College Essay Writing Tips: First Things (Not) First

[GREAT OPENING SENTENCE GOES HERE] Phew! Now that I got that out of the way, I can write the rest of this blog post.

My students will land on a great topic for their college essay in our very first meeting. It’s really exciting for both of us. But then, when they sit down to write the first draft, very often they get stuck. “I don’t know how to start!” I can hear the moans as their writer’s block gets stronger and the blank screen glows brighter.

This is an understandable concern. Every piece of advice you read about the college essay says you have to hook your reader in the first sentence. (To this, I say, “Yes, but …” Sometimes the hook is the last line of the first paragraph.) In any case, there’s a LOT of pressure placed on that opening line.

So when my students get blocked by panic, I write the first line for them. It’s the same first line I suggest to all of my writers. In fact, it’s the same line I used at the start of this blog post: “[GREAT OPENING SENTENCE GOES HERE]”

And then I tell them to write what comes next. 

Just write. Let your pen (or pixels) go to work. Get your thoughts on the page, pop in some details, and let the story flow. It’s just a first draft, after all. 

I use this bracketed trick (and yes, I do actually use brackets) in the middle of my writing, as well. Sometimes, I’ll get into a groove and my fingers are click-clacking across the keyboard as my sentences build. It’s an awesome feeling! And then, poof! The word I need is gone. You know when you’re talking and the word you’re looking for is on the tip of your tongue, but you just completely forget it? Same thing happens when I write. 

But rather than stop, and risk losing the rest of my train of thought (and I will lose it!), I just type [THING] where that word should go. And then I keep writing. I can always go back and fill it in. Incidentally, this is why I use brackets and all caps – so I can clearly see that there’s some unfinished business.

“Call me Ishmael,” “It was the best of times…,” “124 was spiteful.” I’m guessing that these iconic first lines were not the first things the authors wrote. And just to prove that, here are some great opening lines from my students’ essays (shared with their permission.) 

It all started with a dead goat.

I can’t lie – if someone had given me 250 grand, I would’ve signed up to go on that Titanic submarine.

Everything changed the moment I embraced the ugly dance.

In December 2020, the bane of my existence was released on Netflix.

I've been the engineer for a group of pirates, the medic for a bunch of immortal soldiers (ironic, I know), a human tree trying to protect a village, and a scientist trying to find a new planet for the last of humanity to escape aliens. 

In retrospect, I think I should have paid more attention to the word “voodoo.” 

They’re grabby, they’re different, and yet they all have one thing in common: they were not the first thing any of these students wrote. Some of these lines were buried in the middle of their first drafts. Some were casually spoken out loud in our first conversation. And some were labored over, after the rest of the essay had already been written.

So fear not; go ahead and write out of order.

And for the sake of closure … [GREAT ENDING SENTENCE GOES HERE]