Dear writer or person forced to write an essay during finals,
First and foremost, I need to admit this to all of you and to myself, writing is so hard. As you read these perfectly etched sentences you might be thinking, “How can she say it’s ‘so hard’ when she makes it look so easy?” Well, thank you for thinking that. Shucks, I’m flattered. What you might not know is I spent twenty minutes deciding what word to use in place of “etched.” OK, that was an exaggeration. Now, I’m worried if I am being authentic enough because I embellished the time for the purpose of emphasis. I’m worried if my voice is coming off as conceited, when I’m just trying to be funny. See what I mean? Writing can easily make you go crazy if you let it.
There is only one piece of advice I have: it’s better write an entire paper filled with slightly below average sentences than having a blank page with one perfect sentence. At the end of the day, 11:59 p.m. to be exact, there is a deadline and you have to turn something in. While I value quality over quantity, if you aren’t totally cramming the night before, you have something to work with. Writing is hard because you have to work at it.
(If you arereading this article to avoid an important paper, you are not alone. Also, when you have read my entire article, I hope you find the strength to complete that paper to the best of your ability).
To put it painfully simple, writing is carefully pairing words together into sentences to express a thought. The problem is, sometimes our thoughts aren’t easy to pinpoint, and sometimes, even though there are more than one million words in the English language, none of them seem to be working with you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a short poem or a ten-page dissertation, the blinking cursor seems to laugh at you. This isn’t writer’s block or procrastination, this is a battle between the writer and the work, and it’s all uphill. Most of the time, the work wins and the writer is left with something different than intended. Maybe even better.
There is something humbling I learned in an art class that can be applied to writing and life: It’s the process, not the product necessarily, that shows you who you are. Don’t you wish professors could know how many hours or tears were put into trying to regurgitate your knowledge for them? Don’t you ever wish the critics noted how hard you tried to write something good or real or pertinent?
At the end of the day, all that’s left is the work. Also, you the writer, exhausted and overwhelmed with a feeling of accomplishment.
You can write about the sky, and someone has probably done it before; It may be clichéd, and they’ll say, “Why is this amateur poet writing about the moon again?” To you the sky is beautiful and if it moves you to write something about it than that is beautiful. No one sees the sky quite like you. "Be true!" (You'd be surprised how much reading helps).
“You are a star, now shine!”
P.S.
There are always helpful writing tips if you are still stuck.
