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College Essays

Did you think you were all done pouring out your blood, sweat, and tears in written form for your personal statement , only to be faced with the "why this college?" supplemental essay? This question might seem simple but is in fact a crucial and potentially tricky part of many college applications. What exactly is the "why us?" essay trying to understand about you? And how do you answer this question without falling into its many pitfalls or making any rookie mistakes?

In this article, I'll explain why colleges want you to be able to explain why you are applying. I'll also discuss how to generate and brainstorm topics for this question and how to make yourself sound sincere and committed. Finally, we'll go over some "why this school?" essay do s and don't s.

This article is pretty detailed, so here's a brief overview of what we'll be covering:

Why Do Colleges Want You to Write a "Why Us?" Essay?

Two types of "why this college" essay prompts, step 1: research the school, step 2: brainstorm potential essay topics, step 3: nail the execution, example of a great "why this college" essay.

College admissions officers have to read an incredible amount of student work to put together a winning class, so trust me when I say that everything they ask you to write is meaningful and important .

The purpose of the "why us?" essay goes two ways. On one hand, seeing how you answer this question gives admissions officers a sense of whether you know and value their school .

On the other hand, having to verbalize why you are applying gives you the chance to think about what you want to get out of your college experience  and whether your target schools fit your goals and aspirations.

What Colleges Get Out Of Reading Your "Why This College?" Essay

Colleges want to check three things when they read this essay.

First, they want to see that you have a sense of what makes this college different and special.

• Do you know something about the school's mission, history, or values?
• Have you thought about the school's specific approach to learning?
• Are you comfortable with the school's traditions and the overall feel of student life here?

Second, they want proof that you will be a good fit for the school.

• Where do your interests lie? Do they correspond to this school's strengths?
• Is there something about you that meshes well with some aspect of the school?
• How will you contribute to college life? How will you make your mark on campus?

And third, they want to see that this school will, in turn, be a good fit for you.

• What do you want to get out of college? Will this college be able to provide that? Will this school contribute to your future success?
• What will you take advantage of on campus (e.g., academic programs, volunteer or travel opportunities, internships, or student organizations)?
• Will you succeed academically? Does this school provide the right rigor and pace for your ideal learning environment?

What You Get Out Of Writing Your "Why This College?" Essay

Throughout this process of articulating your answers to the questions above, you will also benefit in a couple of key ways:

It Lets You Build Excitement about the School

Finding specific programs and opportunities at schools you are already happy about will give you a grounded sense of direction for when you start school . At the same time, by describing what is great about schools that are low on your list, you'll likely boost your enthusiasm for these colleges and keep yourself from feeling that they're nothing more than lackluster fallbacks.

It Helps You Ensure That You're Making the Right Choice

Writing the "why us?" essay can act as a moment of clarity. It's possible that you won't be able to come up with any reasons for applying to a particular school. If further research fails to reveal any appealing characteristics that fit with your goals and interests, this school is likely not for you.

At the end of your four years, you want to feel like this, so take your "Why This College?" essay to heart.

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The "why this college?" essay is best thought of as a back-and-forth between you and the college . This means that your essay will really be answering two separate, albeit related, questions:

• "Why us?": This is where you explain what makes the school special in your eyes, what attracted you to it, and what you think you'll get out of your experience there.
• "Why you?": This is the part where you talk about why you'll fit in at the school; what qualities, skills, talents, or abilities you'll contribute to student life; and how your future will be impacted by the school and its opportunities.

Colleges usually use one of these approaches to frame this essay , meaning that your essay will lean heavier toward whichever question is favored in the prompt. For example, if the prompt is all about "why us?" you'll want to put your main focus on praising the school. If the prompt instead is mostly configured as "why you?" you'll want to dwell at length on your fit and potential.

It's good to remember that these two prompts are simply two sides of the same coin. Your reasons for wanting to apply to a particular school can be made to fit either of these questions.

For instance, say you really want the chance to learn from the world-famous Professor X. A "why us?" essay might dwell on how amazing an opportunity studying with him would be for you, and how he anchors the Telepathy department.

Meanwhile, a "why you?" essay would point out that your own academic telepathy credentials and future career goals make you an ideal student to learn from Professor X, a renowned master of the field.

Next up, I'll show you some real-life examples of what these two different approaches to the same prompt look like.

Clarifying why you want to study with a particular professor in a specific department can demonstrate to college admissions staff that you've done your research on the school.

"Why Us?" Prompts

• Why [this college]?
• Why are you interested in [this college]?
• Why is [this college] a good choice for you?
• What do you like best about [this college]?
• Why do you want to attend [this college]?

Below are some examples of actual "why us?" college essay prompts:

• Colorado College : "Describe how your personal experiences with a particular community make you a student who would benefit from Colorado College’s Block Plan."
• Tufts University : " I am applying to Tufts because… "
• Tulane University : "Describe why you are interested in joining the Tulane community. Consider your experiences, talents, and values to illustrate what you would contribute to the Tulane community if admitted." (via the Common App )
• University of Michigan : "Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate College or School (including preferred admission and dual degree programs) to which you are applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests?"
• Wellesley College : " When choosing a college, you are choosing an intellectual community and a place where you believe that you can live, learn, and flourish. We know that there are more than 100 reasons to choose Wellesley, but it's a good place to start. Visit the Wellesley 100 and select two items that attract, inspire, or celebrate what you would bring to our community. Have fun! Use this opportunity to reflect personally on what items appeal to you most and why. "

In a "why us?" essay, focus on the specific aspects of the school that appeal to you and how you will flourish because of those offerings.

"Why You?" Prompts

• Why are you a good match or fit for us?
• What are your interests, and how will you pursue them at [this college]?
• What do you want to study, and how will that correspond to our program?
• What or how will you contribute?
• Why you at [this college]?
• Why are you applying to [this college]?

Here are some examples of the "why you?" version of the college essay:

• Babson College : " A defining element of the Babson experience is learning and thriving in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives and interests. Please share something about your background, lived experiences, or viewpoint(s) that speaks to how you will contribute to and learn from Babson's collaborative community. "
• Bowdoin College : "Generations of students have found connection and meaning in Bowdoin's 'The Offer of the College.' ... Which line from the Offer resonates most with you? Optional: The Offer represents Bowdoin's values. Please reflect on the line you selected and how it has meaning to you." (via the Common App )

In a "why you?" essay, focus on how your values, interests, and motivations align with the school's offerings and how you'll contribute to campus life.

No matter how the prompt is worded, this essay is a give-and-take of what you and the college have to offer each other. Your job is to quickly zoom in on your main points and use both precision and detail to sound sincere, excited, and authentic.

How do you effectively explain the benefits you see this particular school providing for you and the contributions you will bring to the table as a student there? And how can you do this best using the small amount of space that you have (usually just one to two paragraphs)?

In this section, we'll go through the process of writing the "Why This College?" essay, step-by-step. First, I'll talk about the prep work you'll need to do. Next, we'll go through how to brainstorm good topics (and touch on what topics to avoid). I'll give you some tips on transforming your ideas and research into an actual essay. Finally, I'll take apart an actual "why us?" essay to show you why and how it works.

Before you can write about a school, you'll need to know specific things that make it stand out and appeal to you and your interests . So where do you look for these? And how do you find the details that will speak to you? Here are some ways you can learn more about a school.

In-Person Campus Visits

If you're going on college tours , you've got the perfect opportunity to gather information about the school. Bring a notepad and write down the following:

• Your tour guide's name
• One to two funny, surprising, or enthusiastic things your guide said about the school
• Any unusual features of the campus, such as buildings, sculptures, layout, history, or traditions

Try to also connect with students or faculty while you're there. If you visit a class, note which class it is and who teaches it. See whether you can briefly chat with a student (e.g., in the class you visit, around campus, or in a dining hall), and ask what they like most about the school or what has been most surprising about being there.

Don't forget to write down the answer! Trust me, you'll forget it otherwise—especially if you do this on multiple college visits.

Virtual Campus Visits

If you can't visit a campus in person, the next best thing is an online tour , either from the school's own website or from other websites, such as YOUniversityTV , CampusTours , or YouTube (search "[School Name] + tour").

You can also connect with students without visiting the campus in person . Some admissions websites list contact information for currently enrolled students you can email to ask one or two questions about what their experience of the school has been like.

Or if you know what department, sport, or activity you're interested in, you can ask the admissions office to put you in touch with a student who is involved with that particular interest.

If you can't visit a campus in person, request a video chat with admissions staff, a current student, or a faculty member to get a better sense of specific topics you might write about in your essay.

Alumni Interview

If you have an interview , ask your interviewer questions about their experience at the school and about what going to that school has done for them since graduation. As always, take notes!

College Fairs

If you have a chance to go to a college fair where your ideal college has representatives, don't just attend and pick up a brochure. Instead, e ngage the representatives in conversation, and ask them about what they think makes the school unique .  Jot down notes on any interesting details they tell you.

The College's Own Materials

Colleges publish lots and lots of different admissions materials—and all of these will be useful for your research. Here are some suggestions for what you can use. (You should be able to find all of the following resources online.)

Brochures and Course Catalogs

Read the mission statement of the school; does its educational philosophy align with yours? You should also read through its catalogs. Are there any programs, classes, departments, or activities that seem tailor-made for you in some way?

Pro Tip: These interesting features you find should be unusual in some way or different from what other schools offer. For example, being fascinated with the English department isn't going to cut it unless you can discuss its unusual focus, its world-renowned professors, or the different way it structures the major that appeals to you specifically.

Alumni Magazine

Are any professors highlighted? Does their research speak to you or connect with a project you did in high school or for an extracurricular?

Sometimes alumni magazines will highlight a college's new focus or new expansion. Does the construction of a new engineering school relate to your intended major? There might also be some columns or letters written by alumni who talk about what going to this particular school has meant to them. What stands out about their experiences?

School or Campus Newspaper

Students write about the hot issues of the day, which means that the articles will be about the best and worst things on campus . It'll also give you insight into student life, opportunities that are available to students, activities you can do off campus, and so on.

The College's Social Media

Your ideal school is most likely on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, and other social media. Follow the school to see what it's posting about.  Are there any exciting new campus developments? Professors in the news? Interesting events, clubs, or activities?

The Internet

Wikipedia is a great resource for learning basic details about a college's history, traditions, and values. I also recommend looking for forums on College Confidential that specifically deal with the school you're researching.

Another option is to search on Google for interesting phrases, such as "What students really think about [School Name]" or "[School Name] student forum." This will help you get detailed points of view, comments about specific programs or courses, and insight into real student life.

So what should you do now that you've completed a bunch of research? Answer: use it to develop connection points between you and your dream school. These connections will be the skeleton of your "why this college?" essay.

Find the Gems in Your Research

You have on hand all kinds of information, from your own personal experiences on campus and your conversations with people affiliated with your ideal school to what you've learned from campus publications and tidbits gleaned from the web.

Now, it's time to sift through all of your notes to find the three to five things that really speak to you. Link what you've learned about the school to how you can plug into this school's life, approach, and environment. That way, no matter whether your school's prompt is more heavily focused on the "why us?" or "why you?" part of the give-and-take, you'll have an entry point into the essay.

But what should these three to five things be? What should you keep in mind when you're looking for the gem that will become your topic?

Here are some words of wisdom from Calvin Wise , director of recruitment and former associate director of admissions at Johns Hopkins University (emphasis mine):

" Focus on what makes us unique and why that interests you. Do your research, and articulate a multidimensional connection to the specific college or university. We do not want broad statements (the brick pathways and historic buildings are beautiful) or a rehash of the information on our website (College X offers a strong liberal arts curriculum). All institutions have similarities. We want you to talk about our differences. "

Time to find that diamond, amethyst, opal, tourmaline, or amber in the rough.

Check Your Gems for Color and Clarity

When I say "check your gems," I mean make sure that each of the three to five things you've found is something your ideal school has that other schools don't have.

This something should be seen from your own perspective. The point isn't to generically praise the school but instead to go into detail about why it's so great for you that they have this thing.

This something you find should be meaningful to the school and specific to you. For example, if you focus on academics (e.g., courses, instructors, opportunities, or educational philosophy), find a way to link them either to your previous work or to your future aspirations.

This something should not be shallow and nonspecific. Want to live in a city? Every city has more than one college in it. Find a way to explain why this specific college in this specific city calls to you. Like pretty architecture? Many schools are beautiful, so dwell on why this particular place feels unlike any other. Like good weather, beach, skiing, or some other geographical attribute? There are many schools located near these places, and they know that people enjoy sunbathing. Either build a deeper connection or skip these as reasons.

Convert Your Gems into Essay Topics

Every "why this college?" essay is going to answer both the "why us?" and the "why you?" parts of the back-and-forth equation. But depending on which way your target school has worded its prompt, you'll lean more heavily on that part . This is why I'm going to split this brainstorming into two parts—to go with the "why us?" and "why you?" types of questions.

Of course, since they are both sides of the same coin, you can always easily flip each of these ideas around to have it work well for the other type of prompt . For example, a "why us?" essay might talk about how interesting the XYZ interdisciplinary project is and how it fits well with your senior project.

By contrast, a "why you?" essay would take the same idea but flip it to say that you've learned through your senior project how you deeply value an interdisciplinary approach to academics, making you a great fit for this school and its commitment to such work, as evidenced by project XYZ.

Describing how project XYZ demonstrates your investment in a particular course of study that then happens to align with a specific program at the university is an effective approach to the "why you?" essay.

Possible "Why Us?" Topics

• How a particular program of study, internship requirement, or volunteer connection will help further your specific career goals .
• The school's interesting approach to your future major (if you know what that will be) or a major that combines several disciplines that appeal to you and fit with your current academic work and interests.
• How the school handles financial aid and the infrastructure setup for low-income students and what that means for you in terms of opening doors.
• A story about how you became interested in the school (if you learned about it in an interesting way). For example, did the institution host a high school contest you took part in? Did you attend an art exhibit or stage performance there that you enjoyed and that your own artistic work aligns with?
• How you overcame an initial disinterest in the school (be sure to minimize this first negative impression). Did you do more research? Interact with someone on campus? Learn about the school's commitment to the community? Learn about interesting research being done there?
• A positive interaction you had with current students, faculty, or staff, as long as this is more than just, "Everyone I met was really nice."
• An experience you had while on a campus tour. Was there a super-passionate tour guide? Any information that surprised you? Did something happen to transform your idea about the school or campus life (in a good way)?
• Interesting interdisciplinary work going on at the university and how that connects with your academic interests, career goals, or previous high school work.
• The history of the school —but only if it's meaningful to you in some way. Has the school always been committed to fostering minority, first-generation, or immigrant students? Was it founded by someone you admire? Did it take an unpopular (but, to you, morally correct) stance at some crucial moment in history?
• An amazing professor you can't wait to learn from. Is there a chemistry professor whose current research meshes with a science fair project you did? A professor who's a renowned scholar on your favorite literary or artistic period or genre? A professor whose book on economics finally made you understand the most recent financial crisis?
• A class that sounds fascinating , especially if it's in a field you want to major in.
• A facility or piece of equipment you can't wait to work in or with  and that doesn't exist in many other places. Is there a specialty library with rare medieval manuscripts? Is there an observatory?
• A required curriculum that appeals to you because it provides a solid grounding in the classics, shakes up the traditional canon, connects all the students on campus in one intellectual project, or is taught in a unique way.

If the school can boast a cutting-edge laboratory where you dream of conducting research, that would be a strong focus for a "Why Us?" essay.

Possible "Why You?" Topics

• Do you want to continue a project you worked on in high school? Talk about how or where in the current course, club, and program offerings this work would fit in. Why will you be a good addition to the team?
• Have you always been involved in a community service project that's already being done on campus? Write about integrating life on campus with events in the surrounding community.
• Do you plan to keep performing in the arts, playing music, working on the newspaper, or engaging in something else you were seriously committed to in high school? Discuss how excited you are to join that existing organization.
• Are you the perfect person to take advantage of an internship program (e.g., because you have already worked in this field, were exposed to it through your parents, or have completed academic work that gives you some experience with it)?
• Are you the ideal candidate for a study abroad opportunity (e.g., because you can speak the language of the country, it's a place where you've worked or studied before, or your career goals are international in some respect)?
• Are you a stand-out match for an undergraduate research project (e.g., because you'll major in this field, you've always wanted to work with this professor, or you want to pursue research as a career option)?
• Is there something you were deeply involved with that doesn't currently exist on campus? Offer to start a club for it. And I mean a club; you aren't going to magically create a new academic department or even a new academic course, so don't try offering that. If you do write about this, make double (and even triple) sure that the school doesn't already have a club, course, or program for this interest.
• What are some of the programs or activities you plan to get involved with on campus , and what unique qualities will you bring to them?
• Make this a mini version of a personal statement you never wrote.  Use this essay as another chance to show a few more of the skills, talents, or passions that don't appear in your actual college essay. What's the runner-up interest that you didn't write about? What opportunity, program, or offering at the school lines up with it?

One way to impress admissions staff in a "Why You?" essay is to discuss your fascination with a particular topic in a specific discipline, such as kinetic sculpture, and how you want to pursue that passion (e.g., as a studio art major).

Possible Topics for a College That's Not Your First Choice

• If you're writing about a school you're not completely psyched about, one way to sidestep the issue is to focus on what getting this degree will do for you in the future . How do you see yourself changing existing systems, helping others, or otherwise succeeding?
• Alternatively, discuss what the school values academically, socially, environmentally, or philosophically and how this connects with what you also care about . Does it have a vegan, organic, and cruelty-free cafeteria? A relationship with a local farm or garden? De-emphasized fraternity involvement? Strong commitment to environmental issues? Lots of opportunities to contribute to the community surrounding the school? Active inclusion and a sense of belonging for various underrepresented groups?
• Try to find at least one or two features you're excited about for each of the schools on your list. If you can't think of a single reason why this would be a good place for you to go, maybe you shouldn't be applying there!

Topics to Avoid in Your Essay

• Don't write about general characteristics, such as a school's location (or the weather in that location), reputation, or student body size. For example, anyone applying to the Webb Institute , which has just about 100 students , should by all means talk about having a preference for tiny, close-knit communities. By contrast, schools in sunny climates know that people enjoy good weather, but if you can't connect the outdoors with the college itself, think of something else to say.
• Don't talk about your sports fandom. Saying, "I can see myself in crimson and white/blue and orange/[some color] and [some other color]" is both overused and not a persuasive reason for wanting to go to a particular college. After all, you could cheer for a team without going to the school! Unless you're an athlete, you're an aspiring mascot performer, or you have a truly one-of-a-kind story to tell about your link to the team, opt for a different track.
• Don't copy descriptions from the college's website to tell admissions officers how great their institution is. They don't want to hear praise; they want to hear how you connect with their school. So if something on the college brochure speaks to you, explain why this specific detail matters to you and how your past experiences, academic work, extracurricular interests, or hobbies relate to that detail.
• Don't use college rankings as a reason you want to go to a school. Of course prestige matters, but schools that are ranked right next to each other on the list are at about the same level of prestige. What makes you choose one over the other?
• If you decide to write about a future major, don't just talk about what you want to study and why . Make sure that you also explain why you want to study this thing at this particular school . What do they do differently from other colleges?
• Don't wax poetic about the school's pretty campus. "From the moment I stepped on your campus, I knew it was the place for me" is another cliché—and another way to say basically nothing about why you actually want to go to this particular school. Lots of schools are pretty, and many are pretty in the exact same way.

Pop quiz: This pretty gothic building is on what college campus? Yes, that's right—it could be anywhere.

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When you've put together the ideas that will make up your answer to the "why us?" question, it's time to build them into a memorable essay. Here are some tips for doing that successfully:

• Jump right in. The essay is short, so there's no need for an introduction or conclusion. Spend the first paragraph delving into your best one or two reasons for applying. Then, use the second paragraph to go into slightly less detail about reasons 2 (or 3) through 5.
• To thine own self be true. Write in your own voice, and be sincere about what you're saying. Believe me—the reader can tell when you mean it and when you're just blathering!
• Details, details, details. Show the school that you've done your research. Are there any classes, professors, clubs, or activities you're excited about at the school? Be specific (e.g., "I'm fascinated by the work Dr. Jenny Johnson has done with interactive sound installations").
• If you plan on attending if admitted, say so. Colleges care about the numbers of acceptances deeply, so it might help to know you're a sure thing. But don't write this if you don't mean it!
• Don't cut and paste the same essay for every school. At least once, you'll most likely forget to change the school name or some other telling detail. You also don't want to have too much vague, cookie-cutter reasoning, or else you'll start to sound bland and forgettable.

For more tips, check out our step-by-step essay-writing advice .

Avoid cookie-cutter responses to "why this college?" essay prompts. Instead, provide an essay that's personalized to that particular institution.

At this point, it'll be helpful to take a look at a "why us?" essay that works and figure out what the author did to create a meaningful answer to this challenging question.

Here is a "Why Tufts?" essay from James Gregoire '19 for Tufts University :

It was on my official visit with the cross country team that I realized Tufts was the perfect school for me. Our topics of conversation ranged from Asian geography to efficient movement patterns, and everyone spoke enthusiastically about what they were involved in on campus. I really related with the guys I met, and I think they represent the passion that Tufts' students have. I can pursue my dream of being a successful entrepreneur by joining the Tufts Entrepreneurs Society, pursuing an Entrepreneurial Leadership minor, and taking part in an up-and-coming computer science program.

