Get Rid of Writer’s Block and Write An Effective Personal Statement Law School

Filed under law school personal statement writing tips, August 18th, 2009 by admin

Whether you are writing a novel, an essay, a poem, or your personal statement for law school, writer’s block can attack you while working on any type of writing task.  When facing a bad case of writer’s block, your writing task may seem impossible to complete, most especially when you’re under the pressure of writing an excellent personal statement and submitting your application package before the deadline.  If writer’s block is keeping you from starting and completing your personal statement for law school, try not to be so hard on yourself.  Fortunately, there are numerous strategies and techniques for you to try to beat writer’s block and to unleash the writer in you.  Read on to learn more on how to get rid of writer’s block so you can write an excellent personal statement to get into the law school of your choice.

Signs of writer’s block

The first step to getting rid of writer’s block is to identify when you are falling victim to writer’s block and what is possibly causing it.  The most obvious sign of writer’s block is an inability to start on or continue with your personal statement.  Some of the main causes of writer’s block may be excessive stress, procrastination, burn out, perfectionism, and lack of focus and concentration.  It’s important to understand what is keeping you from writing so that you know how to approach the problem.  For example, if you’re struggling to write because you have perfectionist tendencies and your expectations for your personal statement are too high, then you may want to start writing by lowering your expectations and just writing whatever comes to mind.  Aside from these causes and signs of writer’s block, here are some of the effects that writer’s block can have on you:
-  Increased levels of stress, especially when chasing a deadline
-  Frustration or anger toward yourself or your writing task
-  Feelings of inadequacy or inability to write the personal statement

Tips to get rid of writer’s block

Here are some tips to help you beat writer’s block:

-  Tell yourself that you can start your personal statement from any section of the essay.  Most people get stuck because they are too tied up thinking of a grand introduction and first sentence to kick off their personal statement.  Skip this and start with a section that you might be more comfortable writing, then get back to the introduction later on when you’ve warmed up and are starting to beat the block.

-  You may also want to try taking a break.  Before you go on a break though, read through your notes, the personal statement questions, and any other information that has to do with your writing task.  This way, while you are taking a break, you can allow the ideas, concepts, topics, issues, questions, and answers to marinate in your head while on a break.  You may take a walk outside, take a nap, or simply occupy yourself with some other task.  The point is just to relax your mind and allow your mind to make the connections without you consciously thinking about your essay.

-  Make a rough outline or perform a brainstorming exercise to get the ideas out of your mind and onto paper.  Write down any word or idea that you might have concerning your personal statement.  Later, come back to your outline or brainstorming paper and have a go at writing your essay.

-  Finally, perform some sort of writing exercise that is easy, not stressful, and does not have a deadline attached.  You can write about anything at all, even writer’s block itself.  The point is to warm up your brain and to get your “inner writer” on a roll for when you tackle the bigger task at hand — your personal statement for law school.

Comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.