To Write Good
Applications, Get out of Your Own Way
Strategies for
Overcoming Writer’s Block to Produce the Results You Want
by John T. Carlsen, Psy.D.
One of the best gifts you can give yourself, as
a internship applicant, is enough time to write powerful essays.
Unfortunately, most applicants simply settle for composing a single rough
draft and revising it, wondering all the while why their writing seems so flat
and uninspired. What most of them fail to realize is how they have
unintentionally undermined their own best efforts.
Over more than 20 years of writing as a
professional, I have learned two basic facts about the writing process. First,
no matter how much time I spend improving my writing skills, I still wind up
approaching every new writing project as though were an absolute beginner.
This is true with any creative process: Every time I give shape to something
that did not exist before, I have to struggle with the vagueness and
uncertainty that goes with the experience. Most of us do not have minds that
can produce something that comes out fully-formed from the start.
Rather, we stumble along aimlessly until we receive brief flashes of
brilliance that we strive to capture before they disappear.
The second basic fact is that, no matter how
well I get to know my creative process, I still cannot count on it to function
as I would like it to function. As a result, I rarely get to my best ideas
until the very late in the process of writing my rough draft.
Fortunately, acknowledging the power of these two realities can help any
struggling writer to find ways of overcoming them and harnessing his or her
energy to produce high-quality writing. How can this understanding help
me to overcome writer's block?
If you are like most writers, you have no idea
where to start. So, you might stare at the blank page or empty screen for
hours before finally putting some words into your draft. Or, you write and
delete your first few sentences several times before throwing up your hands in
exasperation. In reality, in the early phases of each new writing task, you
probably have no idea what you actually want to say or how you will say it.
So, your best strategy involves pushing yourself to produce something adequate
that you can eventually turn into something better.
One of my favorite authors, Anne LaMott says we
writers should give ourselves permission to write Crappy Rough Drafts.
(Actually, she uses a much stronger word to describe them, but this is a
Family newsletter. So, I will let you use your imagination - or track down her
book. In all seriousness, I would encourage you to do the latter; It’s a
powerful example. Check it out here.
While you’re there, check out some of her other books. She’s got a
wonderfully dry sense of humor and an infectious sense of being human)
Anyway, Anne says we need to allow ourselves to
write all of the stuff that will end up in the wastebasket or the delete
folder so that we can uncover the stuff that we really want to say. I’ve
learned that what I truly want to say is often embedded within unexpressed
emotions or self-criticism. So, when I’m stuck, I write a letter to my
sister, Karen, telling her why I am writing about my subject and what I would
like to say about it. I even express how I feel about all of it. Then, I
simply edit out her name and the inappropriate emotional reactions, leaving
the intellectual content I wanted. After assembling these ideas and revising
my sentences, I am often very pleased with what I have produced. And, I
can focus my energies on refining and polishing my final drafts.
I’d like to offer a few of my
"tried-and-true" guidelines for getting unstuck and producing
written content that makes me very proud:
- Stop counting the words in your rough
drafts. Yes, I know your essays are
supposed to stay within a 500-word limit. But, that’s the limit for your
final draft, not for your rough drafts. To ensure that you have room to
express all of your ideas - and the chance to express those marvelous
ideas that never come out until the end - you need to allow yourself
unlimited rough drafts and revisions. Say everything you have to say and
then take away everything you don’t need to express it. This will leave
very solid-worthwhile contents.
- Stop expecting so much from your rough
drafts. Their job is not serving as
your final version. Their only purpose is helping you "warm up"
your Writer Inside so he or she gets comfortable expressing thoughts on
paper. If you are especially lucky (more than I usually am), your Creative
Mind might reward you with a gem or two for providing such openness. But,
don’t count on it. My inner writer is notoriously stingy with brilliant
sentences until he knows that I am leaving him in charge and respecting
his authority. If I give him adequate space and time, he gives in to work
with me. Otherwise, I am left squeezing whatever words I can out of
him. Either way, he always wins.
- Remember that no one sees your rough
drafts except you, unless you let them.
Many of my readers and workshop participants wonder how I became so gifted
as to be able to write clear, coherent sentences that flow logically. If
they only knew how many hours I spent revising double-spaced drafts on the
El going to work. Or, if only they saw how much back writing is in my
delete folder. Give yourself enough space and time to produce pages and
pages of junk that you can later pare down and polish as your best
thoughts.
- Write your rough drafts in a notebook
with a pen rather than on a computer.
I sat and wrote most of this rough draft with a pen in my journal while
riding the Red Line to work. Most people laugh at how out-dated this
approach seems and wonder how I can tolerate something so low tech and
old-fashioned. Of course, we can type much faster than we can write. This
is especially true when we are "on a roll" with our thoughts.
But, from my experience, the best way (actually, the only way) for me to
write genuine, attention-grabbing thoughts from my heart is to write with
a pen. It slows me down and allow me to reflect on and see what I have to
say and how I feel about it. It’s the only way I can slow down enough to
find out what I truly feel and want to say. And, it helps me to get out of
my head, where I can easily use my intellectual skills to defend against
my inner truth. These are the very truths I am often afraid to express
because they seem silly or fragile or irrelevant to others as contrasted
with the enlightened commentary or incisive interpretations I am often
able to offer in class. Typing on a word-processor is too much like
writing papers or reports for class: It keeps me almost completely in my
head and focused on my dazzling analyses (which usually put more people
than me to sleep). By contrast, initially writing by hand enables me
to build more of a heart connection with my readers. It also helps me to
focus on what I want to say - how I want to sharpen my understanding of a
particular therapeutic technique or a specific client.
- Never forget that your first
responsibility is establishing and maintaining rapport with your readers.
One of the biggest mistakes internship applicants make is trying to
impress selection committees with they already know or can do rather than
with a clear understanding about what they still want to learn. Internship
is not a job, it’s a training experience. Selection committees do not
want to know how well you could work on your own; they want to know how
they could work with you and train you to become a professional. Do not
sell yourself short by preaching to them about your qualifications rather
than showing them how much fun it would be to train you.
Ultimately, your goal is to write and rewrite
and rethink and rewrite and revise and rewrite until you have produced the
best content you can. Think of your essay drafts as living, breathing
organisms. Periodically, step back and read them aloud, always listening
carefully and asking whether you have said what you mean The more clearly you
can describe your interests, goals, and experiences, the more real they will
become to you. As you recognize their value, you will become increasingly more
confident about what you have to offer as an applicant.
The more confident you become, the more you
will commit yourself to getting what you want from your training and making
sure that you match with the internship site you want. And, the more you will
make sure that you invest the energy necessary to promote your previous
experience and to outline training needs clearly. The more skilled you
become at articulating and going after what you want, the more you will feel
entitled to get it and the more you will begin to enjoy the application
and interviewing processes. These experiences eventually become
self-perpetuating: Just as a serious athlete begins to gain increasing
fulfillment from using his or her body at its fullest potential and mastering
a sport, you will begin drawing more satisfaction from using your Self as an
emerging professional therapist.
You have already invested a great deal of time
and energy in earning this degree. Don’t you deserve to have selection
committees see the results of your efforts?
John T. Carlsen, Psy.D. is
a licensed clinical psychologist who trains and supervises psychology interns
and externs. He offers personal coaching and training resources for graduate
students applying for internships and post-doctoral jobs. Click here
to learn more about how to write
effective applications and prepare for interviews. Click here
to submit comments, questions, or suggestions for future newsletter topics.