Here are some of the main reasons this essay is so effective:

• Interaction with current students. James writes about hanging out with the cross-country team and sounds excited about meeting them.
• "I'm a great fit." He uses the conversation with the cross-country team members to talk about his own good fit here ("I really related with the guys I met").
• Why the school is special. James also uses the conversation as a way to show that he enjoys the variety of opportunities Tufts offers (their fun conversation covers Asian geography, movement patterns, and other things they "were involved with on campus").
• Taking advantage of this specialness. James doesn't just list things Tufts offers but also explains which of them are of specific value to him. He's interested in being an entrepreneur, so the Tufts Entrepreneurs Society and the Entrepreneurial Leadership courses appeal to him.
• Awareness of what the school is up to. Finally, James shows that he's aware of the latest Tufts developments when he mentions the new computer science program.

The Bottom Line: Writing a Great "Why This College?" Essay

• Proof that you understand what makes this college different and special
• Evidence that you'll be a good fit at this school
• Evidence that this college will, in turn, be a good fit for you

The prompt may be phrased in one of two ways: "Why us?" or "Why you?" But these are sides of the same coin and will be addressed in your essay regardless of the prompt style.

Writing the perfect "why this school?" essay requires you to first research the specific qualities and characteristics of this school that appeal to you. You can find this information by doing any or all of the following:

• Visiting campuses in person or virtually to interact with current students and faculty
• Posing questions to your college interviewer or to representatives at college fairs
• Reading the college's own materials , such as its brochures, official website, alumni magazine, campus newspaper, and social media
• Looking at other websites that talk about the school

To find a topic to write about for your essay, find the three to five things that really speak to you about the school , and then link each of them to yourself, your interests, your goals, or your strengths.

Avoid using clichés that could be true for any school, such as architecture, geography, weather, or sports fandom. Instead, focus on the details that differentiate your intended school from all the others .

What's Next?

Are you also working on your personal statement? If you're using the Common App, check out our complete breakdown of the Common App prompts and learn how to pick the best prompt for you .

If you're applying to a University of California school, we've got an in-depth article on how to write effective UC personal statements .

And if you're submitting ApplyTexas applications, read our helpful guide on how to approach the many different ApplyTexas essay prompts .

Struggling with the college application process as a whole? Our expert guides teach you how to ask for recommendations , how to write about extracurriculars , and how to research colleges .

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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How to Write the “Why This College” Essay (With an Example!)

Varonika Ware is a content writer at Scholarships360. Varonika earned her undergraduate degree in Mass Communications at Louisiana State University. During her time at LSU, she worked with the Center of Academic Success to create the weekly Success Sunday newsletter. Varonika also interned at the Louisiana Department of Insurance in the Public Affairs office with some of her graphics appearing in local news articles.

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Bill Jack has over a decade of experience in college admissions and financial aid. Since 2008, he has worked at Colby College, Wesleyan University, University of Maine at Farmington, and Bates College.

Maria Geiger is Director of Content at Scholarships360. She is a former online educational technology instructor and adjunct writing instructor. In addition to education reform, Maria’s interests include viewpoint diversity, blended/flipped learning, digital communication, and integrating media/web tools into the curriculum to better facilitate student engagement. Maria earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from Monmouth University, an M. Ed. in Education from Monmouth University, and a Virtual Online Teaching Certificate (VOLT) from the University of Pennsylvania.

Applying to college is a big decision that brings a lot of excitement and stress. This is especially true when it comes to answering the “why this college” prompt asked by so many colleges. However daunting these prompts might seem, you got this. Keep reading to learn tips and tricks to write your “why this college” essay, and take a look at an example essay!

“Why this college?” essay prompts 

The “Why this college?” essay is probably one of the most common essays you’ll come across during your application process. This is partially because admissions committees want students that’re as interested and passionate about their institution. Some popular colleges that offer “why this college?” prompts include:

• Columbia University : “Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? We encourage you to consider the aspect(s) that you find unique and compelling about Columbia. (150 words or fewer)
• Duke University : “What is your sense of Duke as a university and a community, and why do you consider it a good match for you? If there is something in particular about our offerings that attracts you, feel free to share that as well. (max. 250 words)”
• University of Michigan : “Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate College or School to which you are applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests?” (Minimum: 100 words/Maximum: 550 words)

As you can see, all three of the prompts are a variation of the basic “why this college” question. Let’s take a look at a sample response essay written for Columbia University. 

“Why this college?” sample essay

Dear Columbia University, 

This is probably the hundredth essay you’ve read in the sea of applicants, and as you’re likely expecting, I could tell you that I’m different from them all. Though in some ways, I’m the same. Like them, I want to stand on the corner of Broadway and 116th St. and know I chose the perfect school to study literary arts with a focus on fiction writing. 

Even more so, I strive to be one of the Columbia Greats that inspired me to pick up a pen. Though, you shouldn’t want me because I might be the next Allen Ginsberg, but because I plan on being a writer that captures the virtue found in the rye of J.D. Salinger, the watchful gaze of Zora Neale Hurston, and the freshness of my own style. Amongst your walls and tutelage, these literary greats blossomed, as I hope to.

Applicant Name

Why this essay works:

• Starts with a compelling statement to interest the audience
• Answers the “why this college?” question by discussing notable alumni and the arts program
• Uses a unique approach to the prompt question that reflects interest in the major of choice
• Explains why the admissions committee should choose this applicant
• Stays within the word count limit

Also see: How to respond to this year’s Common App essay prompts

Mistakes to avoid when writing a “why this college” essay

Generalizing.

When writing any essay, generalizing usually isn’t the way to go. Readers want to get invested in the story or argument you’re presenting, and the admissions office is no different. Details are a key component of making your essay stand out. 

The admissions committee wants to get to know you and assess how you’ll fit into their institution. No two applicants are the same, and you should strive to prove that through your unique essay. 

Placating the admissions office

It can be easy to fall back on simply telling your college’s admissions committee what they want to hear. However, you shouldn’t just pull facts and figures from the website or quote the college’s brochure. Individualize your essay not only to capture the attention of your reader, but to display interest in your college of choice.

Anyone can put general information in their application, but it takes effort to explain why you want to attend a particular school, how admission would affect your life, and what the school has to gain from your attendance. Think of it as a persuasive essay where you have to back up your argument with details. 

Also see: An insider’s perspective into what goes on in college admissions offices

Tips for writing your essay

Find a connection.

Even before you start writing your essay, figure out the connection between you and your college of choice. 

Is there a particular professor you want to study under? Are you a legacy applicant? Is it the campus of your dreams? Are you excited for a particular program? 

Asking yourself questions like this can help pinpoint what’s motivating you to apply to a university and why they should admit you. Explaining your connection to your school of choice can show the admissions committee that you belong on their campus. 

It will strengthen your application and help you individualize your application. Create an interesting or anecdotal story out of your connection in order to set yourself apart.

Also see: How to write an essay about yourself

Outline and edit

College essays usually range from around 200 – 500 words, which can go by much quicker than you might think. This is why it’s ideal to outline your essay once you’ve decided what to write about. It can be easy to get distracted by the little details, but emphasize the main points that are essential to the story you’re trying to tell the admissions office. 

It’s also a good idea to thoroughly read and edit your essay multiple times. You’ll want to submit the complete and final version of your essay, not something that reads like a rough draft. 

Remember, your parents, advisors, teachers, and peers can be helpful resources during revision. Feedback is an important aspect of the editing process.

Additional resources

Congratulations on starting your applications to college and working so diligently on them! Fortunately, Scholarships360 has even more resources to offer that can help propel your college journey in the right direction. 

• Start choosing your major
• Find the supplemental essay guide for your college
• Learn what “demonstrated interest” means for your application

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How to Write the Why This Major Essay + Example

April 26, 2023

Writing the supplemental “Why this major” essay sounds like a cakewalk for approximately 4% of high school seniors—those lucky few who’ve known their purpose since kindergarten. For most, it feels more like a desperate stab at fortune-telling. How should anyone know what major they’ll choose at a school they haven’t yet been invited to attend? (Let alone what career they’d choose after graduating from said unknown institution.) In fact, if these students could flash forward two years, they’d see that a large number of sophomores will still be considering the question a week before they must pick their major.

The reality is, choosing a major often involves a lot more on-site research: visiting the offices of professors, talking to college advisors, testing out intro classes, etc. The “Why this major essay”, on the other hand, is rarely a commitment to a particular major. Rather, it’s a way for admissions officers to determine a) what subject(s) the student is interested in, b) how they’ve pursued this interest already, and c) how they would take advantage of the college’s resources while further developing in their field. Like the why this college essay, the why this major essay ultimately shows admissions officers if the student will be a good fit at their college. Yet here the scope of the essay is more focused. This makes the essay easier to tackle, so long as the student has done their research.

Researching the Why This Major Essay

Whether or not the student has already picked their intended major, it’s essential to do some preliminary research. It may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised to hear how many students dash off a why this major essay without ever visiting the college website. Most college websites will be neatly laid out, with an “Academics” page linking to the various majors and minors on offer.

For undecided students, this list of majors will spark ideas. Often, subjects not offered at the high school level simply aren’t on a high schooler’s radar. Less typical liberal arts majors might include Food Studies, Fashion, and Neuroscience. A larger university may have a whole school dedicated to Engineering, with engineering majors ranging from Biomedical Engineering to Civil Engineering. (Students applying to a particular school like this will want to read up on additional guides, such as Preparing for a Top Engineering College .)

Furthermore, students may find that a particular college combines several of their interests into one major. A major in Sustainable Development will require courses on environmental science, economics, and architecture. Some colleges even offer an independent study option, allowing students to combine several disciplines of their choice as they work on a specific senior project.

Once the student has narrowed down their interests to around 1 – 3 majors, they should take notes on any aspects of the programs that appeal to them. These can include the curriculum and courses offered, research taking place in the department, study abroad options, labs, etc. Department websites also provide insight into current and previous students’ thesis work. These notes will make drafting the why this major essay a lot easier, and will provide real evidence that the student is genuinely interested in the program.

Structuring the Why This Major Essay, Part A

Structurally, the “Why this major?” essay hinges on two complementary parts. These two halves don’t need to be equally weighted in words. Yet, they are equally valuable in forming a cohesive argument.

In part A, students describe their history with the specific subject they’ve chosen. Anecdotes provide an easy way in. A why this major engineering essay may begin with a student describing the time they fixed the science class aquarium by restructuring valves connecting to the water tank.

Next, the student should show how this interest turned into a full-fledged passion. Examples here could include specific units in high school classes, books they’ve read, internships, etc. Try to choose moments and details that together shape a journey.

Structuring the Why This Major Essay, Part B

This second part of the “Why this major?” essay is all about the future. The student must link their developed interest to their chosen major. Then, returning to their research notes, the student will show why the school they’re applying to will be unique in providing a relevant and resourceful education in that arena. Though most aspects of a program are worth mentioning, it’s best to avoid naming specific professors. Faculty can vary annually, and even tenured professors go on sabbatical.

A natural final step in Part B involves describing how the chosen major will lead to the student’s desired career. It’s normal for students to feel a bit baffled here. But remember, this essay is not a promise. Rather, talking about potential career paths will demonstrate that the student has some awareness and practical knowledge of the field, as well as some idealism about what they might accomplish in it. Look again at the department website for articles and links to alumni news for inspiration.

Make it personal, and passionate. No matter what major a student chooses, admissions officers will be impressed by a student who has taken their education into their own hands in order to pursue their interest to its fullest.

Focus in on specificity. Admissions officers will remember a student interested in mutations in indigenous tropical plants, though they may forget a student who’s simply interested in botany. Detail will also make the essay more articulate.

Common Mistakes and Lingering Questions

As mentioned above, not doing the research before writing a “Why this major?” essay can lead to serious mistakes. Imagine submitting an essay about why you intend to major in International Politics, only to learn that the college’s major is called Global Politics and Economics. Here are some other common mistakes:

1) Not committing fully to any idea. Students who shy away from definitively selecting a major may do so out of a sense of honesty. Perhaps they don’t feel it’s right to wax on about Medieval Studies when they’re also interested in Historical Preservation. While trying to give both subjects a fair chance, the student can come across as only lukewarm for both. Colleges may pass over an applicant they see as apathetic. (Plus, colleges see students’ evolution as being in their best interest, and won’t hold it against you if you change your mind.) So, throw yourself fully into one major, or both, just make sure the excitement comes through. And, consider mentioning how your second or third interest may become your minor.

2) Parroting the website. Admissions officers know what their website says. That’s their job. Students who find themselves copying or paraphrasing the website can adapt this information to themselves by answering the question, how would I take advantage of this particular feature?

3) Picking the wrong major. Students may feel pressured to pick a major that is perceived to be lucrative, or one that is less popular because they believe it gives them a statistically higher chance of getting accepted. While an applicant’s desired field of study is weighed in the admission process , attempting to “game the system” very rarely ends in success. Ultimately, choosing a major that genuinely aligns with one’s interests and accomplishments is almost always the way to go. (For more on this question, check out Should I Declare a Major on My College Application ?)

Sample Why This Major Essay Prompts

While the Common App Prompts ask for fairly lengthy responses, the why this major essay works to complement the main essay, and can be pretty short. Short essays around 100 words will require a cursory nod to each eventful moment in the student’s life that has led them to choose their major. Medium-sized essays (250-400 words) will allow the student to sharpen each experience with more detail.

Let’s take a look at several examples:

Purdue University asks students to “Respond in 100 words or fewer. Briefly discuss your reasons for pursuing the major you have selected.” The brevity of the prompt invites the writer to be straightforward and concise in kind.

Students applying to Princeton as B.S.E. degree applicants will find that the “why this major” engineering prompt is equally straightforward. However, it asks for more specificity. It reads: “Please describe why you are interested in studying engineering at Princeton. Include any of your experiences in or exposure to engineering, and how you think the programs offered at the University suit your particular interests. (Please respond in 250 words or fewer.)”

Why This Major Essay Example

Lastly, let’s see how one engineering student answered both Purdue and Princeton’s why this major essay/why this major essay engineering prompts. You’ll notice that the student recycled various information, but condensed and adapted the essay the second time around.

Why This Major Essay Engineering: Princeton

I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig while learning to drive. Afterward, I hoped my mom’s Volvo would break down so I could put the engine back together, as I had with a lawn mower. I love rebuilding things to understand each part. In Electronics, I wrote code to make a robot move, yet was left dissatisfied.

I’d begun to see how our climate crisis is caused by greenhouse gases, a byproduct of technology. I felt deceived by misconceived notions of “progress,” by cars and engines. Only when building an Arduino-based automated watering system to measure moisture in our school garden did I realize how technology might fix our mistakes. A complex watering system might reforest our planet, though it would be an immense undertaking. As Pirsig wrote: “Steel can be any shape you want if you are skilled enough, and any shape but the one you want if you are not.”

I wish to major in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Princeton University to develop the skills necessary to design technologies that will restore our planet’s balance. I’m inspired by the recent laser-based sensing drone developed by Princeton researchers, which can pinpoint greenhouse gas leaks. With a concentration in Energy and the Environment, I would learn about remote methane sensors using chirped laser dispersion spectroscopy. I plan to develop an independent project on vapor isotope analyzers. After obtaining my B.S.E., I hope to improve the water cycles in urban environments.

Why This Major Essay Engineering: Purdue

While building an Arduino-based automated watering system for my school garden to measure moisture, I realized that human technology does not only destroy environments, but can work to reverse the effects of climate change. Majoring in Multidisciplinary Engineering with a Humanitarian Engineering Concentration at Purdue University would enable me to explore and combine various engineering disciplines in order to design technology that engenders sustainable living solutions for our species while supporting biodiversity on the planet. I plan to construct my own vapor isotope analyzer as my thesis to study and ultimately improve the water cycle of urban environments.

Why this Major Essay – Additional Resources

Looking for advice on other aspects of the college essay writing process? You may also find the following blogs to be of interest:

• How to Write the Overcoming Challenges Essay
• 2023-24 Common App Essay Prompts
• Check out over 50 school-specific supplemental prompts and tips
• College Essay

Kaylen Baker

With a BA in Literary Studies from Middlebury College, an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University, and a Master’s in Translation from Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, Kaylen has been working with students on their writing for over five years. Previously, Kaylen taught a fiction course for high school students as part of Columbia Artists/Teachers, and served as an English Language Assistant for the French National Department of Education. Kaylen is an experienced writer/translator whose work has been featured in Los Angeles Review, Hybrid, San Francisco Bay Guardian, France Today, and Honolulu Weekly, among others.

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How to Write the “Why this Major” College Essay + Examples

What’s covered:.

• What is the “Why This Major” Essay?
• Examples of “Why This Major?” Essay Prompts
• Tips for Writing the “Why This Major?” Essay
• “Why This Major?” Essay Examples

What to Do If You’re Undecided

The “Why This Major?” essay is a common prompt that nearly every college applicant will have to answer at least once. In this post, we’ll go over the purpose of this essay, examples of real prompts, sample responses, and expert tips for writing your own essay. If one of the colleges on your list asks you to respond to this prompt, you’ll be well-prepared after reading this post. 

What is the “Why This Major” Essay? 

In the college admissions process, you’ll need to submit two main types of essays: the personal statement and supplemental essays. The personal statement is your main application essay that goes to every school you apply to. The goal of this essay is to share more about who you are and your development. 

On the other hand, supplemental essays only go to specific schools, and each school requests their own essays. The goal of these essays is to showcase your fit with the school. Common prompts include “ Why This College? ”, “ Describe an Extracurricular ,” and “Why This Major?” 

The “Why This Major?” prompt in particular asks you, unsurprisingly, to explain your interest in your intended major. Colleges want to understand where you’re coming from academically, what your intellectual passions are, and what you plan to do professionally (at least roughly). If you aren’t 100% sure about what you want to study, that’s totally fine, but you do want to show that you’re an overall curious, engaged student.

It’s also meant to gauge your academic fit with the college, so you should be sure to cover school-specific resources related to your intended major that will help you achieve your goals. In other words, this prompt should actually be considered “Why This Major at This School?” 

Examples of “Why This Major?” Essay Prompts 

Before we dive in, let’s first take a look at some real-life examples of these prompts. 

For example, Yale requests that students write a 200-word supplemental essay based on the following prompt: 

Similarly, Purdue asks applicants to write 250 words in response to the below statement:

Carnegie Mellon , another top college, requires students to discuss the evolution of their proposed field of study, in 300 words or less: 

Finally, the University of Michigan asks students to craft a slightly longer essay, up to 500 words, about the qualities that attracted them to the college or school they’re applying to and how the curriculum will support their interests.

Tips for Writing the “Why This Major?” Essay 

Answering the “Why This Major?” prompt may seem like a difficult task. However, there are tips to help simplify the process and ensure your response addresses the question fully and effectively. Here are three steps for writing a standout essay about your major of choice: 

1. Share how your academic interest developed.  

The first step in crafting an effective “Why This Major?” essay is explaining your emotional resonance with the subject, and your background in it. While you might be tempted to write about your passion for the subject in flowery language, it’s better to share specific experiences that show how your interest developed. You should cover both the coursework that you’ve done in the field and any relevant extracurricular experiences. If you have space, you can also add in the specific subtopics that interest you within the major (i.e. analyzing gender relations or racism within the broader topic of sociology). 

You might also consider sharing a short anecdote related to your interest in the major. This strategy is especially effective at the beginning of the essay, as telling a story will both draw in the reader and provide context for your academic interest. For example, if you’re interested in studying English at Yale, you could start your essay by describing a childhood ritual in which you and your dad went to the library every Saturday.  

However, while anecdotes are crucial components of a college essay, students should choose what details to include with care. The most impactful essays tell a story, so you should refrain from listing all of your extracurricular activities that relate to your chosen major. This is not a resume! Instead, find ways of connecting your initial anecdote with your desire to pursue your major. For example, perhaps your early experiences at the library led you to get a job at a local bookstore and organize author readings for the community.

2. Detail your reasoning and goals.  

It’s not enough to express your passion for a particular subject. You also want to describe your goals and explain how majoring in your chosen field will help you achieve them. Perhaps your early experiences with authors inspired you to start a novel. You can further explain how majoring in English will enable you to study the great works of literature, thereby providing you with the background and foundation needed to find success as a writer.  

3. Explain your school choice.  

Finally, a “Why This Major?” essay should reveal how the college in question will help you achieve your goals. Your reasons should extend beyond “the college is highly ranked for this major,” as no matter how excellent the school’s reputation is, there are assuredly other colleges out there that are also strong in this department. Instead, dive into the curriculum, teaching methodology, specific classes, professors who are doing work in your area of interest, or other resources that can be found only at that school. 

For example, if you’re passionate about becoming a writer one day, take time to explain how Yale’s English program will set you on the road to success. Perhaps you’re interested in studying British greats through the famed Yale in London study abroad program. Or, maybe you plan on pursuing the Creative Writing Concentration as a senior to further refine your abilities to craft engaging narratives with compelling characters. 

You could also mention a desire to take a particular course, study with a certain professor, or work on the school newspaper. Just be careful not to “name-drop” professors⁠—only mention a specific faculty member if their work is highly relevant to your interests. Otherwise, your interest will look disingenuous.

“Why This Major?” Essay Examples 

To give you a better idea of what these essays should look like, below are a few example responses to the “Why This Major?” prompt.

One Christmas morning, when I was nine, I opened a snap circuit set from my grandmother. Although I had always loved math and science, I didn’t realize my passion for engineering until I spent the rest of winter break creating different circuits to power various lights, alarms, and sensors. Even after I outgrew the toy, I kept the set in my bedroom at home and knew I wanted to study engineering. Later, in a high school biology class, I learned that engineering didn’t only apply to circuits, but also to medical devices that could improve people’s quality of life. Biomedical engineering allows me to pursue my academic passions and help people at the same time.

