The Pulitzer Prize–winning sportswriter Red Smith described how difficult beginning a writing assignment can be, “Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed.” There isn’t a writer alive who, at one time or another, hasn’t struggled at the start, confronting the fearsome blank screen or, in the days before computers, the blank page.
And here you are, facing pressures of all sorts—school, social, home, finishing college applications, job, and whatever else is going on in your life—and you must compose a Common App essay. You may still be experiencing writer’s block even if you have already selected your prompt. Maybe you still haven’t figured out what to write about; maybe you’re just afraid or worried that your essay won’t be good enough.
There is only one solution to writer’s block—start writing. Anything. It’s your first draft and not your final essay. Sounds easy, but it’s not. So what do you do?
Brainstorm. Do not underestimate the importance of brainstorming when you start out; it can be useful in preventing the dilemma of a blank screen. Consider brainstorming with your parents or whoever has helped you with your resume. That can be a good springboard for possible essay topics: your feelings about something personal, whether it is a memorable event, person, or experience. Remember that your focus must be using the topic you choose to tell the reader about yourself.
Control your writing environment. Everything: time, place, and atmosphere. Make yourself as comfortable as possible. To begin, carve out at least half an hour of time that will not interfere with your schoolwork. (As your college counselors will tell you, it is exceedingly important to keep your grades up during the first quarter or semester of your senior year because colleges request those grades and pay attention to them. So don’t sacrifice critical study time for your essay.) Your essay may take anywhere from a week to a month, sometimes longer, so begin early. You have a specific deadline, no excuses. Find a place where you are comfortable writing, one with as few distractions as possible. This means a space with no television or video games. Turn off the cell phone. When you are writing you absolutely cannot multitask. If you are someone who can write with soft music in the background, go ahead and listen. But once the music becomes a distraction, turn it off. Writing demands full concentration. Then, just commit something to the screen.
You don’t have to start at the beginning. If you can’t find an opening, start in the middle. Or somewhere else. The point: Don’t get hung up.
Some students freeze because they think they must write in a set order: a beginning, middle, and end. If you have a good hook to reel in the reader, great. You can begin with that as an opening paragraph and work from there. But the good hook, although desirable, is not crucial. Many students don’t have that hook when they begin.
You may have a general idea about what you’re going to write about, maybe your summer job or your family or the problem you want to solve. On the first draft, write whatever comes to your mind—even if it is just key words and not even complete sentences. Making a brief outline of your points helps. Save what you have written. These thoughts may immediately prompt you to write complete sentences or even a paragraph or two. Go ahead, keep going if you can. Alternatively, you may simply put those words or sentences away, so it gives you something to think about the next time you sit down to write your essay. Either way, set a goal for your first writing session—if not a certain number of words, then a good idea of where you are going with the essay.
More likely than not, when you fill these thoughts in, they will become part of the body of your essay. Your opening and your concluding paragraph will come later. The point is that quite often the way to overcome writer’s block is to start by writing ideas and then elaborate later as you go, not by starting at the beginning and working from there. If you are still stuck after writing a couple of words or sentences, read what you do have to someone you trust, especially if he or she has something to do with your story (e.g., your best friend, boyfriend or girlfriend, parent); they may help you begin filling in the blanks.
To illustrate how a good essay can come from just your thoughts and notes, consider this anecdote from Tom Wolfe, widely acknowledged as one of the top writers in the United States during the last generation. Wolfe often told a story about how he overcame writer’s block on his first New York Magazine assignment. When he couldn’t produce the story, his frustrated editors finally told him to send his notes, “and we’ll give them to a real writer—they didn’t say ‘real’—to put into proper form, . . . and with a very heavy heart, I said O.K. and I sat down to write out the notes.” As Wolfe told it, the editor simply removed the greeting at the top and published the “notes” as The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. That book became a best seller and one of the most acclaimed books of its time—all from nothing more than his notes. Your essay can come from your notes.
You have a fixed word count, but that’s for your final draft. Don’t obsess over that on your first draft.
Your essay must be 650 words or less when you submit, but when you are writing the first draft, aim for somewhere between 450 and 850 words. When you come back to the essay, if it is short you can add detail (although you are not obligated to use all 650 words for your final essay). If it is long, you can edit it down. Don’t be paralyzed by the word count.
Once you have confronted writer’s block and started to formulate your essay, essentially you have to write three separate parts: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. The introduction and the conclusion are usually about one paragraph each, both generally between fifty and one hundred words, and we will discuss them briefly later in the chapter.
The body of the essay is where you tell your story. It is “the meat” of your essay—in effect, your personal statement. Within reason, you shouldn’t worry about how long or how short it is—it should generally be around three to six hundred words. If it is on the short side, you can expand it or write a longer introduction or conclusion. If it is on the long side, you can edit after you have written your introduction and conclusion.
Remember, no matter what you are writing about, the body of the essay is about you—about what you have learned, how you have grown, an ethical problem you’ve faced, or what captivates you—so don’t burden your essay with extraneous detail that distracts the reader. Detail can be interesting, but it can also muddy your message. That excess detail is the first thing that you will have to edit if your early draft runs long.
Once you are satisfied with the body of your essay, you can start writing the introduction and your conclusion. They are both important in illustrating more about you. Some readers, pressed for time, may only scan your introduction and your conclusion. Which should you write first? It depends. This is one of the places where there is no automatic answer, and you have to use your judgment. Remember, your essay must keep the reader engaged.