Pondering and the Common App

Well, it looks like I'll be stealing Lampur for an extra project: and that would be the personal essay for the Common Application.

Seriously. I'll need him, too, since for some reason, this ONE essay is really hard for me to write.

Honestly, writing this sort of essay isn't usually hard for me. Personal essay? Okay, what do you want me to write about? Any topic? Word count? A little over 500? Alright, please wait about half an hour...

Even the other essays! They're all, for the most part, not hard to write at all. I've churned out so many drafts of all the essays and mini-essays it's not even funny, and usually they don't take more than half an hour to go from reading the prompt to having a finished draft. My plan is during one weekend in October (probably that long weekend when I'm not writing for GothNoWriMo) I'm going to take all the drafts and go through and edit them, but I probably won't be redrafting most (if not all) of the essays at that point...

EXCEPT FOR THE STUPID MAIN ESSAY FOR THE COMMON APPLICATION!

I mean, SERIOUSLY! It's like, I know I want to write about NaNoWriMo for it, since that's really the only thing that's happened in my life of any interest, but it's just not working out for me.

I did try to write an essay about another topic. I tried to do a "funny-type" essay about house cats (specifically, my cats), and I personally really liked it. It was one of those things that was rough, but I knew it could be really good. Unfortunately, the topic itself (cats/pets) and the fact that it might only be funny to me (the dangers of attempted humor in college application essays) ended up killing the essay.

So yeah. NaNo it is, then.

And at least five separate drafts later, I still don't have a completed draft I think could be edited to something good. I've done a bunch of different ways to frame the essay, since I tried to do a flat-out "I DID NANOWRIMO YAY FOR ME" essay, and it was HORRIBLE. I compared it to an interview, I compared it to the humdrum of normal life, I compared it to autumn/November, I compared it to...other stuff that I can't remember...

And none of it works!

Guh!

So right now, I'm working on a new way to frame it that I think could work, and I'm pulling in somebody who means a lot to me. The big guns: my narrator from the novel I wrote during that fateful NaNoWriMo.

Lampur and I always seemed to get along. I'm hoping that by pleading for his help during this essay-writing madness, I'll be able to get out a draft that, while maybe not perfect or even editable, could hit the nail on the head in terms of topic and approach. I mean, if I can find a topic/approach that works, that would be progress, and I want progress. RIGHT NOW.

So he and I are scheming! We're going to write about a late-night character-and-writer-tag-team-type epiphany that supposedly happened around 2 AM on Wednesday, November 14.

This, of course, is an entirely fictitious event. The heart-to-heard I describe is actually happening more like NOW, but I think it would be much more impressive if it happened during NaNo itself. :P I might change the date, though.

Hooooopefully, the college admissions people won't find this blog and be like, "oh, she lied! She and her character actually had this conversation during September of the following year! Her integrity is shot! REJECT REJECT REJECT!"

So yes.

So...um...

Dear possible college admissions officer: Sorry the essay you read is sort of fake. This actually is how I think - Lampur and I just had a little trouble finding a time when we could chat like this. We decided it would be best to describe the conversation in the context of the actually novel-drafting challenge. In reality, during that time and even now, I've always been in contact with Matt and Sissy, the two main characters of the PREQUEL to the book I was writing. You know, the one with Lampur (and Jamie, if I mention her in the essay you just read).

I would have used Matt and Sissy, or even some other characters (like Diego, Christine, Ariel, Ben, Pheng, and Tehm from Battlefield: Red), but I thought Lampur and I would work better for this. I even talked to Matt and Sissy about it, and even though they were sort of a bit put-off that I wasn't using them (Sissy, especially), they agreed it would work better.

Um...please accept me? I love you? So very, very much?

...Yeah...

So anyway.

Wish me and Lampur luck! (And if this works, Lampur, I PROMISE you I'll listen to you a ton more for the Highness rewrite, will include you when I work on Urban Myth and Eternal Flame, and even write this so-called "fourth book" you keep telling me is going to happen.)