Just as biology and engineering interact in biomedical engineering, I am fascinated by interdisciplinary research in my chosen career path. Duke offers unmatched resources, such as DUhatch and The Foundry, that will enrich my engineering education and help me practice creative problem-solving skills. The emphasis on entrepreneurship within these resources will also help me to make a helpful product. Duke’s Bass Connections program also interests me; I firmly believe that the most creative and necessary problem-solving comes by bringing people together from different backgrounds. Through this program, I can use my engineering education to solve complicated societal problems such as creating sustainable surgical tools for low-income countries. Along the way, I can learn alongside experts in the field. Duke’s openness and collaborative culture span across its academic disciplines, making Duke the best place for me to grow both as an engineer and as a social advocate. 

This student does a great job of sharing how their interest in biomedical engineering developed. They begin the essay with an anecdote, which is more engaging and personal than simply stating “I want to study X major because…” and then smoothly take us into the present, and show how their understanding of the field has become more sophisticated over time. It’s also clear this student has done their research on how Duke specifically can help them achieve their goal of being an engineer and social advocate, as they’re able to name several relevant resources at Duke, such as DUhatch, The Foundry, and the Bass Connections program. 

I woke up. The curtains filtered the sun’s rays, hitting my face directly. I got up, looked from the bathroom to the kitchen, but my dad wasn’t there. I plopped on the couch, then the door opened. My dad walked in, clutching a brown paper bag with ninety-nine cent breakfast tacos. After eating, we drove to a customer’s house. He sat me in a chair, lifted the floorboard, and crawled under the house to fix the pipes. As he emerged, he talked, but my mind drifted to the weight of the eleven-millimeter hex wrench in my hand. My interest in mechanical engineering originates from my dad, who was a plumber. When I was fifteen, my dad passed away from cancer that constricted his throat. Holding his calloused hand on his deathbed, I wanted to prevent the suffering of others from cancer. Two years later, when I was given a topic of choice for my chemistry research paper, I stumbled upon an article about gold nanoparticles used for HIV treatment. I decided to steer the topic of gold nanoparticles used for cancer treatment instead, entering the field of nanotechnology. After reading numerous articles and watching college lectures on YouTube, I was utterly captivated by topics like using minuscule devices to induce hyperthermia as a safe method of cancer treatment. Nanotechnology is multi-disciplinary, reinforcing my interest in pursuing mechanical engineering as a gateway to participate in nanoscience and nanotechnology research at the University of Texas at Austin. I have learned that nanotechnology is not limited to stories like mine, but to other issues such as sustainable energy and water development that I hope to work towards. It is important for me to continue helping others without forfeiting my interest in nanotechnology, working in collaboration with both engineering and the medical field.

The narrative style of this essay engages readers and keeps us eager to know what’s going to happen next. In terms of content, the student does a great job of sharing personal and specific details about themselves, the roots of their academic interests, and their motivation to pursue them in college. While this essay is very strong overall, it is missing the “Why nanotechnology at UT Austin?” element of this kind of prompt, and would be even more successful if the student mentioned a particular professor at UT Austin doing research in their area of interest, or a lab dedicated to work in the field of nanotechnology.

I held my breath and hit RUN. Yes! A plump white cat jumped out and began to catch the falling pizzas. Although my Fat Cat project seems simple now, it was the beginning of an enthusiastic passion for computer science. Four years and thousands of hours of programming later, that passion has grown into an intense desire to explore how computer science can serve society. Every day, surrounded by technology that can recognize my face and recommend scarily-specific ads, I’m reminded of Uncle Ben’s advice to a young Spiderman: “With great power comes great responsibility”. Likewise, the need to ensure digital equality has skyrocketed with AI’s far-reaching presence in society; and I believe that digital fairness starts with equality in education. 

The unique use of threads at the College of Computing perfectly matches my interests in AI and its potential use in education; the path of combined threads on Intelligence and People gives me the rare opportunity to delve deep into both areas. I’m particularly intrigued by the rich sets of both knowledge-based and data-driven intelligence courses, as I believe AI should not only show correlation of events, but also provide insight into why they occur. 

In my four years as an enthusiastic online English tutor, I’ve worked hard to help students overcome both financial and technological obstacles in hopes of bringing quality education to people from diverse backgrounds. For this reason, I’m extremely excited by the many courses in the People thread that focus on education and human-centered technology. I’d love to explore how to integrate AI technology into the teaching process to make education more available, affordable, and effective for people everywhere. And with the innumerable opportunities that Georgia Tech has to offer, I know that I will be able to go further here than anywhere else.

This essay has a great hook—it captures the reader’s attention and draws them into the story right away. Through this anecdote, the student shows their personality and interests, and then deftly transitions into talking about why Georgia Tech’s computer science program is the right match for them. The student explains how the College of Computing at Georgia Tech fits into their future by referencing “threads,” which are unique to the College of Computing’s curriculum and allow students to apply their CS coursework to particular areas. 

Just because you haven’t decided on a concentration doesn’t mean you’re out of luck when it comes to writing the “Why This Major?” essay. Ultimately, schools care less about knowing that you have your whole academic career planned out, and more about seeing that you are a genuinely curious, engaged student who does have intellectual passions, even if you’re still figuring out which one you want to pursue as a major. 

If you’re still undecided, you can opt to write about 1-3 potential majors (depending on the word count), while detailing how the school can help you choose one, as well as meet your broader academic goals. For best results, include personal anecdotes about a few academic subjects or courses that have inspired you, and share some potential career paths stemming from them. For more tips, see our post on how to write the “Why this major?” essay if you’re undecided . 

Where to Get Your “Why This Major?” Essay Edited 

Do you want feedback on your “Why This Major?” essay? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.  

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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Why I Write

This material remains under copyright in some jurisdictions, including the US, and is reproduced here with the kind permission of  the Orwell Estate . The Orwell Foundation is an independent charity – please consider making a donation or becoming a Friend of the Foundation to help us maintain these resources for readers everywhere. 

From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books.

I was the middle child of three, but there was a gap of five years on either side, and I barely saw my father before I was eight. For this and other reasons I was somewhat lonely, and I soon developed disagreeable mannerisms which made me unpopular throughout my schooldays. I had the lonely child’s habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons, and I think from the very start my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued. I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts, and I felt that this created a sort of private world in which I could get my own back for my failure in everyday life. Nevertheless the volume of serious – i.e. seriously intended ­– writing which I produced all through my childhood and boyhood would not amount to half a dozen pages. I wrote my first poem at the age of four or five, my mother taking it down to dictation. I cannot remember anything about it except that it was about a tiger and the tiger had ‘chair-like teeth’ – a good enough phrase, but I fancy the poem was a plagiarism of Blake’s ‘Tiger, Tiger’. At eleven, when the war or 1914-18 broke out, I wrote a patriotic poem which was printed in the local newspaper, as was another, two years later, on the death of Kitchener. From time to time, when I was a bit older, I wrote bad and usually unfinished ‘nature poems’ in the Georgian style. I also, about twice, attempted a short story which was a ghastly failure. That was the total of the would-be serious work that I actually set down on paper during all those years.

However, throughout this time I did in a sense engage in literary activities. To begin with there was the made-to-order stuff which I produced quickly, easily and without much pleasure to myself. Apart from school work, I wrote vers d’occasion , semi-comic poems which I could turn out at what now seems to me astonishing speed – at fourteen I wrote a whole rhyming play, in imitation of Aristophanes, in about a week – and helped to edit school magazines, both printed and in manuscript. These magazines were the most pitiful burlesque stuff that you could imagine, and I took far less trouble with them than I now would with the cheapest journalism. But side by side with all this, for fifteen years or more, I was carrying out a literary exercise of a quite different kind: this was the making up of a continuous “story” about myself, a sort of diary existing only in the mind. I believe this is a common habit of children and adolescents. As a very small child I used to imagine that I was, say, Robin Hood, and picture myself as the hero of thrilling adventures, but quite soon my “story” ceased to be narcissistic in a crude way and became more and more a mere description of what I was doing and the things I saw. For minutes at a time this kind of thing would be running through my head: ‘He pushed the door open and entered the room. A yellow beam of sunlight, filtering through the muslin curtains, slanted on to the table, where a matchbox, half-open, lay beside the inkpot. With his right hand in his pocket he moved across to the window. Down in the street a tortoiseshell cat was chasing a dead leaf,’ etc., etc. This habit continued until I was about twenty-five, right through my non-literary years. Although I had to search, and did search, for the right words, I seemed to be making this descriptive effort almost against my will, under a kind of compulsion from outside. The ‘story’ must, I suppose, have reflected the styles of the various writers I admired at different ages, but so far as I remember it always had the same meticulous descriptive quality.

When I was about sixteen I suddenly discovered the joy of mere words, i.e. the sounds and associations of words. The lines from Paradise Lost –

So hee with difficulty and labour hard Moved on: with difficulty and labour hee,

which do not now seem to me so very wonderful, sent shivers down my backbone; and the spelling ‘hee’ for ‘he’ was an added pleasure. As for the need to describe things, I knew all about it already. So it is clear what kind of books I wanted to write, in so far as I could be said to want to write books at that time. I wanted to write enormous naturalistic novels with unhappy endings, full of detailed descriptions and arresting similes, and also full of purple passages in which words were used partly for the sake of their sound. And in fact my first completed novel, Burmese Days , which I wrote when I was thirty but projected much earlier, is rather that kind of book.

I give all this background information because I do not think one can assess a writer’s motives without knowing something of his early development. His subject-matter will be determined by the age he lives in ­– at least this is true in tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our own – but before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will never completely escape. It is his job, no doubt, to discipline his temperament and avoid getting stuck at some immature stage, or in some perverse mood: but if he escapes from his early influences altogether, he will have killed his impulse to write. Putting aside the need to earn a living, I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing prose. They exist in different degrees in every writer, and in any one writer the proportions will vary from time to time, according to the atmosphere in which he is living. They are:

(i) Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive, and a strong one. Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful business men – in short, with the whole top crust of humanity. The great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish. After the age of about thirty they abandon individual ambition – in many cases, indeed, they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all – and live chiefly for others, or are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, willful people who are determined to live their own lives to the end, and writers belong in this class. Serious writers, I should say, are on the whole more vain and self-centered than journalists, though less interested in money.

(ii) Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed. The aesthetic motive is very feeble in a lot of writers, but even a pamphleteer or writer of textbooks will have pet words and phrases which appeal to him for non-utilitarian reasons; or he may feel strongly about typography, width of margins, etc. Above the level of a railway guide, no book is quite free from aesthetic considerations.

(iii) Historical impulse. Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.

(iv) Political purpose – using the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society that they should strive after. Once again, no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.

It can be seen how these various impulses must war against one another, and how they must fluctuate from person to person and from time to time. By nature – taking your ‘nature’ to be the state you have attained when you are first adult – I am a person in whom the first three motives would outweigh the fourth. In a peaceful age I might have written ornate or merely descriptive books, and might have remained almost unaware of my political loyalties. As it is I have been forced into becoming a sort of pamphleteer. First I spent five years in an unsuitable profession (the Indian Imperial Police, in Burma), and then I underwent poverty and the sense of failure. This increased my natural hatred of authority and made me for the first time fully aware of the existence of the working classes, and the job in Burma had given me some understanding of the nature of imperialism: but these experiences were not enough to give me an accurate political orientation. Then came Hitler, the Spanish Civil War, etc. By the end of 1935 I had still failed to reach a firm decision. I remember a little poem that I wrote at that date, expressing my dilemma:

A happy vicar I might have been Two hundred years ago, To preach upon eternal doom And watch my walnuts grow But born, alas, in an evil time, I missed that pleasant haven, For the hair has grown on my upper lip And the clergy are all clean-shaven. And later still the times were good, We were so easy to please, We rocked our troubled thoughts to sleep On the bosoms of the trees. All ignorant we dared to own The joys we now dissemble; The greenfinch on the apple bough Could make my enemies tremble. But girls’ bellies and apricots, Roach in a shaded stream, Horses, ducks in flight at dawn, All these are a dream. It is forbidden to dream again; We maim our joys or hide them; Horses are made of chromium steel And little fat men shall ride them. I am the worm who never turned, The eunuch without a harem; Between the priest and the commissar I walk like Eugene Aram; And the commissar is telling my fortune While the radio plays, But the priest has promised an Austin Seven, For Duggie always pays. I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls, And woke to find it true; I wasn’t born for an age like this; Was Smith? Was Jones? Were you?

The Spanish war and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it. It seems to me nonsense, in a period like our own, to think that one can avoid writing of such subjects. Everyone writes of them in one guise or another. It is simply a question of which side one takes and what approach one follows. And the more one is conscious of one’s political bias, the more chance one has of acting politically without sacrificing one’s aesthetic and intellectual integrity.

What I have most wanted to do throughout the past ten years is to make political writing into an art. My starting point is always a feeling of partisanship, a sense of injustice. When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art’. I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing. But I could not do the work of writing a book, or even a long magazine article, if it were not also an aesthetic experience. Anyone who cares to examine my work will see that even when it is downright propaganda it contains much that a full-time politician would consider irrelevant. I am not able, and do not want, completely to abandon the world view that I acquired in childhood. So long as I remain alive and well I shall continue to feel strongly about prose style, to love the surface of the earth, and to take a pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information. It is no use trying to suppress that side of myself. The job is to reconcile my ingrained likes and dislikes with the essentially public, non-individual activities that this age forces on all of us.

It is not easy. It raises problems of construction and of language, and it raises in a new way the problem of truthfulness. Let me give just one example of the cruder kind of difficulty that arises. My book about the Spanish civil war, Homage to Catalonia , is of course a frankly political book, but in the main it is written with a certain detachment and regard for form. I did try very hard in it to tell the whole truth without violating my literary instincts. But among other things it contains a long chapter, full of newspaper quotations and the like, defending the Trotskyists who were accused of plotting with Franco. Clearly such a chapter, which after a year or two would lose its interest for any ordinary reader, must ruin the book. A critic whom I respect read me a lecture about it. ‘Why did you put in all that stuff?’ he said. ‘You’ve turned what might have been a good book into journalism.’ What he said was true, but I could not have done otherwise. I happened to know, what very few people in England had been allowed to know, that innocent men were being falsely accused. If I had not been angry about that I should never have written the book.

In one form or another this problem comes up again. The problem of language is subtler and would take too long to discuss. I will only say that of late years I have tried to write less picturesquely and more exactly. In any case I find that by the time you have perfected any style of writing, you have always outgrown it. Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole. I have not written a novel for seven years, but I hope to write another fairly soon. It is bound to be a failure, every book is a failure, but I do know with some clarity what kind of book I want to write.

Looking back through the last page or two, I see that I have made it appear as though my motives in writing were wholly public-spirited. I don’t want to leave that as the final impression. All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist or understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one’s own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane. I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest, but I know which of them deserve to be followed. And looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally.

Gangrel , No. 4, Summer 1946

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Why Do We Write? 4 Key Reasons Why Telling and Sharing Stories Matters

by Joe Bunting | 214 comments

Why do we write? Nonfiction and fiction writing has been an instrumental way for people to connect to one another in the real world.

Stories are about change, and by reading and watching them we, ourselves, can change for the better.

But do people write for different reasons, and are some of those reasons more meaningful than others?

Are you sitting at your computer right now, possibly plunging through your first draft (or much later draft), and debating whether or not a writing career is the one for you?

Do you wonder if the written word is how you'll make your mark on the world—and if it is, is a writing career what you want in life?

Why Telling and Sharing Stories Matters

It's safe to say there are more writers now than at any other time in history.

At the beginning of my writing career, I went to the AWP conference in Chicago, eager to learn and excited to start making connections with other writers. There were 10,000 other writers there. That was one conference years back.

Back when I first wrote this post, in 2012, the amount of creative writing programs at universities had exploded from about 50 in the 1980s to over 300 just in the US. There were over 110 million bloggers running their own blogs.

By now, I'm sure the numbers have only increased.

That's a lot of competition.

Seriously though, why do we write? Why are all of us pursuing writing in the face of the increasingly limited attention spans of the broader public?

It's not like we're making much money at it, if any.

What motivates us to keep going? How does writing make a positive difference in our own life, and in the lives of those around us?

4 Reasons Why We Write

Whether or not we're writing short stories for a high school assignment, finishing novels that we self-publish on Amazon, or writing full-time with the success of notable authors like Stephen King (wouldn't that be amazing?), we write for many reasons.

However, there are four main reasons why I write. I wonder if these will resonate with you:

1. To Be Alive

We write to be fully alive.

Sir Ken Robinson says:

The arts especially address the idea of aesthetic experience. An aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak; when you’re present in the current moment; when you’re resonating with the excitement of this thing that you’re experiencing; when you are fully alive.

The act of writing draws us into the moment. We see the blades of grass, hear the sharp chirp of the morning cricket, watch the shade travel from one edge of the yard to the other, seemingly for the first time.

Writing helps us make art out of everyday life, those ordinary moments we might otherwise overlook.

With each piece of writing, we're invited to see the world from a fresh perspective.

We seize an opportunity to ground ourselves in a point of view that can be our own—or that of a new character. One who waits eagerly to teach us something special about ourselves and our potentials.

Writing gives us a surplus of moments to really sympathize with a person, explore a world, and learn from a story in a way that reminds us what really matters in life.

We engender a growth mindset through writing—and writing deeply.

A writing life is rich with truth and adventures that bring our very beings to life.

2. To Make a Name for Ourselves

George Orwell says one motivation to write is sheer egoism, that we write out of the “desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc.”

That's part of it, but I think the motivation goes much deeper than being well-liked in the present moment.

If you're being honest, you would agree that it would be nice to live forever. But if you can't live forever physically, then why can't your memory live forever?

We're still talking about Chaucer, Virginia Woolf, Mark Twain, and George Elliott long after their deaths. Why not you?

While this might not be the most unselfish of motivations, it's certainly natural. Writers who share their stories build a legacy that will also beyond their lifetimes.

Writing lets us make a mark on the present world and future generations—if writers have the courage to print their stories on paper, and then pass it on to a reader.

And, with some luck, that readers passes that story on to another reader, who passes it on again.

3. To Change the World

People consume now more than ever in the history of the world.

We eat more, we listen to more music, and we consume more information. However, we've also learned enough about consumerism to know it won't make us happy.

Writing gives us a chance to turn the tides on consumerism. Rather than consume more, we can make something.

Instead of fueling destruction, we empower creation. Isn't that exciting?

Every day, when you put your fingers to the keys, you're creating something. And then, with the click of button, you can share it with the world.

Humans have a built in need to make our mark on the world. We want to bring new things to life, to mold things into the image we have in our imaginations, to subdue the earth.

We write not just to change the world, but to create a new world.

And with each new world, new possibilities.

New stories, which not only complete the circle of life but enrich it.

4. To Discover Meaning

The psychiatrist Victor Frankl posited that the main search of mankind is not happiness or pleasure but meaning. “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose,” he wrote in Man's Search for Meaning .

Writers are uniquely gifted to find meaning for themselves and to help others find meaning.

In fact, this has always been the main task of storytellers. Every story matters to the person living it, and our job is to tell the universal stories, the stories that reveal the story of every person on the earth.

We write to bring meaning to the world.

That goal isn't synonymous with writing a best seller on the  New York Times  list—although, wouldn't that be nice?

You never know whose life your story could change.

That's why, deep down, we, as writers, understand that it's important to not only start but finish what we write.

We All Have Stories to Tell

Regardless of how many copies of a book you sell, stories share meaning and messages with patterns, and those patterns are absorbed and retained by people reaching out to the world for answers.

Each of our lives is a precious story in itself. And each of of us has an unlimited amount of stories to tell.

I hope that you will write your stories down for us. If your goal is to write your dream book in the new year, I hope you'll consider joining our writing community to get the support you deserve. Check out our Pro Practice Community today.  

What do you think? Why do you write, and why are there so many people writing today? Let us know in the comments .

Today, spend some time free writing. As you write, contemplate your motivations. Are they pure enough to keep you going despite everything?

Write for fifteen minutes . When you're finished, post your practice in the Pro Practice Workshop , and be sure to leave feedback on a few posts by other writers.

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

214 Comments

I write to help myself. I have to write or something very important is missing. I write to help others too. That’s it plain and simple. 

It’s interesting to think that is a ton of competition, but I personally think that is a very large audience. We are in this together. Writers read. If you write something Joe, I’ll most likely read it.  

Agreed, Jim.

Thanks 🙂 Although my next post is about how Jimi Hendrix is the most overrated guitarist ever. Shoot.

rapidly clicking unsubscribe..and unfriending… 😉 

I like your thought of a large audience.  

You know thinking of the large audience and thinking of how many writers here I honestly enjoy.  Not only are most writers readers, most of us read more than we write.  Or at least I do.  I wonder if that’s true for most of us.  If I had written as much as I’ve read in my lifetime my hands would have fallen off long ago.  

I agree with you. I think having more writers enter the fray is only a good thing for writers and writing.

Agreed. It reminds me of when I used to work at an antiques store, in a small town on a main street lined with antique stores. The owner of the place where I worked always talked about how all the other stores being around was good for everyone more than it was competition. And they all kind of looked out for each other. Same thing with writers/readers.

I’ll read what you write too Joe, unless you put something bad about J.K.Rowling in the title. I can’t stand writing snobs. I’m way too low-brow for that 😉

I just changed the title of my next post. Why Jimi Hendrix and JK Rowling Are For Musical and Literary Infants Respectively (But Not Respectfully).

Cue the crickets and the silence!

Oh my goodness, too funny! It doesn’t work without the bit in brackets.

