The Complete Guide to Writing Effective College Applications & Essays by Kathy L. Hahn & Colleen M. Loew

Author:Kathy L. Hahn & Colleen M. Loew
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atlantic Publishing
Published: 2014-03-24T00:00:00+00:00

A Kroger list, yes; a quick e-mail to your best friend, yes—but not anything that requires serious concentration and has a real, lasting purpose. Long before you physically sit down to take keyboard or pen in hand, you should be thinking and strategizing. You might do well to keep a small pocket notebook (more about that in a moment) at the ready for those occasional aha! thoughts—those unexpected flashes of inspiration as you ride the bus or mow the yard—because the worst thing you can do (in my humble but well-proven experience) is to just sit right down, cold turkey, and expect to wham-bam produce a good, solid essay.

I realize that many of you would prefer to keep notes and lists electronically, and this is certainly fine, but when considering writing an essay, the value of a 50-cent pocket notebook can prove immeasurable. It is portable, convenient, and requires no plugging in or recharging. When an unbidden thought comes—out with the pen/pencil, and there it is; the notes are always visible and do not need to be “accessed” or downloaded. Plus, I have found that normally, just the physical act of handwriting—opposed to pounding keys—will allow an idea to stick more firmly and thus has a better chance of being built upon. The notes do not have to be neat or legible to anyone except yourself—if you are truly struggling with the idea of writing an essay, I doubt they will ever be worth a small fortune because you have become a best-selling author and they have been preserved for posterity—but hey, you never know.

Whether or not you actually use any of these notes is of no consequence; the main reason for this suggestion is that creativity tends to build on creativity, and you might be surprised to find how many thoughts start to flow once you have begun to jot down even just a few of them. Some of the notes will seem trivial and meaningless, but anything you can jot down along the lines of forethought will more easily attack that blank computer screen or legal pad when you sit down to begin serious writing. The important thing is to start searching for ideas before you in reality start drafting the essay and allow yourself enough time in advance to let an essay gradually take root.

For what it is worth, even creative people often find creativity to be a challenge. Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky, the famous Russian composer, once said something along the lines of: It is the duty of an artist never to submit to laziness… one can not afford to sit around and wait for Inspiration; she is a guest who comes only to those who call her. I do not recall where I first read that quotation, but I do recall it was on the back of an album cover and—fledgling author that I fancied myself to be—I copied it down on an index card and slid it under the glass top of my desk for those times when I was ready to say “Screw it; I cannot think of anything to write.

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