Free-writing toward the Light For years I have relied on free-writing exercises to show my students their own light. Free-writing opens the writer to all the buzzing life they carry inside themselves in the form of memories, wishes, dreams, regrets, insights-- and stories, stories, stories. And for your college essay, you need stories. I start all my Essay Intensive students on their college essay process with free-writing. When students respond to prompts without any self-censorship or self-criticism, in their flow, they can let their minds be as wild, creative, and deep as they naturally are (yay, sweet relief!)! And what they generate is often surprising and, ace of aces, not boring! Any writer is capable of pulling up material from the abyss of the self, and the resources there cannot be exhausted. You inner world is full of riches that you can use for practical ends and to meet your writing goals. Much better than bitcoin, whatever that really is. Here's a piece I recently wrote for TeenLife Mag that tells you exactly how you can use free-writing to rock your college essay-- or any meaningful introspective task. It solves any number of problems. Any of this sound like you?: "Are you stuck on your college essay draft? Or don’t even know where to start? Are you sure that you have nothing of interest to say? Bogged down by wordiness and obfuscations? Or are you trying to write too many essays at once? Free-writing has the cure for what ails you. Here’s why and how to do it, and some prompts to get you started." Read more. Want to share your free-writing with nosy people? Oh, good! Your kindergarten teacher probably said "sharing is caring." And while that rhyme has the gag factor, it's also true. At Essay Intensive, we care a lot about what you find when you look inside yourself unfiltered. We're also nosy in the way a writer is obligated to be, and have a good eye for sentences and ideas that could lead you somewhere profound. For fast feedback Continue Reading …
TeenLife Mag
Understanding the Common App Essay Prompts 2018-2019
"I read the Common App Essay Prompts, what do I do now?!" If the suggestion, "Just write an essay you love!" is too vague for you, here's help breaking down the Common App Prompts 2018. Some people prefer to let the essay prompts be jumping off points. That's fine too. Trust your mind. But if you're looking for deeper breakdown of the Common App 2018-2019 prompts, this guidance is for you. It was published in TeenLife Mag back in July but...I was busy having a baby and didn't get to post it. Now that baby's been had! You'll find the advice is relevant and hopefully a nudge towards...just writing that essay you love. Excerpt on responding to the Common App Essay Prompts 2018-2019 "Here’s the deal: When it comes time to write your Common Application college personal essay, it’s not really about the prompt. It's what you do with it, and how deep you go. Each prompt is a doorway into a story you want to tell, something distinctive you want to share. You have to know a few things to pull this off: What the genre of personal essay requires of you generally (general purpose of the essay); what each Common Application prompt is asking for (decoding the question); what possible responses are available to you (your life experiences and what you’ve made of them). You’ll find tips on the first two here and our tips on the writing process. Then, you’ll have to go inward. We can’t tell you what you’ve lived, and if we could, we’d be depriving you of the real work." The full post can be read here, on TeenLife, where you'll find tons of other useful information. Need help with your Common App Essay? We have expert advice for you so when you're asked what you wrote about, you'll say, "Oh, I just wrote an essay I loved!" Contact us for details. Because details are where the good stuff is. Continue Reading …