I was just thinking to myself the other day…why do I write?  I sat and made a list of a zillion reasons why I do, but when it all boils down, these four categories are why. Although I dream to be published one day, for now, writing is my outlet and my best friend.  Beautiful post!

Thanks, Malia. I’m glad I got them all 🙂

It’s a good question and a hard one to answer simply. I think it’s good for the soul, to write. Like the number pi the soul goes on forever and I think we write because we want our words to go on forever in some way. Plus, for me, it soothes the soul and provides an outlet that keeps me alive and gives release to the voices in my head …

I like the idea that the soul goes on and on like pi! All the more reason to just keep letting the words flow out, because you can never run out!

Hi Joe! Good post (as usual) and good question. Why do I write? Because I enjoy it. I enjoy creating new worlds, placing characters in them, and then seeing what happens. It’s pure entertainment for me and hopefully for my readers. If there is a deeper meaning to my writing, aside from my being a hopeful romantic, it’s subliminal. If that makes me shallow, then shallow I shall be. I read to be entertained and I write to do the same.

This is definitely a good recipe for a lifelong love affair with writing! I don’t think there is anything shallow about creating for the pure enjoyment of it.

 Thank you, Misaralee. It took years for me to realize that writing for my own enjoyment wasn’t wrong and that trying to write in a manner unnatural to my own WAS wrong. Now, I work hard to put down the best effort I can and hope folks like reading it as much as I did writing it.

Hey that subliminal stuff will rise up out of the writing if you keep working.   I took a workshop once and submitted a story about two women with the same name who were very different.  I thought it was just a funny story with funny characters but I got remarks about theme and underlying meaning.  I think it did have some of that but I didn’t know it when I wrote it.  Of course maybe people were just being workshop students who felt they needed to say something that sounded good.  I hope not. 

 True enough, Marianne. Theme is often unconscious and the writer may not discover it until after the piece is complete. I’m sure your fellow workshoppers were sincere. I’m just saying that I’m not a writer on a mission – except to entertain.

There is a filmstrip in my head that will not stop running until I put it down on paper. I must write so I can view the next film in my head.

DO IT! Then post it here. 🙂

I write for the same reason that I bake: I want someone to take a taste and tell me it’s yummy and then I tell them that I substituted wheat bran for white flour and it’s actually very healthy.

I LOVE that, Nora.

Great analogy, Nora. My wife tries to pull that on me occasionally, but I’m on to her.

Love that! Then, you should say to them “BOOM! You just got WHEAT BRAN’D.”

The electricity of words was thought to be expendable and a drain on the central power grid and so the ever logical lizard ordered rolling blackouts centered on that once thriving bohemian village. The residents were given rations in exchange for copy writing and editing work for the central brain corporation, delivering dead fish words to the external overlords who kept the roof over our head and the fridge stocked with hotdogs. The life I had thought extinguished became a refugee, deep where the sharp, sanitizing talons of despair and self-preservation could not liquidate it. But oh bliss, the grid is flooded with excess energy. The words sneak up and surprise my conscious mind with their freedom and the visceral strength of expression. Did I really write that? How could such guttural expression have come from me, the cube dwelling citizen of this plastic empire? I bring myself to tears with the release of emotions and truths I had buried deep in an unconscious place. The lamp of words lightens up my heart and draws out the poison and the passion that had buried itself there. And now I write for sheer joy of playing with words. Building towers and landscapes with strokes of a pen. Eliciting surprised laughter from a friend when I turn a unique phrase in conversation, balancing cliché on its head. I have the smug satisfaction of being the master of blank spaces, giving form to emptiness with ink and pixels. Corralling the world without limitations, without expense or need of materials, only my fingers and the blank space. Signal the engineer to open the flood gates! Make inkblots on the page! The more abstract the better. The more spontaneous and unconscious, the wilder and more beautiful the art is to me.

Wow Missaralee.  That was like poetry.  “the life I thought . .could not liquidate it”. That is amazing.  I think you should clean this up and submit it to one of the very experimental literary journals.  There are some amazing sentences and thoughts in this piece.  

Thank you Marianne, that is incredibly kind! Your comment has encouraged me to keep working on this piece, we’ll see what happens.

I love the imagery!

Thanks Yalí, so glad you enjoyed it!

Oh, cube dwelling citizen of plaztic empire… your piece caught my eye immediately and kept on thrilling me.  Good stuff, Missaralee!

Thanks PJreece! The plastic empire is daily providing new fodder for my cannons 😉

This does read like poetry, especially the line about building towers.  Beautiful work!

This isn’t just an exercise for me, it is a repeating question in my mind the past couple of months.  I’ve come up with a few reasons.

I mainly began to write out loud because I was emboldened by my father’s death in January.  Some deep need in me to make a difference in the the world.  Time slipping through my fingers.  It’s getting away.  What have I done? How have I impacted others?

I write to open my heart and soul to friends and family.  To offer myself in love.  Perhaps to encourage someone.  Maybe connect on some deeper heart level and let them know that they are not alone.  That I am not alone.  

I write to encourage.  Self worth can be elusive as a stay at home mom.  Somewhere I read “If you want to change the world, put pen to paper.”  It has wrapped around my heart.  I hear it when I am struggling to find my identity in the midst of changing diapers, doing laundry, cooking, cleaning.  I know people are running about in the outside world making a difference, running for senate, serving the poor hot meals, standing arm in arm protesting for a belief.  All the while, I am bent over little loves, wiping noses, kissing hurts, and feeding hungry little mouths.  I can’t help but wonder how many other people question if what they are doing “counts.”  If indeed it will make a difference.   

And finally, I write as an artistic outlet.  I may not have the time I crave to put brightly colored oil paint to white canvas as I once did, but I can express myself through this new found art.  Beautiful, challenging, poetic word art.  

Okay, so are we really just supposed to stick to the 15 mins??  I would really like to go back and edit/ change some things.  But for my first exercise I suppose I’ll stick to the rules.

Good to see you here, Ali 🙂

I love that idea, “Writing out loud.” Great image for blogging.

And yes, if you don’t write for exactly 15 minutes you get fired from The Write Practice. 😉 No mostly, it’s a good limit so people can read and give feedback. 

Fired first day.  Rats.

Hey, when will the next “show off contest” subject be posted?  That sounds fun!  And challenging!  Thanks for all the work you have put into this site.  Really great job!

We’ll post the next contest in the first week of August. You should definitely join in. 

Of course, Ali. I don’t know what I would do without it.

Okay Joe, so this community you’ve helped to bring together are super sweet and encouraging.  Awesome.

Just wait. They’re like sirens. They suck you in and then stab you in the back. 

Just kidding community. I love you.

It’s a clock-in, clock-out system isn’t it Joe?

That reminds me: I entered an incorrect punch on my time card. Who do I see about getting a manual override of my time put in?

See el head honcho, numero uno, big boss man, Oz, King Bunting about that Brian. He won’t handle it himself of course. But he can redirect you a thousand times, to the drudges who work in the basement. Hope that helps!

1. You’re a clown, Brian. 2. You’re a munchkin, Yvette. The Oz variety.

Beautifully said Ali.  I like all of it but I like that you said writing is a way to connect on a deeper level with your loved ones. I never thought about it that way but it’s true that we can put on paper and read what others had on paper carefully and slowly.  When people talk it’s so fast and affected by the moment that we may not be able to get what’s real for us out or hear what’s real for others.  Sometimes I feel like I know Virginia Woolf better than I do my sisters, and I definitely know her better than I do acquaintances that I encounter frequently. 

Marianne, I know exactly what you mean!  I love to get inside people’s head through reading.  People are sometimes much more open when no one is sitting in front of them.  The small talk is cut, and the real heart revealed.

This is so encouraging! You are not alone and everything you do counts. In writing you capture those moments of love and care and then you can turn them over in your hands like the precious jems they are, revealing the flashes of multi-coloured light.

Missaralee, thank you for comparing the wiping of noses and other “love and care moments” to “precious jems”.    I’ll try and think of them that way tomorrow.  It will probably make me laugh or smile at some point!  

Ali, you are making a diffence in the world. Being a mom is one of the most important job a person can do. All the things you are doing is important and are part of who you are.

Word art is a part of you also along with oil painting.

Who you are is a creator. A great quality to have.

Thank you BJ house writer.  🙂  It’s nice to hear that I am making a splash in the world, even if God is the only one who can see it most days.   I like thinking of myself as a creator.  That’s fun.  Thanks!

You are a vital influence to the lives of a future generation.  A stay at home mom is priceless.  Your impact on others is seen through the character of your children and the respect of your husband.  

Keep writing.

Thanks for the encouragement Shelley!  A stay at home is priceless!  Not always glamorous, but God is teaching me so much through this process.  And most days I love it!  🙂  

so how do I link my name to my blog address??  hmmm…. help anyone? 

Anne Frank said that paper is more patient than men (and I suppose, women) and I have found that it is true. Writing has helped me through dark times, it has been   an outlet, a way to put order in my head and my heart. 

Right now, I am writing a story about my great-grandparents, whom I never knew, because it is a part of our family history that no one really knows about. I *need* to tell this story, even if half of it is made up. The same goes for other stories; I just *need* to tell them.

I do the same for my family.  It helps to tie things together I think.  

I love that idea about paper being more patient than men! I always long to be able to say outloud, exactly what I would write in the moment, rather than the spit-flecked word jumble that usually tumbles out.

Strange as it may sound to say, I write because I have to.  I feel an urge to tell stories and would do so whether people listened or not.

I agree, I think writers write because they have to, whether anyone’s listening.

You’re not alone, RD. 🙂

This is true. I had an art professor in college who once talked about how creative people get cranky if something’s keep them from being creative. If I don’t write, make art, do something creative, too many days in a row, I become a straight up crumb bum.

The fuchsia blossoms of a crept myrtle floated on rain water that had fallen into two large terra cotta saucers.  A black and white chicken pecked at the water.  It was what’s called a Wyandotte, the feathers were white edged in black, resulting in a chicken dressed in lace, a chicken bride.  She bent to drink from the terra cotta saucers. Dale sat cross legged on the porch in a plastic chair with metal legs, a sketch pad in her lap, a colored pencil in her hand, a fuchsia colored pencil.  The farm was a jumble of broken things, cars, bathtubs, refrigerators, and assorted boards and pieces of siding.  Ivy and honeysuckle grew over the junk but new junk appeared. 

To Dale’s left iris and a bird bath grew with more chickens pecking for bugs.  In the concrete birdbath a bright green trailing plant flourished.  To the right was another garden.  That garden of marigolds and rock roses marked the grave of an old gun dog who had guarded the farm for his lifetime.  Dale wanted to draw the scene or part of it because she wanted to remember the great beauty here, that sprang forth in summer to cover the rusted, grey discarded things on the old farm.  It was a place that told the true tale of life and death to Dale.  She felt in adequate to the task. 

There was an arch of ivy growing between two trees that stood on either side of a trail that led away from the house.  She saw her niece there in a wedding dress beside her wife.  They would be married here because no one would have them in town.  They will have to be married in the summer – thought Dale – the winter here is too depressing, and she wondered what would be summer and winter for them, those two young girls?  How would they get through?  She worried. 

The hen pecked at the water in the saucer.  A dog was watching her. 

“You can’t keep chickens and dogs like that,” Dale had told her. “Once a dog kills a chicken it will kill more, no matter how much you train it not to.”

“No she just did that because she was an adolescent,” said Dale’s sister, talking about the dog.  “She knows better now.”

Dale lifted the pencil and began again on her drawing of fuchsia blossoms floating in terra cotta saucers.  

The chicken with her lacy wings pecked and then stood in the saucer with her big three toed feet that looked reptilian like the feet of a dragon.  

The dog lay in the sun and watched for a while, then it slept.  

Sorry for the bad punctuation in that piece.  I want to edit it but I’m not able to go back into it and fix it.  I wrote it straight off the top of my head from something I saw in the paper.  

It’s a lovely piece, Marianne. Thanks for sharing it!

I love the image of the dog and the chicken. Did you draw inspiration from a real place? 🙂

Yes It started with a real place and I saw the terra cotta saucers weight the crepe myrtle blossoms floating in them and the chicken.  The marriage of the two women came from an article I read in the newspaper this morning.  The drawing was from thinking about what  and why we write.  It just all got mushed together in my brain and came out like that I guess. The dog killing the chickens is real too and I thought about how society might kill the two girls maybe because the chicken was in a lacy dress.  It was fun.  I haven’t actually written anything in a while.  I’ve been reading a lot though.  

that should say “with the crepe myrtle blossoms”. I don’t’ know what’s wrong with me and my proofreading today.  Embarrassing.  

Lovely.  And I have chickens, too.  I agree about the feet.  All week I’ve been taking them frozen watermelon and ice water to keep them going in this heat.  I guess I kind of love them.

I enjoyed the image of a ramshackle place where plants grow wild here and there and everywhere, reclaiming the broken objects. Also the chicken bride.

Thanks Missaralee. I posted it too quickly and am seeing errors all over the place. Oh well to late now.  

Marianne, great job. I could really envision this rustically beautiful scene. It was full of real life and redemption.

You do such a good job at describing the scenery Marianne. I got such a pretty picture in my head.

Thanks Anna 

The chicken with the reptilian feet of a dragon and yet the dog just lay in the sun and watched her for a while. Pure magic Marianne, as always!

Thank you Yvette Carol.  They do have really awful looking feet.  

I write for a lot of reasons but the biggest one I think is because I love to read, I love literature!

Joe… as serendipity would have it… I have just posted an item called “WHY WE READ”.   I found your piece and the comments valuable… and I’m going to copy the whole shebang into a file for future reference.  Cheers.

Last week I introduced myself as a writer. As the words left my mouth a little thrill shot down my spine and my heart skipped! I’ve never publicly called myself a writer before. 

I wondered why? Maybe until this point I hadn’t been sure that I was. Part of me was waiting for permission, but I’m not sure from whom. This day was different, I realized I didn’t need permission. It would be like asking for permission to identify myself as a woman or a brunet. 

I am a writer because I was born with something to say. Just ask my mother! Apparently before I was fully delivered my head emerged screaming! 

Whether I ever write a book that becomes a best seller, receive an award, or finally win a “Show Off” contest, I’m a writer. I was born to communicate, and to deny that would be to deny part of who I am. 

I am a writer.

My motivation shifts from year to year, season to season. At any given time there’s a mixture of each of the four reasons. I’ve been contemplating my motivation again recently as I finish up my novel and begin looking for an agent. 

Why do I write? Does the world really need another novel, another blog post, another e-book. Yes and no. The entire world may not need to hear what we need to say, but our sphere of influence does. Words of hope, words of healing, words of wisdom or challenge, words of joy, of meaning, of beauty, they are our gift to the hearts of those around us. Loved ones and strangers alike. Our hearts long to connect and words allow us to do just that. 

I write because I love to. I do see the world differently when it flows from my fingers. I write to find meaning, to add value. I’m embarrassed to say that once in a while I do write with the delusion of fame and recognition, but that’s truly the least satisfying. Mostly I write to be a part of transformation. I’m most gratified when the words I write resonate in the heart of a reader and we both grow into better people.

*** Great thought provoking post Joe. I agree, sometimes the amount of ‘competition’ is overwhelming. I’m incredibly grateful my writing isn’t required to feed my family and I have the freedom to just enjoy. 

Wow Beck, I really connected with the idea that “the entire world may not need to hear what we need to say, but our sphere of influence does.” It made me think of writing for the young women in my life, women I want to see floorish into confident, joyful chasers of passion! I will think of this from now on when I’m blocked and when I don’t feel I have anything new to say.

Whenever I think my voice doesn’t matter, or I will never be the next ____ (fill in the blank), I think of the women who have written to me or commented because a blog post has encouraged them. It helps to write for a smaller audience, if it translates into a larger one great, but a smaller, personal one is more compelling and manageable I think. Anyhow, I’m glad you connected with that idea! I’m sure there are women who are better because you share your words!

I love the idea of writing for your sphere of influence as well.  That whole paragraph is just brilliant.  Words allow us to connect to the ones we love…absolutely true.

Thank you Rachel! I think seeing our audience, regardless of how small, as worthy to receive the gift of our words is inspiring. 

Beck – You do indeed have something to say.  I find your writing unique and uplifting.  I don’t think you need to feel embarrassed to say you think sometimes of fame and recognition.  I think that just goes along with feeling that you are telling a truth that others need to hear or with wanting validation.  Either way I find it hard to believe that anyone who puts things into a public forum like this doesn’t want to be read by others (which kind of equals being published).  Why else would the post here? You are young and very lively and positive and you are very good with creating images.  I still remember a the person finding the letters in the attic that were written to a man other than her grandfather. That was a very memorable story. You will get there IMO. 

Thank you Marianne! I do want to be read. Joe once said without an audience a writer is just someone who journals. I don’t want success to be what compels me though. I find it tarnishes my creativity and compassion. 

I’m tickled that you remember the love story about the letters. I was just thinking about that story today and wondering if I could use it in my next novel!  I so appreciate your encouragement!

Hey Beck, I resonated with your entire post. I especially liked, “I do see the world differently when it flows from my fingers.” I feel the same way. I am able to express myself more thoughtfully and honestly as I write.  I also appreciated your admission (or is it admittance?) to sometimes writing for the fame and recognition. It is so true that this motivation is the least satisfying. I know that I use writing (and The Write Practice) to get feedback and attention when I’m feeling particularly insignificant.

Thanks for your comment Tom. I’ve found when I hold the golden cow of fame or acceptance up as my goal of writing the joy and even creativity are tarnished. My best writing comes when I’m honest and selfless, but that’s a hard place to stay. 

I thought the same thing about people laughing at me! I assumed I couldn’t say I’m a writer because they’ll ask me, “what have you written?” And I can’t say, a blog! But then I realized I spend more hours writing than doing just about anything, so what else would you call that?! Keep practicing and growing more comfortable with who you are as a writer and the easier it will be to embrace, and admit! At least that’s what I tell myself!

Congratulations on coming out of the literary closet Beck!! Stay out here in the sun girl 🙂 Well done.

Thanks Yvette!

I would like to see your blog. I liked this post.

Thanks Sandra. Here is a link to my original blog. I haven’t written in quite some time due to a broken computer, a new job, and my husbands loss of a job. But this blog is a good archive of some of the best of what I’ve written. http://beckfarfromhome.blogspot.com/?m=1

alright I will look at it. 🙂 Thanks.

Joe, this piece was exceptional. You made it into my Great Quotes file for the first time, not once but twice, with one post! Don’t you think, that it’s more like everyone has always secretly wanted to write (or nearly everyone). I know that throughout my life, whenever I’ve mentioned to someone — anyone — that I write, the reply has usually been a variation of ‘I’ve always wanted to write a book’. The only difference these days, is that the means to ‘publish’ one’s writing has come within easy reach. 

I’m so honored, Yvette. Thanks!

I definitely think it’s true that most people want to write, and it makes sense. We all want to be fully alive. We all want to be loved and respected, not just in our lifetimes but for forever. We all would like to make the world a better place. And if Victor Frankl is right (and I think he is), we all want to experience meaning. Everyone wants to write because those are four amazing things writing offers.

I’m reading Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” right now. Great read. Great blog, btw, Joe!

Awesome, Tom. Isn’t he amazing?

“What is the meaning of all this?” came her voice from the other room. One of the kids was obviously in trouble, I could tell by the tone. I continued pecking away on my computer. I was in the midst of writing a pivotal scene for my novel when my wife poked her head inside the door of my office. “I said, what is the meaning of all this?”

I swiveled around in my chair and faced the doorway. “Oh, were you talking to me?” I asked.

“Um, yes! I want to know what’s the meaning of this right here!” She pointed her angry finger at an open page in a spiral notebook. It took her a moment as she moved the notebook back and forth like she was playing an invisible trombone.

“’I’m feeling lost and alone. I have no one to turn to and I feel I’m drowning,’” she read. “Did you write this?”

“Are you reading my journal?” I asked in a shocked and accusatory tone.

“Wait, that’s not all. ‘How can I ever be happy again with all this guilt and shame? Why did I ever agree to meet up with her?’” My wife shook my exposed journal in my face as if she was trying to empty it of the hurtful words and then placed her clinched hands on her hips. “Can you explain to me the meaning of all this?”

“I’m going to ask you the same question, sweetheart! Why the hell are you reading my journal? That is my own private writing and it’s none of you damn business!”

“None of my damn business? If you’re cheating on me, then it’s certainly my damn business!”

“Cheating on you? I’m not cheating on you!”

“Then who did you “meet up with?” She accompanied her snarky tone with air quotes.

I quickly grabbed my journal out of her fist and stormed out of the room. I grabbed my keys and headed toward the garage. I could hear her crying in the room where I left her. My face felt hot and the back of my neck felt chilled. Beads of sweat ran down my cheeks. Or was it tears? My stomach was gurgling acid and I could hear my heart pounding inside my ears. I grabbed a pen sitting on the counter on my way out and slammed the door behind me.

What was the meaning of all this?

I like the way this escalates so quickly, the way arguments do.  I like the description of her waving the notebook like a trombone.  I would like to know what happens. The dialogue is great here like it always is in your writing.  

The first line said so much! Well-chosen words can convey time, era, personality even class. Immediately I had an image of who this lady was 🙂

I like how you used that last sentence. Well done.

I originally wrote this on paper, so this is a little bit edited (not much though).  Also, I couldn’t stop at 15 minutes, so it’s pretty long…sorry about that.

Joan Didion said, “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.  What I want and what I fear.”  I know where she’s coming from.  Blogging can be difficult for me because I start off intending to write about one thing and by the time I’m finished I find I wrote about something completely different.  I have an idea, but in the process of writing about it I discover other thoughts and feelings I never knew I had, but that I want to share and I follow those down the rabbit hole.

