I left today empty-- just a day to crank out a draft on my common app essay. I can’t seem to do it! I am getting very nervous. I have brainstormed topics, started writing paragraphs etc but it just is not happening. I love to write, and my best essays are the ones that “write themselves.” This essay is certainly not writing itself. Today is just one of many attempts and I just can’t write it. Part of it is nerves-- I feel like I have worked as hard as I can with grades, ec’s and tests in the past few years and this essay is the very last bit that I need, but it has to be perfect and I can’t figure it out. It is so difficult to try to capture who I am in just a couple hundred words, and none of the prompts are helping.
Any advice on how to crank out this essay would be amazing. I have a topic that I really like in theory, but can’t seem to put pen to paper (or keyboard to word doc) and create something I am proud of.
Can you brainstorm with someone who knows you well about anecdotes that support your topic? And keep your focus on “showing”, not in general statements. Also, can you make it interesting or slightly funny? Admissions people are reading hundreds and hundreds of these… liven up their day a little and give them a story they can remember you by.
Have a trusted adult review it once you have a draft. Humor in particular needs an adult eye on (my kids used mildly self deprecating humor, but nothing that would cast doubt on their fitness as future students).
Don’t worry about length in your first draft, just get it out there and then start massaging it.
Get “perfect” out of your mind. Right there with the idea that this is really important.
What’s important is what you’ve done over the past 12 years. This is just an opportunity to inject little bit of your personality into your list of achievements.
And, most important, the first draft doesn’t have to be perfect. It can be abysmal. That’s what editing is for.