A few weeks ago I recommended a terrific book that EVERYONE who is interested in college admissions should read.  College Admission: From Application to Acceptance, Step by Step is a fantastic guide for kids in high school, for parents, and for counselors.  It’s the best resource available when it comes to applying to college.

So, liking the book as much as I do, you can understand why I am excited that the authors  Christine VanDeVelde and Robin Mamlet, have offered to be this week’s guest writers at askjohnaboutcollege.com. I mean, how cool is that?

Christine and Robin have given us an excellent piece here about how to get started with the writing process--and this piece speaks to every rising senior in a way that will really help you get started on your essays.  Here it is; enjoy:

"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'" Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

As book authors, we are intimately acquainted with how it feels to face the blank page and a big project. And we understand why you might want to procrastinate when it comes to your college essays -- you've just gotten started on your summer.

But sometime during the next few months you need to sit down at the keyboard and take a stab at those essays so you don't end up immobilized like Anne Lamott's brother in the example above. Get started -- essay by essay. We strongly recommend you set a goal of having all your Common Application essays done by the time you go back to school in the fall. (The prompts are available now at commonapp.org even though the new application will not go live until August.)

Remember colleges aren't looking for Hemingway-esque prose, they're looking for just two things:

1. 1.They want to know your ability to write meets their academic standards.
   

2. 2.They want to hear your voice in the writing so they know more about you when they finish the essay than they did before.
   

But sometimes students literally do not know how to "start". When Robin Mamlet was learning how to be an admission counselor in her first year on the job, one of the more experienced staff members took her aside to tell her how to do a school visit. Her job, he told her, is not just to interest students in the college she was representing (Occidental) but to make the conversation come alive and help students become engaged and speak up with questions or concerns. Always start the visit by going around the room and having each person introduce themselves and say a little about their interests, he advised, or even something as silly as simply saying their name and favorite ice cream flavor. The point was that once people hear their voice in a room, they are more likely to speak again as the visit progresses.

The same is true with writing. Once your voice gets out on the page – saying anything, whether it is the flavor of your favorite ice cream or simply “I cannot think of what to say, this thing is so intimidating…” you are likely to be able to keep writing. As author Meg Waite Clayton says, "The trick is just to write without worrying about exactly what you’re writing. Any sentence will do to start — and if it sucks, you can throw it out later!"

A time-honored strategy used by writers and actors and others in creative work is to forget the "assignment" -- in this case the essays -- and instead respond to a different -- and sometimes more provocative --question.

Here are some ideas for you to have fun with:    

    What is the theme song to your life?

    Describe your favorite photograph of yourself or the favorite  photograph of yourself that doesn't exist.

    Talk about a time when you changed your mind.

    Describe the environment around you to a blind person.

    Tell us what's under your bed.

    Where were you last night?

    I don't remember…

This last prompt represents one of our favorite types of exercise -- making lists. When we talk with students about essays in workshops or at our speaking appearances, we often work together on a list-making prompt that is particularly effective for students looking for their voice. Here's one of our favorites:

    I'm really good at…

To give you an idea of how this works, here is Robin Mamlet's start with this prompt:

    I'm really good at:

    Envisioning possibility

    Words with Friends

    Being a mom

    Making Panini

    Growing tomatoes

    Focusing

    Drawing out others

    Snuggling with my kids on the couch

              Learning new things

And here is Christine VanDeVelde's take on it:

    I'm really good at:

        Being a parent to my daughter

        Knowing what to do in an emergency

        Explaining and describing things in writing

        Being a loyal friend

        Reading -- mysteries, essays, biographies, memoir

        The New York Times crossword puzzle

        Shopping (Sigh…)

        Connecting people with each other and creating networks

        Wanting to learn more about many things (sometimes called            being too  curious)

See? It's not rocket science or Hemingway. Put your pencil to paper or your fingers on the keyboard and simply start putting down the words that are in your head -- any words -- or pick a prompt and play with it.  You will notice in your words, lists or answers to the prompts that themes will begin to emerge, or personal characteristics and adjectives leap out. That can help you narrow in a bit on who you are and what you might want to say to the admission officers of the colleges to which you're applying. These exercises can also often help you find the heart of things, so that what you say and how you say it can have more impact. This is the start toward your essays. Bird by bird… You'll get there.

Awesome advice.  Thanks, Robin and Christine!.

Remember, you can check out their book at Amazon.com, or just follow this link:  College Admission: From Application to Acceptance, Step by Step