After last week’s post on writer’s block in the college essay process, you now know how to inspirecreativity. Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind during the nextsteps:
Go through the process several times. The old saying goes “don’t put allyour eggs in one basket,” and it is very applicable in this situation. Don’tsettle on the first idea that comes to mind. The more you have the better thechances of discovering something truly excellent.
Show your idea to several people. Getting lots of input from friends,teachers, and parents is essential to this whole process. The most importantthing is to ask these people not which idea they think is the best but which isthe most interesting. If you can capture the attention of your peers and yourmentors, you will do the same for the people reading your essay because theyare essentially the same people.
Keep in mind the biases of the people reviewing your ideas. This is a smallbut important point. If you decide to write about how your grandmother inspiredyou, clearly your parents will be very pleased with this idea. These are thetypes of things you will need to take into account.
The best strategy is to take an aggregate of the opinions you receive. Thereis an important social theory based on the wisdom of crowds. It contains a great deal of value in processes likethese. The best way to cancel out people’s biases is to put everyone’s opiniontogether. The idea the largest number of people considers to be interesting islikely to be the most interesting.
Don’t discard your other ideas quite yet. Remember you have to be able toturn these ideas into an essay with some specific constraints. Take your two orthree best ideas. Outline them in the process described in How to Start Your College Essay.
Now, you have to ask yourself several questions. Can you write a completeessay without loose ends with this topic? Don’t be afraid to throw away yourbest idea and go with your second choice. Forcing an interesting idea into aspecific format can easily ruin it. You may end up with unfinished strands ormay just not even have enough to say to fulfill the word count. The solutionisn’t to add fluff; this will only serve to lose the attention of the reader.Removing information may result unfinished thoughts and loose ends that leavethe reader with an incomplete feeling.
So now you have your most practical idea ready to be elaborated upon. Nextweek’s post will go through the do’s and don’ts of the writing and reviewingprocess.