<p>I'm going to be a senior next year and with it comes the agonizing task of completing my college essays. I've looked over the common app prompts, read MANY sample essays, and yet when it comes to putting words to paper, I experience a huge mental block. If I was to be honest, I don't feel as if I've accomplished or experienced anything worth detailing in 650 words (havent had an identity affirming moment, haven't had a deathly ill relative, haven't experienced anything truly mind opening). I don't feel as if I've matured enough in these 17 years to have reached a sound conclusive answer to any of the prompts. It's quite frustrating.</p>
<p>It'd be reassuring to know that other past/ current college applicants have felt this way but more importantly, how does one actually *start[/] an application essay?</p>
<p>Tl;dr I have chronic writers block and I want to overcome it</p>
<p>I’m not a past college applicant, but don’t worry, I feel the exact same way!</p>
<p>What helped me was just writing an essay on an experience I had and something I learned from it, and then fitting it into the prompts. You don’t need to have anything “truly mind opening” or “an identity affirming moment.” Just pick something you’ve done that you’ve learned something from and go from there.</p>
<p>Another thing to ask yourself is, “What do I like to do?” Writing an essay on a hobby and what it reveals about you can make for a great statement as well.</p>
<p>Either way, it’s early enough that you can scratch your essay and start over if you don’t like it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And it’s a good thing too, because who wants to read about that stuff anyway?</p>
<p>There’s a lot of meaning in little things. Just observe the people and things around you for awhile, and it’s likely an essay topic will come to you. My Common App essay is about the first time I dyed my hair. Another of my essays is about how I buy coffee at a gas station every day before school.</p>
<p>To get over the writer’s block, just do some free-form stream of consciousness writing and see what naturally develops. Start with the excellent suggestions that Careful gave. Do additional practice on some more specific or unusual essay prompts even if you aren’t applying to that school. You may come up with material you can use when you finally craft ‘the one’. I find I always lop of the 1st paragraph of whatever I write, it is usually just getting me going for the meat that starts in the 2nd paragraph. Essays are shaped by rewrite and editing, not by getting it right the first time. So don’t worry if what you are writing sounds stupid or is long winded at first. You will edit to clarify and tighten it up. You will have several or many drafts. Write about things that are interesting to you or important to you. It doesn’t have to be a mind blowing topic, it just has to demonstrate your writing voice, your thinking process, what turns you on or something along those lines.</p>
<p>Here’s one thing that has helped me get over the essay block. My parents subscribe to the New Yorker, which obviously has truly excellent essayists. Many times I will take just the first sentence from one of the essays and change it around for me. For example, one essay started something like, “I loved the hot weather.” Maybe I “loved” something else. Anyway an opening sentence like that begs the question, why? And propels you forward. You know?</p>
<p>Try it. I am as a big a blockhead as anyone sometimes but this works for me. One reason to keep around all those old magazines eh.</p>