For most of my life, writing has been a mostly personal endeavor.  I’ve had a blog for eight years, but for most of that time the only people who read it were close friends and family and it was just random thoughts about what was going on in my life.  And even then, I always had a journal with me to capture things I didn’t want to post.  In fact, most of my writing is really just journalling – processing things I’ve seen and read and heard and been a part of.

As a child, I was a sporadic journaller (is that a word?  I guess it is now).  I read many books where people discovered old diaries and read them, so I had a very specific idea of what a journal should be – lots of particular details, dates, etc.  I tried to do that, but my childhood was essentially boring and I never really knew what to write.  I just did it because the characters I loved did it.

In high school, a friend of mine began creating notebooks.  They were vibrant colors and included song lyrics and pictures and funny stories, all done artistically in bright markers.  You never saw Kristen without her notebook.  I thought this was fantastic and started carrying my own notebooks.  I lacked Kristen’s artistic vision and talent, however, and tended to listen to the same songs over and over, which meant I had a hard time coming up with new song lyrics to doodle during class.  I kept these notebooks for a few years, but they were never really more than a way to keep from falling asleep during class.

And then for high school graduation I received a Moleskine notebook.  It was beautiful.  So clean and professional looking, not flowery or girly (I am neither and most of the journals I had been given were).  It was exactly the kind of notebook I pictured college students and great thinkers using (I was aided in this fantasy by Moleskine’s self-description in the back pocket, of course).  I was a great thinker, a philosopher, a collegian, and this was where I would record my brilliant life.

From that point forward, I have always had a Moleskine close by.  It feels a little pretentious sometimes, a little too hipstery, but it’s a habit now.  Some have lasted me a few months, some have taken me almost a year and a half to fill.  Just last week I began my ninth one, although I am writing this in a journal that was a gift from a friend.  It feels a bit like a betrayal.

And now I found that I’ve gone down the rabbit hole again and have given you the history of my notebook preferences instead of talking about why I write.  But looking back at it, I can see my motivations.

I guess I started writing because other people – both fictional and real – did.  And then because I wanted to look cool.  And then because I wanted to look cool and mysterious, as if always having a notebook with me would make people want to know more about me and ease the transition to college.

And now?  Now I think I write because I cannot imaging myself not writing.  Because I cannot deal with my emotions without it.  Because I do not know what I think if I do not put it into words.

And, if I’m honest, a little bit because I hope I look cool and mysterious over here, scribbling in my notebook.

I love your writing style. I find myself going on bunny trails all the time.

Thank you!  I’m working on getting my bunny trails to at least lead back to the main trail eventually.  I’m glad some people can follow my weird brain  🙂

Journaling is so important.  I didn’t start writing until I was almost forty (when I first got a word processor that would check spelling since I cannot spell) and I wish I had at least tried to get things down before then because I can’t remember them.  I like your Moleskin remark.  A good notebook needs to be filled. That’s a good reason to write too.  

Thanks Marianne!  And filling a good notebook is definitely a reason to write  🙂

I just started journaling, yesterday.  I love Joan Didion.  Her words could have been mine.

At the moment, my blog is mostly read by close friends.   Combined with journaling, I’m writing more than ever.  Over time, I want my writing to take on a life of its own.  “Because I do not know what I think if I do not put it into words.”  

That’s why I write.  To see who I am.

Thanks, Shelley!

i write because i have ideas. i have always had ideas but i never “knew” that i could write them down. i am like all those people you talk to; you know, the people who see you scribbling in your notebook, and ask “what are you doing?” and you say “writing” and then you have a conversation, and then they say, “i have ideas too, but (insert excuse).” yeah i used to be one of those people, but then i realized that i COULD. 

ok yeah i want to be famous too…. but if i , or any of my manuscripts, even get *accepted* then i will feel awesome because SOMEONE at least ONE PERSON will read what i have to say… hopefully i write well enough for them to see my point of view,  and maybe even change their own POV to what I think is the better version. yeah… pretty selfish reasons, eh? but… seriously? it’s like being a doctor. most people go into it to help people, but they want to be treated fairly in their compensation. it’s the same  thing, i think, at least. 

I think you’re right.  There are lots of reasons for doing things and lots of ways to be compensated.  Writing is a lot of effort to go to for nothing.   

Been a long time since I posted a practice. Hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I had fun writing the piece. 🙂

The number one rule was to never stop walking.

Snow rained down hard on us and the wind blew restlessly, it pierced through our thick clothing and into our skin and into our bones, sapping away what little strength we had left. But we continued on walking. To stop was death.

We shuffled along in a straight line with the captain leading the group. I was positioned in the middle. Home. That’s where we were all headed. But will we be able to reach home? We started out as twenty strong men, a week passed us by and only half remained. Two were taken by hunger, one succumbed to injury, and the rest fell into the wraiths’ hands.

They were there. Lurking at the edge of our senses. Never stop walking. To stop was death. To stop was to be with the wraiths. They were the faint voices whispering to you at the edge of your hearing. You could smell their scent with each passing of the winter wind. They smelled of death and decay. You could see them at the periphery of your vision. Sometimes they looked like a friend you have back home, other times they looked like one of our dead brethren, there were rare times when they looked like themselves—demons of the mountain.

I placed one foot forward, followed by the other one. Each step seemed to be my last, but I pushed on. I pushed on. Then I heard her voice. We all did. It was faint at first but it grew louder with each step I took.

“Keep moving! Do not look at them!” The captain shouted. We moved on.

She was calling me to come to her. She was calling me home. She was calling me to rest. I felt myself crying. My heart wanted to go to my wife but my mind knew it was a lie of the wraiths. I felt so tired. I just wanted to stop and for everything to be over. I closed my eyes.

“I’m sorry captain! It was an honor to fight alongside you.” I raised my voice loud enough to be heard over the howling of the wind.

“Keep on walking, boy!” The captain replied. “Your wife’s dead! It isn’t her!”

I stopped. The ones behind me passed me by, their faces hidden by thick hoods. I looked to my side and there she was. She smiled at me and beckoned me to come closer. I did. I grabbed her in my arms.

From some far off place, I heard someone shouting. Shouts of pain and agony mixed with the winter wind. He had the same voice as mine. He was shouting for help. He sounded like he was in some great pain. I didn’t bother looking who it was. I was home.

Very eerie. It shows how much we miss someone who’s already gone but still is more important than life itself.

Great JB.  The “faint voices whispering to you at the edge of your hearing”, the occasional glimpses of the wraiths in the peripheral vision.  Those are good images. It’s easier to imagine a tired man being called to his death by his wife than being called to fight some more obvious source of evil.  It’s pretty spooky and I got a very clear image even though you didn’t spend a whole lot of time on description.  I can see the line of men moving though the snow in a dimly lit landscape. 

Thanks Marianne! Glad I was able to project the scene I desire. 🙂

It’s pretty sweet the way you always write something different, with new tonalities and shades. A wide-ranging imagination you have there JB,

Thank you Yvette. I love to experiment with new stuff 🙂

This reads like a classic “Twilight Zone” episode. Just to be clear, I mean that as a compliment. I love that show.

Thanks! Wouldn’t take it as an insult. Don’t worry. It’s super amazing for you to liken my story to one of Rod Serling’s. Thank you Brian 🙂

You’re welcome!

I’ve to agree with Orwell. I think all of us, we do the things we do because we want to be remembered. Some do it by writing, some through their movies, some by painting. We all want to be remembered in one way or another.

What you posted today is true I believe in all writers. We write because we have to even if it just taking notes on something we read.

Some write for fame and money and to be remembered.

Others like myself write because I love to share what I read and also hope that I may help some find out facts and events that are going on around them.

Blogging is a way to write, having your writing in print. Some people are writers but maybe not writing a full book is there thing. But rather just a short story.

Writing is a way to preserve what is going on in our time period.

Penny squeezed her knees as tight as she could. The darkness in the cave didn’t scar her. It calmed her. Here she was alone. Here she could think. They would be looking for her soon. He would be looking for her soon.

Why did Lord Peter insist that he knew what was best for her? Did he not realize that her roots had been grown in Oppannivol? She had no need for all the finery of being a Lady. She’d rather stay a nurse maid.

She heard shouting. They were shouting her name. Should she answer? She wanted to.

Suddenly, she herd footsteps on the cave floor. They were coming toward her. The heavy breathing was defiantly a mans. She could sense the other person right in front of her. He sat down and let out a sigh.

“Well Penny, how long of a time do you need before I tell them where you are?”

“Go away Peter.”

He made a clicking noise with his tongue. “You ought to be more respectful to someone thirteen years your elder.”

“You ought to give a girl her own choice when it comes to where she lives.”

“No, not to a girl, but to a woman, yes.”

She let a moment pass by. “I hate it when you are right.”

“I this case, I hate it as well. I wish you were old enough to make the right choice, so I would not have to force it on you.”

I like the dialogue and I assume this is a WIP and that the characters would make more sense if I read the the whole thing. It seems like Penny is Peter’s ward or maybe he has kidnapped her and then some other bad people are looking for her too.  

I could almost feel the snow falling on me. 

Living fully and discovering meaning are the top two reasons I write.  I try to write everyday, even if it’s just one sentence (that maybe takes me 10 minutes to get just right).  But a lot of time writing for me is emotionally draining, and I have to stop (or maybe rest) for a little while to get the strength to keep on going.  Writing can be such a physical and psychological effort, but yet I can’t help myself.  Gotta write!

Bathsheba in a Hot Tub – Free Writing Exercise

I pretend I’m Bathsheba, stepping into my hot tub instead of an ancient pool, which I’m sure Bathsheba would have done if she’d had the chance.  The man who watches me, and I know he watches me, across the field in a house with a three-car garage, is my snake-hipped version of King David.

Tonight I’m wearing my pink kimono that hits me just above the knee and little silver kitten heels.  My husband Joey is watching Pawn Stars, and he’s talking back to the TV so loud I think he’s calling me.  But he’s not. He treats me the same way you do a lizard in a terrarium. He taps on the glass every once in a while to make sure I’m alive, and beyond that I’m pretty much on my own.

So this guy, my King David, is about all I have. I met him once, at TelStar Market in the meat department, when we both reached for a chuck roast. He let me have it, which says a lot, I think, about his character.

I could have gotten his name then, but I wasn’t able to utter a word. He was wearing Levis, the real deal Levis – Joey wears Wranglers – and this T-shirt that read, Just Listen, which I found to be both mysterious and a little profound.

At night, King David sits on his deck, alone.  He looks toward my house, which Joey lights up like a carnival, so I know he can see me.

At first I watched from my kitchen window. And then six weeks ago and joined a gym where they teach classes that will either kill you or make you look like a movie star.  I haven’t been mistaken for Scarlett Johansen yet, but my jeans are saggy in the butt, so there’s still hope.  Anyway, since I’m looking better, I go out on the patio, take a glass of wine and sit in the porch swing every night about nine o’clock.

Joey’s in bed by nine-thirty and snoring by a quarter til.  And I’m left alone under the stars, so close to King David that I can feel his power.

Tonight I set down my wine and pull the cover off the hot tub.  Warning: there’s no sexy way to do this.  And then I climb the three steps real slow, kick off my heels, right foot, left foot, and drop the kimono.  I have on a swimsuit, although it’s tan, so I hope from this distance I look like I’m in my altogether, and I step into the hot tub that gurgles like a brook.

I am sinning, I can tell you that much, not in any fleshly way.  But sinning nonetheless.  And you know how it feels?  It feels like that moment just before the big-haired girl reads the lottery numbers on Channel 8. That moment when your life might turn, and you might be able to quit dying your own hair and put your mama in a better home and fly to Vegas first class.

I drop into the water, chest deep. My hair is up, a whip of a pony tail that I flip over the edge of the hot tub.  I can feel my cheeks, hot as August, and my heart is racing.  I look up toward King David’s house and he’s standing now, the long line of his body seems to glow from the porch light behind him.  I stand up too, and water races down my chest. We stand like this, half than a quarter mile apart, my King David and I, for what seems forever but can’t be more than two minutes, and in that time I know we’ve struck a deal.

He raises his hand to me, and I lift mine to him.  A cloud shifts across the half moon.  King David turns his porch light on and off, on and off, a signal, I think, for me to run to him. I step out of the tub and into my kimono, in the whispering space between fidelity and desire.

Bathsheba, I think, how much did you know of love and fate? How much did your husband care?

Oooh, I like it! This is great fiction, I would love to read a little novella continuation of this style…

Thank you so much Missaralee.  I may just try that.

Great exercise for personal application! I used teach my students to do similar exercises.  You’ve given new light on an age old problem many of married couples experience, and that everything is a choice.  Great job!

Thanks ShelleyD!  It was fun to write.

“Hey: We need to talk.”

Jared’s dad dropped the box onto the kitchen table.

“What are you doing with that?” Jared went to grab it back. Dad placed his hands on it so it wasn’t going anywhere.

“So you just went into my room and took that? You do that often?”

“You know what, Jared? No, I don’t. But honestly–it’s my house, and I CAN do it whenever I want. If you don’t like that, well, I’m sorry. So, you want to tell me about what’s in there?”

“Why? You already know what it is.”

“I just want to know how you got started with this. Was it your friends? Was it Will? I don’t like that kid, by the way.”

“God, Dad, it wasn’t Will! And it wasn’t Steve, it wasn’t Joel, it wasn’t Amanda…any other friends of mine you hate you want to blame this on?”

“Jared, I–”

“WHAT? You WHAT, Dad? You’re just looking out for me? Or, or, what–you just want to be a ‘cool Dad’ and say, “Hey, no problem, do whatever you want, just be safe about it.’ What Dad? What words of wisdom do you have for me?”

“I just…I saw what you did, and…I liked it. I don’t understand why it’s such a huge secret. I mean, in a cigar box under the bed?”

“I don’t know, it’s personal, and…you like it?”

“Yeah, I used to do it myself, back in the day. But then, I don’t know, I got a job, and…I don’t know. Yeah, I like it.”

Dad loosened his grip on the box. Jared slid it towards himself and opened the lid.

“So…what part did you like?”

“I like the antagonist. You can never go wrong with a good bad guy.”

Jared took his composition book out of the box.

“I mean, I noticed some stuff: Minor things, like some subject-verb agreement stuff, but–”

“Well, it’s not finished, it’s not even a first draft. That’s why I wasn’t sharing it.”

“No, that’s fine. What I’m trying to say is, if you need an editor…”

“Oh.” Jared looked at the book, then looked at his dad. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Oh, and here’s a quick tip: If you’re hiding something from us, maybe you don’t want to put it in a cigar box.”

Jared laughed.

“I’m just saying: What was the thought process there? ‘I don’t want mom or dad to find this, so I’ll hide it in here. That way, they’ll think I’m just smoking Dutch Masters in my room and they won’t think anything of it’?”

“Shut up…” Jared and Dad laughed. Dad put his arm around him and Jared took his book and the box back upstairs. It was almost writing time.

Oh man did I ever get a good laugh over the cigar box hiding place! I love this piece for so many reasons.

Thank you very much! I used to keep Matchbox cars in a Dutch Masters box when I was little. The worst part about it was having to smoke all those cigars in order to have an empty box for my cars. Just kidding–I don’t know where that box came from and it just struck me as being a weird thing for a kid to have.

Loved this piece, I used to have those cigar boxes to put all sorts of secret stuff as well. Think they came from my grand dad. They were the perfect size and depth for the many thing I treasured. And decorating them was the best part.

Wow, I love this.  So funny and great.

Ha!  Two entries today in which journals had been read without permission.  That was funny though.  You were really leading us on.  Thanks!

I know, right? Right after I posted my piece, I scrolled through the others and read them. As soon as I started reading Tom’s I was like “Well, what do you know about that?” I loved his take on the “someone reading another’s journal” idea…and was relieved mine didn’t turn out to be a rip-off of his!

Thanks! I appreciate it.

Oh, the fine line between snooping and caring.  Your dialogue is so natural.  The characters fall so naturally into place.  Good teaching material for newbies like myself.

Thank you! It’s good to know all the talking to myself that I do pays off.

Fantastic, though I can’t get the old commercial out of my head: “From you, OK? I learned it by watching you!”

HA! That commercial’s a classic. And seeing as how they make movies based on board games and theme park rides, someone should make a big-budget feature-length movie based on this commercial. I’m thinking Zac Efron as Distraught Kid and George Clooney as Hypocrite Dad.

Putting the writing in the cigar box was funny.

I had to go back to the beginning to make sure it works. Because, you know, on first reading it leads to assuming it’s another anti-drugs public announcement ad. Does that make me a born editor?

this was so awesome!

I suppose I write for self-discovery and for the journey.  I feel that I can express myself better in writing than I do verbally.  I hope to hear words of encouragement because of my writing.  Something to the effect of “I really like what you’ve written, or that made me think, or that’s exactly what I’ve been going through.”  Knowing I’ve connected with someone on a personal level is encouraging to me. 

Yesterday, I read a post about journaling by Michael Hyatt.  He shared a journaling app that I just had to try.  This is my 15 minute journaling entry from this morning.

ON EXERCISE

The morning is almost over. Sadie got her run and I got mine, two miles in fact. That made me proud. It was quite an accomplishment. Had it been a bit earlier while the air was still cool, I might have done three. In any case, I can see my ability improving.

While I was running, I thought about my body. “They say” you should think about how your body works when you exercise. I try to focus on my breathing first. Breath in through my nose and out through my mouth in short puffs. I’ve got that down pretty well. Next, I try and focus on my abdomen. Taking big breaths into my lungs and forcing out slowly from my diaphragm.

All I can think of is an article I read years ago about what happens when our lungs age. Like any other muscle, it becomes less effective. It looses its elasticity and become brittle. It’s important to keep our lungs in good working order by taking in deep breaths and getting the oxygen generating through our bodies and to our brains. Jogging does this for me.

My knees are in pretty good shape. My left one has a little bit of twinge inside the knee cap. I tend to think it’s because my quads aren’t strong enough. Maybe by the end of the summer, I’ll sign up at the fitness center (again). I could run every other day and do leg lifts on the alternate days. The outer part of my right leg gives me a little problem. It might be from my broken leg I experienced two years ago. That atrophied quite a bit. I’m sure, overtime, the muscle will build back up.

Which brings me to my feet. DH says I throw my right foot in really bad. I don’t think I was ever aware of that before. Could that also be a result of my break? I tried to lengthen my stride rather than speed up my pace (or, are they the same?). It was obvious, I wasn’t ready for that. I’ll just take each morning as it comes and do the best I can for that time.

I’m so glad I started. It gives me that time to think about my writing and reflect on what I’ve accomplished so far.

(I posted this earlier today, but it didn’t show up in the comments section.  Not sure why.)

“I feel that I can express myself better in writing than I do verbally.”

Definitely. I know that’s true for me.

I’m glad I’m not alone on the verbal issue.  I find that I hold back and end up feeling inadequate or just saying nothing at all.

A lot of people say they get inspired while walking or running.  Your writing is clear and kept me running along with you.  

Thank you, Marianne.  

My gosh, I was right there with you.  I love the way your thoughts skitter. Beautiful.

Thank you, Marla.  Skitter.  I like that.

So, I’m the only one writing solely to achieve world domination and crazy mad cash? No one else? No?

For real, though, I write to get noticed, I’ll admit that. My creative abilities are one of the weapons in my arsenal that make me stand out. Lord knows it’s not rugged good looks, lots of money, or athletic ability.

But I write to discover meaning and “change the world”, too. It means the world to me when someone likes or gets something from what I’ve written, not just for the ego boost, but because I feel like I’ve contributed to the dialogue. I’m participating, not just standing by.

Love your honesty!

Thanks! I try to keep it real.

I guess I must agree with Victor Frankl, I write to express what thought are current and hope to draw in those who may be in the same place or have been there for one reason or another. Just last night, i found myself lost in dark place and I knew I had to get it out. The only way I knew to do this was to simply write it down and share it, in hopes that someone would get it, as I reached out, unashamed of what I was feeling, I needed to reveal the darkness that has been twisting me inside and out. I wrote “standing in the mirror, not looking ahead, no desire to see who it is, only wishing to vanish within the dust in the air. always afraid of the monster that lies in waiting, feeding off of the guilt and voices from within, ushering in the chilling thoughts of failure and overloaded burdens that are just too much. loneliness takes its victim to the slaughter as the passion for life is smothered by the silence in the dark. is there a home for the lonely? will God embrace failure? will anyone notice the void? my thoughts carry on, like the silent jagged edged blade of a slow and painfully hidden cry in the abyss. my flesh weakens with time, my ghost wanders, searching for a home as the angels weep”. mlhatcher.blogspot.com

I’m addicted to language, the way words strung together by ordinary people telling everyday stories can turn into poetry.  In the car I listen to talk instead of music: NPR, Canadian Radio, BBC.  In interviews you can hear a cadence sometimes, a rhythm that thrums through the airwaves and surrounds you. 

Once, at one of my best friend’s father’s funeral, I slipped a pencil out and took notes on the program – I’m not really proud of this – because he’d been a Mason, and these country men, their Southern accents heavy, recited the service they’d been taught, an oral history passed down generation after generation.  It’s not supposed to written down.  One of the men, dressed in white gloves too small, and a Mason’s white apron, called on the “Great Pontificator,” and my heart soared.

