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writing advice

The Common App Just Emailed You

August 4, 2022 by Sara Nolan Leave a Comment

The Common App just emailed you on August 1st, didn't they. A bajillion notifications. Even though everyone warned you, you now really get the sense you have 1,000 essays to write. You do! Sort of. Don't let the notifications stress you out. Just think of the Common App pings as little waves from your future, OK? Don't get your semi-colons and SAT words in a bunch. You got this. Here's a pep talk just for you. (I decided to go with the hot mess look so you know I'm just a person saying a thing. If link doesn't work, send me a message!) Already in need of writing momentum or guidance? (Aren't we all?) We have both plus good jokes. Listen, you need flow in your personal essay writing, not Oobleck in your face. Flow, not oobleck.      Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: college application, College Supplements, Common App, writer's block, writing advice

Change with the Change: Writing Advice for trying times

April 27, 2020 by Sara Nolan Leave a Comment

A story about dying is always a familiar story, right? The ultimate change challenge? “They are dying!” I said, like this was a surprise or needed pointing out. The daffodils, poster girls for Spring, now looked like used latex gloves* on stubbornly green stems.  My mother gave us the bunch early in self-isolation, soon after New York City had gone into lockdown. She cut them from the ruthless crop in her yard, as she did every spring when they briefly appeared. When my husband dropped off ice cream and Lysol spray (pandemic essentials), she sent them home for us--my husband, our 22 month old and our 4 year old-- to bring the outside in. The daffodils made me cry because they work. They are the symbol of arrival and transience, and they live and die boldly and quickly. They were also, very simply, from my mother. At that moment, my belly was ribboned with anxiety that she and my father, too, were facing imminent COVID transience. I imagined what so many are experiencing: final separation from us in an overwhelmed and handicapped hospital system.  The fear for my parents, the longing to cling, flared up: is it ridiculous cling to summer’s bounty when autumn has already dusted the trees of their leaves? For how long can you save that last blueberry before it shrivels?  But despite my contrafactual wish otherwise, die the daffodils did. I did not want to look at a dying thing on my table but I equally did not want to throw them out. Problem.  Turn it into Art & Make Your Meaning So I dried them. I turned them upside down, bound their stems with a rubber band, and hung them from a random nail on the wall with a garbage twisty-tie.  Their vibrant yellow faded, their vibrant green went dormant inside an unremarkable brown. But they did not rot, and they became something else beautiful. Something I could keep.  I know, snooze, a story about daffodils drying. But stay with me here.  Days later, my  Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Integrity, Parents, State of Mind, Uncategorized, Wisdom, Writing Tips Tagged With: meaning, parents, reflective writing, stress reduction, writing advice

“Grandma Essay” or College Essay As Eulogy?

September 29, 2016 by Sara Nolan

The grandma of the grandma essay

The "Grandma Essay" Everyone Warns You About...Is Not what you think! I'm writing to tell you a story.  This story ends with a college essay that became a eulogy. It was a topic no-no turned yes-yes: the "grandma essay" your counselor warned you about. But this story started as a young, earnest kid, J, clutched a pencil, and tried to tell me, like every other gritty kid I coach has told me, that he is determined. Show me, I said.  Tell me a story that shows me. Or maybe it started differently.  Maybe we were eating sandwiches while we worked together, sifting through his life, looking for particulars, and he mentioned how his grandma only liked her chicken sandwich this one particular way. Uh-oh, he said "grandma."  Cue the sentimental violin chorus.  Now, how a person likes a sandwiches can reveal a lot about personality-- it's true.  But an applicant is supposed to be careful not to focus too much on other family members in the personal essay-- right? Right, guys? And we ALL KNOW "the grandma essay" is soggy toilet paper of a topic, right? (Even if I'm personally a sucker for the elderly). But my interest came from somewhere else. My interest was peaked because of the look in his eye, the flicker that showed me that one comment about grandma had sent him to some gold-nugget inner place.  Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Integrity, Uncategorized, Wisdom, Writing Tips Tagged With: college applicants, deeper meaning, family members, personal essay, topics, writing advice

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At Essay Intensive, we are listening for the Big Challenging Questions to arise–physically, mentally and emotionally. We jump, word-ninja style, at the chance to be stimulated and engage in a true conversation.

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