Hey Friends,
I have a confession to make. Today I’m a writer, but for the past couple of weeks I wasn’t.
Here’s what I did to avoid writing
- I shopped for the perfect unicorn of a travel shoe that I could wear with dresses and walk in for miles. (I found it! If you want the deets, reply to this email, and I’ll share.)
- I researched new recipes that would use the harvest from our farm share that just began for the summer.
- I thought about purging my closet (though instead, I laid on the couch watching an entire season of Top Chef, telling myself I was looking for recipe ideas to use the farm vegetables).
There was so much more, but you get the idea. I have done everything I could think of to procrastinate from writing.
My options now
- begin testing recipes I found that use the farm veggies
- roll up my sleeves and purge my closet for real
- write
Answer: C
The candid truth
I will be honest with you that it does not feel good, grinding these words onto this page right now, but I’m doing it anyway. In College Essay Confidence I tell students, “Butt-in-the-chair and write, even if you don’t feel like it, even if it arrives on the page a hot mess.”
This newsletter has begun as that hot mess I’ve warned students about. (I promise, I’ll edit before sending.) But capturing any words on the page is also a victory. Thank you for motivating me to become a writer again today, just by your presence reading this newsletter right now.
The podcast circuit I’ve been on
Now that I’m a writer again, I’ll share the podcast interviews I’ve done recently where I talk about writing. Surely, after my confession, you’re tuned in to why I empathize so deeply with the struggles I describe. Perhaps listening to one or more of them will help jar you out of a writing or thinking rut.
- Why Confidence Is Key to a Great College Admission Essay
- Jill Shulman’s ‘College Essay Confidence’— What Every Student Needs
- Author2Author with Jill Margaret Shulman
- Creating a Stress-Free College Admissions Process
- What College Admissions Readers Really Want to See with Jill Margaret Shulman
Or if you’re more of a reader than a listener:
- How Revision and Vulnerability Strengthen Your Essay is a blog that summarize some of my advice.
- How to Build a Balanced College List That Fits You is another blog summarizing my advice.
- I’m including this book review of my new book because its writer helped me feel understood, the way I hope your child will feel when he reads College Essay Confidence.
Sanity Saver
For the students writing their college essays right now—or putting off writing their college essays right now—I challenge you to become a writer today. Use the many prompts in College Essay Confidence to start your engines. Put down your phone, drop your butt into a chair, and tap your fingers on a computer keyboard to create words on a page. Those words you produce will not be good or bad. They’re just the words that will get you started. Onward.
Warmly,
Jill