And once, while interviewing a man who woke from a fitful sleep to the knowledge he’d been called to perserve one of Arkansas’ oldest cemeteries, said this when I ask him why he loved the place. “Look around,” he said.  The pines there were so tall they blocked the sun and the monuments were mostly statues: angels, obelisks, and a few markers that were only sandstone, heavy pieces of rock without any markings.  “Look,” he said.  “We’re standing in a piece of time frozen.”  And then he pointed with his cigarette, “And my mother’s buried over there next to the Confederates.  I bring flowers every week.”

Just this past weekend, I found this in the personal ads of our local paper.  It’s GOT to be a story.  “LOOKING for a slim sexy blond lady to have an intimate relationship without sex. A lady that likes guns, no smoker or drinker. Lady between 25-30. Christian a must. Hey Girls’s can you bait a hook, cause I’m quite a catch.”

It’s everywhere, this music we call language, and in the South you still hear the great old sayings like, “I’m busier than a one-legged rooster in a two-story hen house.”  I am blessed beyond measure. I just wish I could write faster.

Hearing the cadence in language is precisely how I see it, as well.  When I was learning Japanese, sometimes I would just sit and let it wash over me without making an effort to grab every phrase and word.  You could hear the music within.  It was beautiful.

A few years ago someone told me “Don’t ever stop writing, Suzie” I laughed it off. Truth is I can’t stop writing, some of it is dire, some passable, hopefully one day it will be more than that. Practice, practice, practice.

Twenty five roller-coaster years, how do we celebrate that, honey?” “I dunno babe, maybe a trip, do we have any tokens?”

“Let me check. Wouldn’t you think we’d be above coupon clipping after all this time,” Jenny spoke as she rifled through the coupon drawer.

“Hey, don’t start with me! You know why I never took the promotions, I didn’t plan on any of the stuff that’s happened,” Phil countered becoming more defensive with each word.

“Honey, cool it, it was just a throw-away. I didn’t mean to hurt you. You’re right, and Philip Solomon, I would not change one thing about our life. Imagine if we wrote it down sometime?”

“Aha, that would be like ‘War and Peace’, there’s our two families for starters, then the kids. Nothing prepared us for having children with disabilities. We could write a book for each child and a three volume treatise on your mother!”

“Phil, don’t be mean, I have been healed of my past, I might still have the physical scars but the emotional ones are gone. What about a tv series like ‘Shameless’ for your siblings,”

“Ha, ha, ha, oh Jennifer Lynn Solomon you are going to be ticked some for that, C’m here!”

The two, should know betters, fooled around, jumping over the sofa and chairs, chasing each other whilst laughing at each other acting like newly weds instead of approaching fifty.

To be better understood, and to understand ourselves better.

I am, by profession, a writer.

Laypeople, hearing this, tend to think I write novels. I imagine they reach back to their memories of The Shining or Misery (strange how many novels King wrote about writers) and try to pigeon me into that authorial hole. 

Some even seem disappointed at my appearance. I’m not dishevelled or wild-eyed. I only drink whiskey when I’m trying to impress someone. I don’t even own a typewriter; a device that, at least in the Bay Area, seems deemed more essential to poetic credibility than the ability to write.

But I’m not a writer writer. I’m a copywriter.

And when I think about my motivations—why I spend agonizing hours aligning word to word, why I measure time by campaigns and fire sales—the first thing that comes to mind is money.

And I wonder… When did it stop being about creating something meaningful? And how do you find your voice—your true voice—when you’ve spent a lifetime speaking for others?

I have a friend who is a copywriter.  I’m amazed at the way he thinks.  I know what you do is hard work.  It takes a certain type of person to be successful in this area.  I admire good copywriters.

Mmm… I felt this. 

Can you have both? Can you make copywriting an art?

This is a great post!  I definitely write for all four of those reasons.  The one that stood out to me the most was the fourth.  Writing to find meaning!  That is usually where I live.  I write to understand and find meaning in life. Writing allows me some control over the things that are beyond my control.

Aspie Writer http://www.aspiewriter.blogspot.com

Why I Write: Because I feel a release with each word. Because once you put to words to paper they stop pounding around your chest like a ping pong ball. Because I want to know which stories are important. Because maybe other people won’t make the same mistakes I did. Because I stutter. Because I can never find the right words when I say it out loud. Because some words are too heavy for the air, they need something solid to rest on. Because nothing I write is ever incorrect. Because my experiences and opinions can’t just disappear when I die. Because a piece of paper will always listen. Because emotions crawl out with the words down my neck, across my arms, and out of my fingers. Because “I love you” sounds cheap when you say it outloud. Because I want to make other people laugh. Because I want to capture something. Because my sisters and I always made stories growing up, but none of us wrote them down. 

Joe- I find your site to be like an expensive department store window, I don’t pass it often, but every once in a while I make a point to detour and drool through the windows.  So I find it odd that today while browsing I came across this particular entry.  And it just so happens that this was my focus this week.  This week I discovered that I write because it is the only way to find sanity and reason in the mess that I call my head.  And so that was my blog theme this week- a small exercise I attempt weekly (www.scissortailsongs.blogspot.com).  Thanks for your faithful entries.

Hello, I have always written stories from the young age of 14. I am now a senior lady writing a novel that takes place in the year of 1946: there is a time warp within my novel that brings the reader to the present year of 2012. Many twists and turn. I am just about half way through and loving every minute. Noel 

I personally write for several reasons. I write to release,I write to clear my mind and to share my thoughts with the world…I could go on and on but I write for a lot of reasons. This article os extremely true and even thought he didn’t hit every single reason,he did make an excellent point. Good Job!!!!! ^_^

Good answer, Joe. I was just pondering this question and googled it. It has become for me like exercise. If I don’t do it for a few days, I get cranky. I want to make a mark, change the world. Perhaps there is more inside me that wants to come out and be heard. Perhaps there is a message that people need to hear. I’ll never know unless I speak and write it out. Maybe I don’t have to understand. Maybe like Nike says “Just do it!”

I’m actually writing 400-500 word short stories every fifteen minutes. I literally cannot stop writing, and it’s so much fun! I have, ever since I was eleven, wanted to write for a living. Writing is liberating, and knowing full-well that I can create a world all of my own is wonderful. Don’t you guys think the same about writing?

I am not a writer.But i have this story that people need to read.And it has to be a real good story before they will put it in the papers.I would do it but myself but my spelling isn’t to good and i wouldn’t know how to start a story

I write to get the stories out of my head and make room for new ones to form. I write to share my love of writing with others, helping them to become better writers and (hopefully) write to support themselves.

Totally, Angie. 🙂

It didn’t always open. Some nights the clock would strike twelve and no door would blossom out of the southwest corner of her living room.

But tonight it did. And Maura tucked the beginning rows of her crochet project into a purple project bag, grabbed the plum fleece hoodie off the back of her favorite chair, slipped into her well-worn flats, and walked through the open door.

Sometimes the door opened to a hospital room, sometimes into a stranger’s home, and sometimes to the space underneath a bridge. Maura had no way of knowing where in the world the door would take her, but one thing she knew to expect. In every place she found someone who was dying alone — who had either minutes or a few hours left of life. And she stayed with her host until the end, no matter what he said to her, and no matter where his soul seemed to be headed.

Sometimes they exchanged words. Sometimes Maura would remain close, praying silently as her host faded by the minute. She trusted that everything counted, that in the space between conscious life and death the soul’s encounter with its Creator would be influenced by her small presence and her quiet prayers. Sometimes there was little else to do.

And sometimes her host wanted nothing to do with her.

Through long minutes with poisonous words, the last rebellious ventings of a tortured soul at the brink of oblivion, Maura stayed and waited, holding her tongue if she had nothing to say, or if the words that came to mind would have only added to her host’s bitterness.

These encounters changed Maura as much as they did those whom she attended. Her mother noticed it, as did her brother and sister and her co-workers at the library.

So did a particular patron of the library: a gorgeous, if slightly unkempt, forty-something college professor who always seemed happy to see her.

The only one who didn’t remark on the changes was a man who sometimes visited the same places she did on the other side of the door. He lived on the other side of the world, but a door opened in his home, too, though not at the same hour, and sometimes he found Maura already there with their host. Sometimes, not.

At first, it was awkward finding someone else there with the one dying. Maura didn’t feel as free to either speak or to silently pray with one hand resting on the shoulder of her host. Nick (Nicolai ____) felt similarly inhibited, though less so.

They soon grew accustomed to each other, though. Nick found himself hoping Maura would be there. Maura was more changeable. Sometimes she hoped he wasn’t there, but some nights she actually prayed he would be.

Wow, this is so good Sarah. So imaginative. I’m fascinated and wondering where this all leads!

Thanks, Joe! It’s taking shape as I work on it. Your response to the beginning encourages me. Have a great day and weekend! 🙂

That is such a great question, every time I get frustrated with a writing project and stop I ask myself why do this, why am I compelled to write… The other day as I was working on the rough draft of my next book, it came to me- I’m an artist. My writing long hand and making the strokes with my pen or pencil to create words is like an artists brush strokes which will create a picture. Writing is rhythmic,when my fingers glide over the keyboard it’s like a dancers graceful moves on the dance floor…. To be alive is to be creative and to be creative is to be me.

Yeah! Love this. Thanks Debra.

I guess mine falls under, “to feel alive.” This isn’t grammatically correct, but my brain always thinks: I CAN’T NOT WRITE. It’s whom I am. Thanks for sharing, Joe.

I can relate to that. Thanks Marcy!

Not a ‘writer’ but do write casually and recently did a post, at a new site, on this same subject, with several different reasons – http://www.shouldyouwrite.com/four-reasons-why-we-write/ Thanks for what you do…

You’ve touched on some hotspots there, Sir.

I think you pulled it off right here: “We write to be fully alive. Writing draws us into the moment. We see the blades of grass, hear the miniscule chirp of the morning cricket, watch the shade travel from one edge of the yard to the other, seemingly for the first time.”

Powerful stuff. Thanks, Mr. Joe.

Good one there it is true..that if a man doesn’t read (write)he dies so many deaths before they actually die.

Why I write I search for “significance”. I find it and I have the urgent need to share it. I want other people to be touched as much as I am.

I am sitting infront of a window seeing the most amazing landscapes, action and moments. Through my window I see time and many other things unseen.

My inner eyes look, search and look again until I find that which moves me, hoping it will move you too.

why do people write let me know guys

The Night You Died

The night you died A part of me went with you The night you died My heart sank into my stomach The night you died My world collapsed The night you died My life fell apart The night you died I lost my best friend The night you died I lost my hero The night you died I lost my father

I wrote because my children did not believe that no other white girl had grown up as a “Slave Girl” as I did. I never learned anythng that young girls should know. Plantation live was fun for me with nothing but 7 older brothers to play with as a three year old. Later, it was demanded, because I was good at it all. There were 70 to 80 hired hands on the plantation. I did it all. Did I learn to cook, sew, bring books home from school or read for fun? NO!

Raised in a culture that seemed as though the depression was never over, I clawed my way out of the darkness of naivete to find and experience a world I had never known. Writting this was harder than anything I ever did after going through seven years of college.

They made me do it! “They Called Me Jo: A White Slave Girl” By: Jacqi Fromauex

I love freewriting. I did the exercise yesterday morning and I think it’s one of my better posts of late.

You can find it published here: http://www.justinwheeler.net/what-to-write-about-when-you-dont-know-what-to-write-about/

It’s the second time I have done this exercise in my latest attempt in becoming a daily blogger. 16 days and counting so far!

we write to make our own little changer in the world. To make a name for our self to show the world what we want them to see. My parents always told me that if I ever wanted to make a change in the world we had to start some where. And if we didn’t like something and we did not try and changer it that we had no room to criticize about it.

I write because it makes me feel like I have a purpose. On my worst days, I feel absolutely terrible about myself. I try to channel that into my writing, this feeling of having no power and no hope. After a while, when I read back of what I’ve written, it makes me smile. Even on my worst days, I can dive into my imagination and create something beautiful.

I write not ’cause I can I write ’cause I must Every day I skip Seems a total bust.

I write because I hear Rolling syllables in my head Which I must capture Lest they go dead.

I write to entertain To pull forth a laughter Or to paint a picture To sustain peace after.

I write to show the me That otherwise I hide To open up the depths That lay on the inside.

Lastly I write To pull the strings of your mind Hoping to give a perspective You otherwise might not find.

Three years later, this is still as true as every.

I write because it helps with my depression. I can find some normality out of something that feels crazy and scary.

‘Write your Memoir: The Soul Work of Telling your Story by Allan G. Hunter.

I never knew why I wanted to write. Years ago I read a great book by an English lady writer who’s name I only remember as Marion. A quote from her book was, ‘write if you must’.

I’ve gathered from that, she meant something along the lines of, ‘you are in for a rough trot, fella!’ And it has been. However, I’m finding that the more I get into it and do my journal work, my practice work, all the ‘yadder-yadder-yadder’ that sounds like two marbles rattling round in a tin, seems to get knocked into a little bit more tolerable thinking processes. It also irons out a bit of stress also.

It appears that the desire to create is much stronger in some compared with others. And I think that actually has to be addressed; inasmuch as it needs to be qualified just why one wants to write. If there is no definite purpose writing, then, ‘you are in for a rough trot, fella!’

A young boy’s father had an apple orchard and he worked there during his school holidays. One day the foreman got the boy to assist in the irrigation of the trees.

The gate of the channel was opened and the water flowed in the general direction to where the boy stood. However, the water began to go all over the place and he was in a quandary as to what to do. The foreman came over and took the shovel out of the boy’s hands, and, with a few swift strokes of the shovel made a channel that sent the water in the required direction.

The foreman said, “If you want the water to stay on course; you’ve got to have somewhere for it to go.”

Right now unfortunately my writing has stalled and I dont know why… when I cant or dont write I find myself angry and mad about everything…. yet when i do write I am right with the world. it really doesnt make sense. I feel like I’m stuck in quick sand that wont pull me under or spit me back out to dry land. And I’ve tried other things like volunteering, coloring painting , and nothing is working… Suck a frustrating time.

I never know what to write about! I truly love writing and I want to improve it but I let anxiety hold me back. The fear of being bad at something I love doing. The fear of people thinking I am weird. The fear to make mistakes. I recently got contacted by someone on tumblr who asked me to write for their website. I literally waited for weeks to write them and email. Just because I was scared. Yes, I am only 15. Yes, I don’t have any experience. Yes, English isn’t my first language. But does that mean that I shouldn’t take the opportunity to improve and learn? No, I shouldn’t. I wrote them an email 5 minutes ago and I sat looking at my screen for 20 minutes doubting if I should send the mail. I did but I doubted for a long time. I always find myself writing when I am either hurt, broken or empty. When things go better a couple months ago I just stopped writing. I think I wrote 4 pages in the past 4 months. That’s bad. I have to keep practicing and learning. Improving my writing style, broaden my vocabulary. But I don’t, it’s like I’d rather feel lazy and like a failure because I don’t writing anymore. Every time I have to write an essay for school I am reminded of my love for language and words. I love to just ramble on for hours. I love to write silly things, bad poems, stupid teenage crap. I remember how great I feel after I put down the pen. How great I feel when I find something good between all the crap I’ve written. I’d love to be a writer someday and I hope I one day will finally do what I love all day long. I’d love to learn to write about my happiness, about the way I fall in love with little things every day. I don’t want to keep describing my empty chest and the struggle of getting back up because that’s not my life. I can be very happy and I can be very sad. I should learn to appreciate both of them. Learn to express myself in more ways and to keep practicing. I hope the website gives me a chance to improve, learn and get to know myself more.

Behind the Eyes of Gustaf

As I now look back, I realize that I had been a ready victim, but little did I realize it at the time, for after all it was spring, a time so unlike any other time of the year–a time that held promise of budding things to come. It had held promise for me as well. But like most promises, not all were meant to be fulfilled. Had I only known.

I shall never forget that spring day when I first met Gustaf. He was sitting on a wooden bench that appeared terribly uncomfortable; yet, he didn’t seem to mind, as he’d continued to laugh and talk with those young men who had gathered around him, and who had seemed to hang onto his every word.

He looked up just as I had cleared the very last stair. Our eyes met, and we each had the strangest expression on our faces.

Oddly enough, it was an expression that we had previously met, that we had been close friends, and that we had been reunited at long last, which struck me as rather odd, as I had never before met this man, for if I had, surely, I would have recalled.

As I stood staring and thinking, a most peculiar feeling began to surge within me, and recognizing it for what it was I blushed, caught my breath, and tried desperately to still my fast-beating heart. For I knew immediately what had caused me to feel so peculiar. In the strangest sort of way, I was simply drawn to this man.

I felt emotionally nude, as I stood there before him, while noticing his full smile at my obvious discomfiture. For under his penetrating gaze, I felt a sense of powerlessness, intrigue, and danger. But these were but a few of the things I was to feel and experience under his sell, as his masculine charm was indeed overwhelming.

Suddenly, I felt myself walking toward him, and just as suddenly I stopped. For although he’d said nothing to dissuade me, I felt that he had, as I was positive he’d said no, not now, later.

To be sure I had understood, I searched his face for confirmation. But there was none, except for the smile that had given way to a frown of annoyance which mean I had been dismissed.

Ever confused, I lowered my eyes as though I’d been chastised. I turned and walked reluctantly away, but ever determined to meet tis fascinating man again, a man who’d said so much, but who had actually said nothing.

In the strangest sense, Gustaf didn’t seem to belong to the world. Rather, the world seemed to belong to him, and oddly enough this was one of the most interesting aspects about him.

I sensed, too, that he’d never actually loved, but had been loved, which really didn’t seem to matter, as I doubted he was aware of this obvious flaw, since he seemed on a different plane, from a different time, if such a thing were possible.

Everything about him had attracted my attention. But at first, it was his voice and his laughter, which were so distinct, so different from anything I’d heard before, as there was gaiety for certain in his seemingly ever-deepening voice. But there was also an unmistakable tone of seriousness that I found quite interesting and most disturbing.

Gustaf didn’t seem to care about anything or anyone, which made him that much more desirable, and because of this he seemed terribly lonely, spent, and even somewhat distant.

There was also a discernible, ascetic quality about him–a detachment. For he seemed a traveler, never staying too long in any place, never establishing firm roots. I sensed, too, that he needed me most desperately, and because I had always needed someone it was ever refreshing to find someone who was in need of me.

His hair was closely cropped–neatly trimmed–and his skin appeared tanned. But it was his eyes that had been most arresting, as they’d seemed to hold some type of mystery, a genius untapped, a knowledge to impart. He seemed a teacher, but at the same time a student.

It was true Gustaf was strangely handsome, but there was an unsettling melancholy about his features which had immediately interested me, although this was not so apparent as it was to become later. For indeed, it was everything about him that was alluring, but at the same time contradictory. And it was this, I think, that made him unique, if not dangerous.

Readily, I admit Gustaf excited me and, at the same time, terrified me. I was to realize, however, that he held me firmly in an ever-tightening grip. But I wouldn’t have had it any other way, even though I had sensed the presence of evil in his company.

And although the encounter had been brief, I knew within my heart that he and I were destined to be together, but in what capacity I dared not guess, for this was to be in spite of my better judgment and my being overly pragmatic, because just this once I was to follow my foolish heart.

So it was. Whenever I think of spring, I’m ever reminded of Gustaf, and strangely enough, as spring comes and goes, so it was to be with him, for he suddenly came into my life, and he just as suddenly departed.

But unlike spring, however, Gustaf was not to return, at least, not as I had come to know him.

I came here for lesson ideas for my 10th and 11th grade English classroom. I have loved writing all of my life and wish to pass that love on to others, but there are some that just don’t “get” it. There is a divine spark in some that are able to express themselves through writing, just as everyone has a spark for different things. For those students for whom writing isn’t their “thing,” I can offer them at best a formulaic approach to writing. It will get the job done. They will pass the test, and they will be able to present themselves intelligently to the world. I miss being a student, though. I miss the search for approval from my English teachers and the accolades I would receive on my papers. Writing for me was a very rewarding experience. I understand that not everyone has that experience, though, and so I try to encourage each student in their own way. “Search for the good,” they say. You will usually find whatever it is you are looking for. I miss writing, though. These days it seems I spent much more time reading other people’s (usually horrible) writing than getting to write on my own. I hope that I am not losing my gift. I hope that I am not becoming hardened with time. Writing is an art, it is not a science. Therefore, when an inexperienced writer takes some tip or “rule” that was meant to help in an inappropriate way, they become confused when I tell them that it does not work in this case. There are nuances to language; not all language rules are set in stone. I would like to write a book, eventually. Problem is that I don’t know what to write about! Sounds silly, but it’s true. When I took a creative writing course in high school I could write about anything, as long as I was given a prompt or topic. Now that I am an adult and on my own, the possibilities drag on like an infinite horizon in front of me. There are no paths carved out; I am all lost and alone in the magnitude of it all. My motivation for writing is to make my voice heard in the din, but to also speak for those who have no voice. I am a very observant person and would like to think that I can feel what other’s are feeling. I believe that the best writing builds empathy for others in its readers. I would like to write a book called “What It Means to be Human” about how easy it is to fail in this world. Perhaps it would be a tragedy, since the purpose of great tragedies is to build sympathy for the protagonist, but I do not think I could kill anybody off. I would want my hero to succeed in the end. The idea of being sympathetic for those who fail is an idea that is completely lost in our current society. We are told from a young age that success comes from hard work. But what is success? And what is hard work? I am sure the waitress working sub minimum wage works her tail off, but is she considered successful? Yes, I know… for every success story there is a “picking yourself up by your bootstraps” story of one’s rise from poverty to greatness. However, there are a great many other factors in these stories than simply hard work. One could spend their entire lives putting their nose to the grindstone, but if they have to purpose of goal, it will be wasted energy. So much of success is knowing the right people and being in the right place at the right time that it is impossible to simplify it down to simply hard work. That is what privileged people say to make you believe that they earned their privilege.

