</p>

<p>Goodness, all this for ONE early app...</p>

<p>My school requires everything in by sometime in november regardless of how late the college deadline is. Getting started quickly really isn't a choice. :D</p>

<p>I don't know, I just bang them out in one sitting and then go back and edit grammar, etc. Although, the main one I used for GW and split up for my 9 other app's did take a few weeks of editing, but I started in July, lol.</p>

<p>duffman, you are so lucky! i didnt get to see the essay questions till mid-august, and counting today, i spent a whole month thrashing drafts. but i think i like this current one, and i am going to finish it by next week no matter what (since i will be away at outward bound for 10 days after that).</p>

<p>on a plus side, i've been writing so many essays (not only for college, i wrote for competitions and my work now requires lots of writing too) that my friends are beginning to tell me how, when they read my writings, they can actually 'hear' me speaking. I think that's a good sign that AT LEAST i write something people understands. :)</p>

<p>^ Yeah, the good thing really was that GW used that "Why GW" essay from last year, so I perfected that early on and got to use it for most schools. Other than that, I really only wrote 1-3 longer essay (500+ words), and all the others were like 150-250 words, which I typed fairly fast because as long as I got my point accross, nothing will look amazing with 200 words of development. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>