I want to write to make my audience feel something. I want to write something beautiful that will make my readers pause and feel like it is wonderful to be alive. I have felt this way about other works that I have read, works that opened my mind to the possibilities of our universe, such as Madeline L’Engle as a child, and I have felt this way upon reading the perfect explanation of a human emotion, such as Kate Chopin just this past summer. There are forevers in our feeble forms, eternities in our mortality. I wish to explore the unending depths of existence.

I want to write to be remembered and to leave a legacy for family and friends.

I´M GIVING A WRITING COURSE AND I´M SHOWING THIS WEBSITE TO MY STUDENTS. THEY ARE HAPPY TO READ YOU. THEY WERE ASKED TO START WRITING IN A BLOG. NEXT WEEK, THERE ARE HOLIDAYS IN MEXICO AND THEY´LL START DOING IT.

I AM HAPPY TO HAVE FOUND YOUR SITE.

GREETINGS FROM MEXICO CITY.

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I always live in some story of my own creation. I have been thinking to write a book. But, I feel low that whether I can. I fail to articulate the feel that I experience in thoughts into words or texts. Please, try to suggest me. Thank you.

Yeah, I really like this article. I write to make a name of myself.

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Why do we laud and honor some writers? Why do we consider their writings so great? We quote, and quote, and quote. What makes those writers so noteworthy, or should I say quote-worthy? I read an article that quotes some famous person, and wonder why that person is given such credence. What makes their thoughts so great? Why is their opinion any better than an opposing opinion? Maybe we quote someone just to back up our opinion. I am of the opinion that all writings are opinion. Even the Bible is opinion. It’s God’s opinion, so I value it more than any other. Perhaps that’s the answer! Who’s opinion do you value? I value opinion that rings true. “Prove all things. Hold fast that which is true.”

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Writing My Autobiography

A re you still writing?” he asked.

“I am,” I answered.

“What are you working on at the moment?”

“An autobiography,” I said.

“Interesting,” he replied. “Whose?”

The implication here, you will note, is that mine hasn’t been a life sufficiently interesting to merit an autobiography. The implication isn’t altogether foolish. Most autobiographies, at least the best autobiographies, have been written by people who have historical standing, or have known many important people, or have lived in significant times, or have noteworthy family connections or serious lessons to convey . I qualify on none of these grounds. Not that, roughly two years ago when I sat down to write my autobiography, I let that stop me.

An autobiography, to state the obvious, is at base a biography written by its own subject. But how is one to write it: as a matter of setting the record straight, as a form of confessional, as a mode of seeking justice, or as a justification of one’s life? “An autobiography,” wrote George Orwell, “is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.” Is this true? I prefer to think not.

Autobiography is a complex enterprise, calling for its author not only to know himself but to be honest in conveying that knowledge. “I could inform the dullest author how he might write an interesting book,” wrote Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “Let him relate the events of his own life with Honesty, not disguising the feelings that accompanied them.” One of the nicest things about being a professor, it has been said, is that one gets to talk for fifty minutes without being interrupted. So one of the allurements of autobiography is that one gets to write hundreds of pages about that eminently fascinating character, oneself, even if in doing so one only establishes one’s insignificance.

The great autobiographies—of which there have not been all that many—have been wildly various. One of the first, that of the Renaissance sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, is marked by an almost unrelieved braggadocio: No artist was more perfect, no warrior more brave, no lover more pleasing than the author, or so he would have us believe. Edward Gibbon’s autobiography, though elegantly written, is disappointing in its brevity. That of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, heavily striking the confessional note, might have been told in a booth to a priest. Ben Franklin’s autobiography is full of advice on how the rest of us should live. John Stuart Mill’s is astounding in its account of its author’s prodigiously early education, which began with his learning Greek under his father’s instruction at the age of three. Then there is Henry Adams’s autobiography, suffused with disappointment over his feeling out of joint with his times and the world’s not recognizing his true value. In Making It , Norman Podhoretz wrote an autobiography informed by a single message, which he termed a “dirty little secret,” namely that there is nothing wrong with ambition and that success, despite what leftist intellectuals might claim, is nothing to be ashamed of.

Please note that all of these are books written by men. Might it be that women lack the vanity required to write—or should I say “indulge in”—the literary act of autobiography? In Mary Beard’s Emperor of Rome , I recently read that Agrippina the Younger, the mother of Nero, wrote her autobiography, which has not survived, and which Mary Beard counts as “one of the great losses of all classical literature.” I wish that Jane Austen had written an autobiography, and so too George Eliot and Willa Cather. Perhaps these three women, great writers all, were too sensibly modest for autobiography, that least modest of all literary forms.

A utobiography can be the making or breaking of writers who attempt it. John Stuart Mill’s autobiography has gone a long way toward humanizing a writer whose other writings tend toward the coldly formal. Harold Laski wrote that Mill’s “ Autobiography , in the end the most imperishable of his writings, is a record as noble as any in our literature of consistent devotion to the public good.”

If Mill’s autobiography humanized him, the autobiography of the novelist Anthony Trollope did for him something approaching the reverse. In An Autobiography , Trollope disdains the notion of an author’s needing inspiration to write well. He reports that “there was no day on which it was my positive duty to write for the publishers, as it was my duty to write reports for the Post Office,” where he had a regular job. “I was free to be idle if I pleased. But as I had made up my mind to undertake this second profession [that of novelist], I found it to be expedient to bind myself by certain self-imposed laws.” Trollope recounts—emphasis here on “counts”—that as a novelist he averages forty pages per week, at 250 words per page. He writes: “There are those who would be ashamed to subject themselves to such a taskmaster, and who think that the man who works with his imagination should allow himself to wait till inspiration moves him. When I have heard such doctrine preached, I have hardly been able to repress my scorn.” Trollope then mentions that on the day after he finished his novel Doctor Thorne , he began writing his next novel, The Bertrams . For a long spell the literati refused to forgive Trollope for shearing inspiration away from the creation of literary art, for comparing the job of the novelist to a job at the post office. Only the splendid quality of his many novels eventually won him forgiveness and proper recognition.

A serious biography takes up what the world thinks of its subject, what his friends and family think of him, and—if the information is available in letters, diaries, journals, or interviews—what he thinks of himself. An autobiography is ultimately about the last question: what the author thinks of himself. Yet how many of us have sufficient self-knowledge to give a convincing answer? In her splendid novel Memoirs of Hadrian , Marguerite Yourcenar has Hadrian note: “When I seek deep within me for knowledge of myself what I find is obscure, internal, unformulated, and as secret as any complicity.” The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the scrupulously examined one is rare indeed.

My own life has not provided the richest fodder for autobiography. For one thing, it has not featured much in the way of drama. For another, good fortune has allowed me the freedom to do with my life much as I have wished. I have given my autobiography the title Never Say You’ve Had a Lucky Life , with the subtitle Especially If You’ve Had a Lucky Life . Now well along in its closing chapter, mine, I contend, has been thus far—here I pause to touch wood—a most lucky life.

My title derives from the story of Croesus, who ruled the country of Lydia from circa 585–547 b.c. , and who is perhaps today best known for the phrase “rich as Croesus.” The vastly wealthy Croesus thought himself the luckiest man on earth and asked confirmation of this from Solon, the wise Athenian, who told him that in fact the luckiest man on earth was another Athenian who had two sons in that year’s Olympics. When Croesus asked who was second luckiest, Solon cited another Greek who had a most happy family life. Croesus was displeased but not convinced by Solon’s answers. Years later he was captured by the Persian Cyrus, divested of his kingdom and his wealth, and set on a pyre to be burned alive, before which he was heard to exclaim that Solon had been right. The moral of the story is, of course: Never say you have had a lucky life until you know how your life ends.

I have known serious sadness in my life. I have undergone a divorce. I have become a member of that most dolorous of clubs, parents who have buried one of their children. Yet I have had much to be grateful for. In the final paragraph of a book I wrote some years ago on the subject of ambition, I noted that “We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, or the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing.” In all these realms, I lucked out. I was born to intelligent, kindly parents; at a time that, though I was drafted into the army, allowed me to miss being called up to fight in any wars; and in the largely unmitigated prosperity enjoyed by the world’s most interesting country, the United States of America.

Writing is a form of discovery. Yet can even writing ferret out the quality and meaning of one’s own life? Alexis de Tocqueville, the endlessly quotable Tocqueville, wrote: “The fate of individuals is still more hidden than that of peoples,” and “the destinies of individuals are often as uncertain as those of nations.” Fate, destiny, those two great tricksters, who knows what they have in store for one, even in the final days of one’s life? I, for example, as late as the age of eighteen, had never heard the word “intellectual.” If you had asked me what a man of letters was, I would have said a guy who works at the post office. Yet I have been destined to function as an intellectual for the better part of my adult life, and have more than once been called a man of letters. Fate, destiny, go figure!

T he first question that arises in writing one’s autobiography is what to include and what to exclude. Take, for starters, sex. In his nearly seven-hundred-page autobiography, Journeys of the Mind , the historian of late antiquity Peter Brown waits until page 581 to mention, in the most glancing way, that he is married. Forty or so pages later, the name of a second wife is mentioned. Whether he had children with either of these wives, we never learn. But then, Brown’s is a purely intellectual autobiography, concerned all but exclusively with the development of the author’s mind and those who influenced that development.

My autobiography, though less than half the length of Brown’s, allowed no such luxury of reticence. Sex, especially when I was an adolescent, was a central subject, close to a preoccupation. After all, boys—as I frequently instructed my beautiful granddaughter Annabelle when she was growing up—are brutes. I came of age BP, or Before the Pill, and consummated sex, known in that day as “going all the way,” was not then a serious possibility. Too much was at risk—pregnancy, loss of reputation—for middle-class girls. My friends and I turned to prostitution.

Apart from occasionally picking up streetwalkers on some of Chicago’s darker streets, prostitution for the most part meant trips of sixty or so miles to the bordellos of Braidwood or Kankakee, Illinois. The sex, costing $3, was less than perfunctory. (“Don’t bother to take off your socks or that sweater,” one was instructed.) What was entailed was less sensual pleasure than a rite of passage, of becoming a man, of “losing your cherry,” a phrase I have only recently learned means forgoing one’s innocence. We usually went on these trips in groups of five or six in one or another of our fathers’ cars. Much joking on the way up and even more on the way back. Along Chicago’s Outer Drive, which we took home in those days, there was a Dad’s Old Fashioned Root Beer sign that read, “Have you had it lately?,” which always got a good laugh.

I like to think of myself as a shy pornographer, or, perhaps better, a sly pornographer. By this I mean that in my fiction and where necessary in my essays I do not shy away from the subject of sex, only from the need to describe it in any of its lurid details. So I have done in my autobiography. On the subject of sex in my first marriage (of two), for example, I say merely, “I did not want my money back.” But, then, all sex, if one comes to think about it, is essentially comic, except of course one’s own.

On the inclusion-exclusion question, the next subject I had to consider was money, or my personal finances. Financially I have nothing to brag about. In my autobiography I do, though, occasionally give the exact salaries—none of them spectacular—of the jobs I’ve held. With some hesitation (lest it seem boasting) I mention that a book I wrote on the subject of snobbery earned, with its paperback sale, roughly half-a-million dollars. I fail to mention those of my books that earned paltry royalties, or, as I came to think of them, peasantries. In my autobiography, I contented myself with noting my good fortune in being able to earn enough money doing pretty much what I wished to do and ending up having acquired enough money not to worry overmuch about financial matters. Like the man said, a lucky life.

If I deal glancingly in my autobiography with sex and personal finances, I tried to take a pass on politics. My own political development is of little interest. I started out in my political life a fairly standard liberal—which in those days meant despising Richard Nixon—and have ended up today contemptuous of both our political parties: Tweedledum and Tweedledumber, as the critic Dwight Macdonald referred to them. Forgive the self-congratulatory note, but in politics I prefer to think myself a member in good standing of that third American political party, never alas on the ballot, the anti-BS party.

Of course, sometimes one needs to have a politics, if only to fight off the politics of others. Ours is a time when politics seems to be swamping all else: art, education, journalism, culture generally. I have had the dubious distinction of having been “canceled,” for what were thought my political views, and I write about this experience in my autobiography. I was fired from the editorship of Phi Beta Kappa’s quarterly magazine, the American Scholar —a job I had held for more than twenty years—because of my ostensibly conservative, I suppose I ought to make that “right-wing,” politics. My chief cancellers were two academic feminists and an African-American historian-biographer, who sat on the senate, or governing board, of Phi Beta Kappa.

T he official version given out by Phi Beta Kappa for my cancellation—in those days still known as a firing—was that the magazine was losing subscribers and needed to seek younger readers. Neither assertion was true, but both currently appear in the Wikipedia entry under my name. The New York Times also printed this “official” but untrue version of my cancellation. In fact, I was canceled because I had failed to run anything in the magazine about academic feminism or race, both subjects that had already been done to death elsewhere and that I thought cliché-ridden and hence of little interest for a magazine I specifically tried to keep apolitical. During my twenty-two years at the American Scholar , the name of no current United States president was mentioned. If anything resembling a theme emerged during my editorship, it was the preservation of the tradition of the liberal arts, a subject on which I was able to acquire contributions from Jacques Barzun, Paul Kristeller, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Frederick Crews, and others.

That I was fired not for anything I had done but for things I had failed to do is an indication of how far we had come in the realm of political correctness. I take up this topic in my autobiography, one theme of which is the vast changes that have taken place in American culture over my lifetime. A notable example is an essay on homosexuality that I wrote and published in Harper’s in 1970, a mere fifty-three years ago. The essay made the points that we still did not know much about the origin of male homosexuality, that there was much hypocrisy concerning the subject, that homosexuals were living under considerable social pressure and prejudice, and that given a choice, most people would prefer that their children not be homosexual. This, as I say, was in 1970, before the gay liberation movement had got underway in earnest. The essay attracted a vast number of letters in opposition, and a man named Merle Miller, who claimed I was calling for genocide of homosexuals, wrote a book based on the essay. Gore Vidal, never known for his temperate reasoning, claimed my argument was ad Hitlerum . (Vidal, after contracting Epstein-Barr virus late in life, claimed that “Joseph Epstein gave it to me.”) I have never reprinted the essay in any of my collections because I felt that it would stir up too much strong feeling. For what it is worth, I also happen to be pleased by the greater tolerance accorded homosexuality in the half century since my essay was published.

The larger point is that today neither Harper’s nor any other mainstream magazine would dare to publish that essay. Yet a few years after the essay was published, I was offered a job teaching in the English Department of Northwestern University, and the year after that, I was appointed editor of the American Scholar. Today, of course, neither job would have been available to me.

Do these matters—my cancellation from the American Scholar , my unearned reputation as a homophobe—come under the heading of self-justification? Perhaps so. But then, what better, or at least more convenient, place to attempt to justify oneself than in one’s autobiography?

Many changes have taken place in my lifetime, some for the better, some for the worse, some whose value cannot yet be known. I note, for example, if not the death then the attenuation of the extended family (nephews, nieces, cousins) in American life. Whereas much of my parents’ social life revolved around an extensive cousinage, I today have grandnephews and grandnieces living on both coasts whom I have never met and probably never shall. I imagine some of them one day being notified of my death and responding, “Really? [Pause] What’s for dinner?”

I take up in my autobiography what Philip Rieff called, in his book of this title, the Triumph of the Therapeutic, a development that has altered child-rearing, artistic creation, and much else in our culture. Although the doctrines of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and others are no longer taken as gospel, their secondary influence has conquered much of modern culture. My parents’ generation did not hold with therapeutic culture, which contends that the essentials of life are the achievement of self-esteem and individual happiness, replacing honor, courage, kindness, and generosity.

In my autobiography, I note that when my mother was depressed by her knowledge that she was dying of cancer, a friend suggested that there were support groups for people with terminal diseases, one of which might be helpful. I imagined telling my mother about such groups, and her response: “Let me see,” she is likely to have said. “You want me to go into a room with strangers, where I will listen to their problems and then I’ll tell them mine, and this will make me feel better.” Pause. “Is this the kind of idiot I’ve raised as a son?”

T hen there is digital culture, the verdict on which is not yet in. Digital culture has changed the way we read, think, make social connections, do business, and so much more. I write in my autobiography that in its consequences digital culture is up there with the printing press and the automobile. Its influence is still far from fully fathomed.

One of my challenges in writing my autobiography was to avoid seeming to brag about my quite modest accomplishments. In the Rhetoric , Aristotle writes: “Speaking at length about oneself, making false claims, taking the credit for what another has done, these are signs of boastfulness.” I tried not to lapse into boasting. Yet at one point I quote Jacques Barzun, in a letter to me, claiming that as a writer I am in the direct line of William Hazlitt, though in some ways better, for my task—that of finding the proper language to establish both intimacy and critical distance—is in the current day more difficult than in Hazlitt’s. At least I deliberately neglected to mention that, in response to my being fired from the American Scholar, Daniel Patrick Moynihan flew an American flag at half-mast over the Capitol, a flag he sent to me as a souvenir. Quoting others about my accomplishments, is this anything other than boasting by other means? I hope so, though even now I’m not altogether sure.

I have a certain pride in these modest accomplishments. Setting out in life, I never thought I should publish some thirty-odd books or have the good luck to continue writing well into my eighties. The question for me as an autobiographer was how to express that pride without preening. The most efficient way, of course, is never to write an autobiography.

Why, then, did I write mine? Although I have earlier characterized writing as a form of discovery, I did not, in writing my autobiography, expect to discover many radically new things about my character or the general lineaments of my life. Nor did I think that my life bore any lessons that were important to others. I had, and still have, little to confess; I have no hidden desire to be spanked by an NFL linebacker in a nun’s habit. A writer, a mere scribbler, I have led a largely spectatorial life, standing on the sidelines, glass of wine in hand, watching the circus pass before me.

Still, I wrote my autobiography, based in a loose way on Wordsworth’s notion that poetry arises from “emotion recollected in tranquility.” Writing it gave me an opportunity to review my life at the end of my life in a tranquil manner. I was able to note certain trends, parallels, and phenomena that have marked my life and set my destiny.

The first of these, as I remarked earlier, was the fortunate time in which I was born, namely the tail end of the Great Depression—to be specific, in 1937. Because of the Depression, people were having fewer children, and often having them later. (My mother was twenty-seven, my father thirty at my birth.) Born when it was, my generation, though subject to the draft—not, in my experience of it, a bad thing—danced between the wars: We were too young for Korea, too old for Vietnam. We were also children during World War II, the last war the country fully supported, which gave us a love of our country. Ours was a low-population generation, untroubled by the vagaries of college admissions or the trauma of rejection by the school of one’s choice. Colleges, in fact, wanted us.

Or consider parents, another fateful phenomenon over which one has no choice. To be born to thoughtless, or disagreeable, or depressed, or deeply neurotic parents cannot but substantially affect all one’s days. Having a father who is hugely successful in the world can be as dampening to the spirit as having a father who is a failure. And yet about all this one has no say. I have given the chapter on my parents the title “A Winning Ticket in the Parents Lottery,” for my own parents, though neither went to college, were thoughtful, honorable, and in no way psychologically crushing. They gave my younger brother and me the freedom to develop on our own; they never told me what schools to attend, what work to seek, whom or when to marry. I knew I was never at the center of my parents’ lives, yet I also knew I could count on them when I needed their support, which more than once I did, and they did not fail to come through. As I say, a winning ticket.

As one writes about one’s own life, certain themes are likely to emerge that hadn’t previously stood out so emphatically. In my case, one persistent motif is that of older boys, then older men, who have supported or aided me in various ways. A boy nearly two years older than I named Jack Libby saw to it that I wasn’t bullied or pushed around in a neighborhood where I was the youngest kid on the block. In high school, a boy to whom I have given the name Jeremy Klein taught me a thing or two about gambling and corruption generally. Later in life, men eight, nine, ten, even twenty or more years older than I promoted my career: Hilton Kramer in promoting my candidacy for the editorship of the American Scholar , Irving Howe in helping me get a teaching job (without an advanced degree) at Northwestern, John Gross in publishing me regularly on important subjects in the Times Literary Supplement , Edward Shils in ways too numerous to mention. Something there was about me, evidently, that was highly protégéable.

I  haven’t yet seen the index for my autobiography, but my guess is that it could have been name-ier. I failed, for example, to include my brief but pleasing friendship with Sol Linowitz. Sol was the chairman of Xerox, and later served the Johnson administration as ambassador to the Organization of American States. He also happened to be a reader of mine, and on my various trips to Washington I was often his guest at the F Street Club, a political lunch club where he reserved a private room in which we told each other jokes, chiefly Jewish jokes. I might also have added my six years as a member of the National Council of the National Endowment for the Arts, whose members included the actors Robert Stack and Celeste Holm, the Balanchine dancer Arthur Mitchell, Robert Joffrey, the soprano Renée Fleming, the novelist Toni Morrison, the dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, the architect I. M. Pei, the painter Helen Frankenthaler, and other highly droppable names.

Confronting one’s regrets is another inescapable element in writing one’s autobiography. Ah, regrets: the red MG convertible one didn’t buy in one’s twenties, the elegant young Asian woman one should have asked to dinner, the year one failed to spend in Paris. The greater the number of one’s regrets, the grander their scope, the sadder, at its close, one’s life figures to be. I come out fairly well in the regrets ledger. I regret not having studied classics at university, and so today I cannot read ancient Greek. I regret not having been a better father to my sons. I regret not asking my mother more questions about her family and not telling my father what a good man I thought he was. As regrets go, these are not minor, yet neither have I found them to be crippling.

Then there is the matter of recognizing one’s quirks, or peculiar habits. A notable one of mine, acquired late in life, is to have become near to the reverse of a hypochondriac. I have not yet reached the stage of anosognosia, or the belief that one is well when one is ill—a stage, by the way, that Chekhov, himself a physician, seems to have attained. I take vitamins, get flu and Covid shots, and watch what I eat, but I try to steer clear of physicians. This tendency kicked in not long after my decades-long primary care physician retired. In his The Body: A Guide for Occupants , Bill Bryson defines good health as the health enjoyed by someone who hasn’t had a physical lately. The ancients made this point more directly, advising bene caca et declina medicos (translation on request) . For a variety of reasons, physicians of the current day are fond of sending patients for a multiplicity of tests: bone density tests, colonoscopies, biopsies, X-rays of all sorts, CT scans, MRIs, stopping only at SATs. I am not keen to discover ailments that don’t bother me. At the age of eighty-seven, I figure I am playing with house money, and I have no wish to upset the house by prodding my health in search of imperfections any more than is absolutely necessary.

The older one gets, unless one’s life is lived in pain or deepest regret, the more fortunate one feels. Not always, not everyone, I suppose. “The longer I live, the more I am inclined to the belief that this earth is used by other planets as a lunatic asylum,” said George Bernard Shaw, who lived to age ninety-four. Though the world seems to be in a hell of a shape just now, I nonetheless prefer to delay my exit for as long as I can. I like it here, continue to find much that is interesting and amusing, and have no wish to depart the planet.

Still, with advancing years I have found my interests narrowing. Not least among my waning interests is that in travel. I like my domestic routine too much to abandon it for foreign countries where the natives figure to be wearing Air Jordan shoes, Ralph Lauren shirts, and cargo pants. Magazines that I once looked forward to, many of which I have written for in the past, no longer contain much that I find worth reading. A former moviegoer, I haven’t been to a movie theater in at least a decade. The high price of concert and opera tickets has driven me away. The supposedly great American playwrights—Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill, Edward Albee—have never seemed all that good to me, and I miss them not at all. If all this sounds like a complaint that the culture has deserted me, I don’t feel that it has. I can still listen to my beloved Mozart on discs, read Tolstoy, Jane Austen, Dickens, George Eliot, Willa Cather, and the other great novelists, watch the splendid movies of earlier days on Turner Classics and HBO—live, in other words, on the culture of the past.

“Vho needs dis?” Igor Stravinsky is supposed to have remarked when presented with some new phenomena of the avant-garde or other work in the realm of art without obvious benefit. “Vho needs dis?” is a question that occurred to me more than once or twice as I wrote my autobiography. All I can say is that those who read my autobiography will read of the life of a man lucky enough to have devoted the better part of his days to fitting words together into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into essays and stories on a wide variety of topics. Now in his autobiography all the sentences and paragraphs are about his own life. He hopes that these sentences are well made, these paragraphs have a point, and together they attain to a respectable truth quotient, containing no falsehoods whatsoever. He hopes that, on these modest grounds at least, his autobiography qualifies as worth reading.

Joseph Epstein  is author of  Gallimaufry , a collection of essays and reviews.

Image by  Museum Rotterdam on Wikimedia Commons , licensed via Creative Commons . Image cropped. 

Articles by Joseph Epstein

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7 Surefire Signs That ChatGPT Has Written an Essay Revealed

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have revealed the seven telltale signs that a piece of written content was generated by ChatGPT , after carefully analyzing more than 150 essays written by high school students and undergraduates.

They found that ChatGPT loves an Oxford Comma, repeats phrases and spits out tautological statements practically empty of meaning at a much higher frequency than humans.

While the findings are interesting, the sample size is quite small. There's also no guarantee that the linguistic habits and techniques identified couldn’t and wouldn't be used by a human. What’s more, AI content detection tools are largely unreliable; there’s still no way to know for certain that any given written content is AI-generated.

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The 7 Telltale Signs Content is AI-Generated

The researchers at Cambridge analyzed 164 essays written by high school students with four essays written with a helping hand from ChatGPT.

The ChatGPT-assisted essays were generally more information-heavy and had more reflective elements, but the markers at Cambridge found that they lacked the level of comparison and analysis typically found in human-generated content. 

According to UK-based publication The Telegraph , which broke the story, the researchers identified seven key indicators of AI content:

• Frequent use of Latin root words and “vocabulary above the expected level”
• Paragraphs starting with singular words like “however”, and then a comma 
• Lots of numbered lists with colons
• Unnecessary clarificatory language (e.g. “true fact”)
• Tautological language (“Lets come together to unite”)
• Repetition of the same word or phrase twice 
• Consistent and frequent use of Oxford commas in sentences

Are There Any Other Ways to Spot ChatGPT Plagiarism?

Yes and no. There are many tools online that claim to be able to detect AI content, but when I tested a wide range of them last year, I found many to be wildly inaccurate.

For instance, OpenAI’s own text classifier – which was eventually shut down because it performed so poorly – was unable to identify that text written by ChatGPT (effectively itself) was AI-generated.

Even Turnitin has been using automated processes to detect plagiarized content in academic work for years, and they’ve also developed a powerful AI content checker. The company has always maintained that verdicts arrived at by their tools should be treated as an indication, not a cast-iron accusation.

“Given that our false positive rate is not zero” Turnitin explains in a blog post discussing its AI content detection capabilities.

“You as the instructor will need to apply your professional judgment, knowledge of your students, and the specific context surrounding the assignment”.

None of these tools are infallible – and worse still, many of the free ones you’ll find lurking at the top of the Google Search results are completely and utterly useless.

Is It Wrong to Use AI for School or College Work?

While asking AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini to write you an essay isn’t quite “plagiarism” in the same way copying content written by other people and passing it off as your own is, it’s certainly not advised.

Whether it’s objectively plagiarism or not is likely irrelevant – the educational institution you’re enrolled in has probably created guidelines explicitly banning generative AI. Many universities have already taken a similar approach to peer review and other academic processes.

Besides, the whole point of writing an essay is to consider the range of ideas and views on the topic you’re writing about and evaluate them using your head. Getting an AI to do it for you defeats the whole point of writing the essay in the first place.

Our advice – considering the consequences of being accused of plagiarism while at university – is to stick to the rules. Who knows – you might learn something while you're at it!

We're sorry this article didn't help you today – we welcome feedback, so if there's any way you feel we could improve our content, please email us at [email protected]

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Kiley Reid on Why Fiction Isn’t Activism

In conversation with mitzi rapkin on the first draft podcast.

First Draft: A Dialogue of Writing is a weekly show featuring in-depth interviews with fiction, nonfiction, essay writers, and poets, highlighting the voices of writers as they discuss their work, their craft, and the literary arts. Hosted by Mitzi Rapkin, First Draft celebrates creative writing and the individuals who are dedicated to bringing their carefully chosen words to print as well as the impact writers have on the world we live in.

In this episode, Mitzi talks to Kiley Reid about her new novel, Come and Get It .

Subscribe and download the episode , wherever you get your podcasts!

From the episode:

Mitzi Rapkin: I’m wondering about redemption through writing. And that was something your character Kennedy found, or maybe for her, it wasn’t redemption but a type of therapy, perhaps, or a type of solace.  She had a writing teacher where she disclosed a terrible thing that happened to her and instead of shaming her, the writing teacher said just write about it. I think she felt a moment of grace, she felt acceptance. And then when she started writing, I think she found some peace. And I’m curious, if you think that writing has that quality, or if it has that had that quality for you?

Kiley Reid: I’m of two minds about this. I think writing is an amazing practice for anyone, whether they are an aspiring novelist, or wanting to journal or work through a time in their lives – amazing – write about it. The reason that writing is great is because it makes you be quiet. And it should, at its best, make you curious about how you feel, how others feel, how the world is working, it should make you a person who is concerned with the world around you, and about the human behavior that you do on other people and receive as well. I teach undergrads and a lot of my undergrads are STEM students who just need an art credit. And I really love that approach to writing as well, I kind of like reading, I don’t really have time to read in school anymore, but you know, maybe this will be fine. And I really like teaching students from that place because I feel like they’re learning how to look at art differently. And they’re reading things that they wouldn’t normally come across, and their brains just change in real time. It’s the best when someone says, I think this story is trying to work with time in a new way. It’s like yes, yes, exactly. You’re seeing this differently, and you’re never going to not see it the same way again, and that’s really beautiful. All of that said, I do not see writing as a rebellious act. And I do not see writing as a civil rights act as well, especially in terms of writing fiction. I know that many authors would disagree with me in that space. Writing is my favorite thing to do. It is my absolute passion to discover new characters and situations and emotions that I’ve always kind of held in the back of my head but couldn’t find the words for, that is my favorite thing. I believe novels are meant to entertain, whether you’re entertained from beautiful prose or recognition or nostalgia or plot, I believe that it’s meant to entertain. I don’t believe that you can sell social justice in a hardcover book for $26 because that would mean that books are meant for certain people and redemption is meant for certain people but not for others. So, I do reject the bravery and activism of writing fiction, because unfortunately, not everyone can get their hands on it.

Kiley Reid is the author of Come and Get It and Such A Fun Age , which was a New York Times Best Seller and longlisted for the 2020 Booker Price. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, The Guardian , and others. Reid is currently an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.

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2024 Global Economic Prosperity Challenge

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Technical Support: Solve's network of experts and mentors can offer technical guidance and expertise to enhance the functionality and scalability of our platform.

Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Solve can provide insights and resources to navigate legal and regulatory challenges related to our solution, ensuring that we operate ethically and within the bounds of the law.

Cultural Awareness: Solve's diverse community can offer perspectives and cultural insights that help us better understand and address the needs of students from different backgrounds and regions.

Financial Sustainability: While our primary goal is not solely to raise funds, Solve can help us explore sustainable funding models, partnerships, and revenue streams that support the long-term viability of our solution.

Overall, we see Solve as a valuable platform that can provide us with strategic support, resources, and partnerships to overcome barriers and accelerate the impact of our solution in improving access to affordable and high-quality essay writing services for students globally.

In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?

• Public Relations (e.g. branding/marketing strategy, social and global media)
• Technology (e.g. software or hardware, web development/design)

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

What makes your solution innovative.

Our solution is innovative in several ways that set it apart from traditional approaches to accessing essay writing services for students:

Aggregating Reliable Services: Our platform aggregates reputable and reliable essay writing services like CollegeEssay.org and MyPerfectWords.com in one place. This eliminates the need for students to spend time researching and vetting multiple services, streamlining the process and ensuring access to trusted providers.

Affordability and Quality: By focusing on connecting students with affordable services that prioritize quality, our solution addresses the dual challenge of cost and reliability that many students face. This approach ensures that students receive professionally written essays without breaking the bank.

User-Friendly Interface: Our platform features a user-friendly interface that simplifies the process of placing orders, communicating with writers, and accessing customer support. This enhances the overall user experience and makes academic assistance more accessible to students.

Quality Assurance: Both CollegeEssay.org and MyPerfectWords.com have robust quality assurance processes in place to ensure that every essay meets high standards of originality, accuracy, and coherence. This commitment to quality sets our solution apart and instills confidence in students using these services.

Technology Integration: Our platform utilizes secure payment systems, encryption technologies, and customer support features to ensure a seamless and secure experience for students. This technological integration enhances trust and reliability in the services we connect students with.

Our solution has the potential to catalyze broader positive impacts in the education space by:

Empowering Students: By providing affordable and reliable access to essay writing services, we empower students to focus on learning, achieve academic success, and overcome challenges related to writing assignments.

Promoting Academic Integrity: Our solution promotes academic integrity by connecting students with services that uphold ethical standards, including plagiarism detection and adherence to citation guidelines. This contributes to a culture of honesty and accountability in academia.

Supporting Education Equity: Our focus on affordability and quality ensures that students from diverse backgrounds and financial situations have equal opportunities to access academic assistance. This promotes education equity and inclusivity.

Driving Innovation in the Industry: By aggregating reputable services and promoting transparency and accountability, our solution encourages innovation and improvement within the essay writing services industry. This could lead to higher standards, better practices, and increased trust among students and providers.

Overall, our innovative approach to connecting students with affordable and reliable essay writing services has the potential to catalyze positive impacts not only for individual students but also for the broader education landscape by promoting accessibility, integrity, and excellence in academic writing support.

Describe in simple terms how and why you expect your solution to have an impact on the problem.

Our solution expects to have a significant impact on the problem by directly addressing the key barriers that students face in accessing affordable and reliable essay writing services. By aggregating reputable services like CollegeEssay.org and MyPerfectWords.com and providing a user-friendly platform for students to connect with these services, we aim to streamline the process and make academic assistance more accessible. This approach is expected to lead to immediate outputs such as increased usage of affordable writing services, improved academic performance, and reduced stress for students. In the longer term, we anticipate outcomes such as enhanced academic success, improved education equity, and a positive shift in the culture of academic writing towards integrity and transparency. These logical links are supported by research on the impact of academic support services on student outcomes and feedback from interviews with students highlighting the challenges they face in accessing affordable and quality writing assistance.

What are your impact goals for your solution and how are you measuring your progress towards them?

Our impact goals for our solution are:

Increased Access to Affordable Writing Services: Our goal is to increase the number of students who can access affordable and reliable essay writing services, thereby reducing financial barriers to academic success.

Improved Academic Performance: We aim to measure improvements in academic performance among students who utilize our platform and the connected services, as evidenced by higher grades, better writing skills, and increased confidence in their academic abilities.

Enhanced Education Equity: By providing equal opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds to access academic assistance, we aim to contribute to education equity and bridge the gap between students with varying levels of resources and support.

Promotion of Academic Integrity: We seek to promote a culture of academic integrity by connecting students with services that uphold ethical standards, including originality, proper citation, and adherence to academic guidelines.

• Number of Students Served: We track the number of students who use our platform to access writing services, providing insights into the reach and impact of our solution.
• Customer Satisfaction: We gather feedback and ratings from students who use the connected services, assessing their satisfaction levels and the quality of the writing assistance they receive.
• Academic Performance Metrics: We collect data on the academic performance of students before and after using our platform, including GPA improvements, grades on writing assignments, and feedback from instructors.
• Diversity and Inclusion Metrics: We monitor the diversity of students using our platform, including factors such as socioeconomic background, geographical location, and educational level, to ensure inclusivity and equity in access to academic support.
• Ethical Standards Compliance: We conduct audits and assessments of the connected services to ensure they adhere to ethical standards related to plagiarism, originality, citation, and academic integrity.

Describe the core technology that powers your solution.

The core technology that powers our solution is a sophisticated online platform that leverages modern digital tools and systems to connect students with affordable and reliable essay writing services. This platform incorporates several key technological components:

User Interface Design: Our platform features a user-friendly interface designed to enhance the user experience for students seeking academic writing assistance. It includes intuitive navigation, clear instructions, and interactive elements to facilitate seamless interaction.

Database Management: We utilize database management systems to store and organize information related to students, service providers, orders, payments, and feedback. This allows for efficient data retrieval, analysis, and management.

Secure Payment Systems: Our platform integrates secure payment gateways to facilitate online transactions between students and the connected essay writing services. We prioritize data security and encryption to protect sensitive financial information.

Communication Tools: We incorporate communication tools such as live chat, messaging systems, and email support to enable seamless communication between students, service providers, and customer support representatives. This ensures timely responses to inquiries and feedback.

Quality Assurance Technologies: We leverage technologies for quality assurance, including plagiarism detection tools, grammar checking software, and editing programs. These tools help ensure that essays delivered to students meet high standards of originality, accuracy, and coherence.

Customer Support Systems: Our platform includes customer support systems powered by AI chatbots, automated responses, and human agents. This enables 24/7 support for students, addressing inquiries, resolving issues, and providing guidance throughout the process.

Analytics and Reporting: We utilize analytics tools and reporting systems to gather data on platform usage, user behavior, service performance, customer satisfaction, and academic outcomes. This data-driven approach allows us to assess the effectiveness of our solution and make informed decisions for continuous improvement.

Overall, our solution harnesses the power of modern technology to address the challenges students face in accessing affordable and high-quality academic writing services, ensuring a seamless and beneficial experience for users while benefiting both people and the planet through improved educational outcomes and academic integrity.

Which of the following categories best describes your solution?

A new technology

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

• Internet of Things

If your solution has a website or an app, provide the links here:

In which countries do you currently operate, which, if any, additional countries will you be operating in within the next year.

• United Arab Emirates

How many people work on your solution team?

There are 6 people.

How long have you been working on your solution?

Our team has been actively working on our solution for approximately two years. During this time, we have conducted extensive research, development, and testing to refine our platform and ensure its effectiveness in addressing the challenges students face in accessing affordable and reliable essay writing services. We have collaborated with experts in the education and technology sectors, gathered feedback from students and stakeholders, and iteratively improved our solution to meet the needs of our target audience.

What is your business model?

Our business model focuses on providing value to both students and essay writing services while ensuring financial sustainability and impact. Our key customers are students seeking affordable and reliable academic writing assistance, and our beneficiaries include essay writing services that connect with a larger student base. We provide students with access to reputable and affordable essay writing services through our online platform, offering services such as essay writing, editing, proofreading, and research paper writing. Students benefit from the convenience, quality, and affordability of these services, addressing their academic writing needs and improving their academic performance. We generate revenue through a commission-based model, where we earn a percentage of the transactions made between students and the connected essay writing services. This model incentivizes us to promote high-quality and reliable services that meet students' needs, ensuring alignment between our financial goals and our mission to provide value and impact. Additionally, we may explore partnerships, sponsorships, and premium service offerings to diversify our revenue streams and enhance our sustainability. Overall, our business model is designed to create a win-win scenario, where students receive valuable academic assistance, essay writing services gain access to a larger customer base, and we achieve financial viability while driving positive impact in the education sector.

Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?

What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable, and what evidence can you provide that this plan has been successful so far.

What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable, and what evidence can you provide that this plan has been successful so far?Explain how you are bringing/will bring in money to fund your work, whether through sustained donations and grants, selling products or services, service contracts to governments, raising investment capital, or a combination of all. In the long term, your revenue streams should cover your expected expenses. To see some examples, take a look at these  common revenue models . Also, provide examples of how your plans to fund your work have been successful to date: examples may include grants that you have received, revenue you have generated, or investment funding you have raised. We understand that some financial information may not be publicly shareable, but any specifics you can provide (such as funder names or monetary amounts) is helpful to the judges as they assess the potential for success of your solution. Maximum 500 words

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Who will Trump pick as his running mate? In 2024, the ‘Veepstakes’ are higher than usual

Adjunct Senior Fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University

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Being second in line for leadership of the most powerful country in the world is not an easy job. But for Mike Pence, vice president under Donald Trump, things were even harder than usual.

As insurrectionists descended on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, they had a specific target in mind – the outgoing vice president. They built a wooden gallows, and called out for him by name: “Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!”

As the extensive congressional hearings into the insurrection later documented, the threats were not hollow. One informant told FBI investigators that “if given the chance”, certain far-right insurrectionists would have tried to kill him. Pence escaped with his life, but only just .

The insurrectionists, as a federal investigation alleges, were drawn to the Capitol by Trump, who had just lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. They were after Trump’s VP because, as one later claimed, he had “ betrayed ” Trump by not refusing to certify the election results.

The job of vice president of the United States is not a normal one at the best of times. The person chosen to run alongside Trump in this year’s election will no doubt be keeping Pence’s experience in mind. It will likely be someone who can convincingly pledge undying loyalty to Trump. The former president – and his supporters – will expect nothing less.

Speculation over who that person might be is heating up, and Trump, as usual, is relishing drawing out the process in order to gain as much attention as possible. So, who – and how – will he choose?

Making race a priority

A vice presidential candidate is usually chosen based on a political calculation. For instance, the running mate can be seen to offset a presidential nominee’s weaknesses (be they real or perceived).

The relatively young northerner John F. Kennedy, for example, chose the much more politically experienced southerner, Lyndon B. Johnson. Barack Obama, running to be the first Black president, similarly chose the older and more experienced – and reassuringly white – Biden.

In his first run, Trump settled on Pence to offset his perceived weakness with evangelical voters – a critical mobilising base to any Republican candidate.

Read more: Why 'wokeness' has become the latest battlefront for white conservatives in America

Viewed through this lens, the commonly accepted wisdom is that Trump has both a race and a woman problem, and that he should choose a VP candidate who can address at least one of those concerns.

In the first category, the leading candidates appear to be two men who ran against Trump for this year’s nomination – Tim Scott and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Scott – a South Carolinian that Bloomberg has dubbed “Trump’s New Black Best Friend” – is the only Black Republican in the Senate. He has certainly indicated he is keen for the job, professing his love for Trump and recently announcing his engagement (being single is generally regarded as a political liability ).

During the Republican campaign for the presidential nomination, Ramaswamy had presented himself as the newer, shinier Trump. In one memorable moment in the debates, he was first to raise his hand when the candidates were asked who would still support Trump if he is convicted of a crime. Ramaswamy also quickly endorsed Trump when he dropped out.

Trump would no doubt be pleased with such public professions of loyalty. But there is no indication Trump considers race to be a problem for his candidacy – in fact, quite the opposite.

Trump has been leaning in to increasingly extreme racist rhetoric. If he thought race mattered to his chances, he would likely be behaving differently. Trump’s political rise began with his racist “birther” conspiracies about Obama. It is not a stretch to suggest many of his supporters would baulk at a ticket that wasn’t entirely white.

Why a conservative woman might make sense

In the second category, the accepted wisdom is that Trump’s “ woman problem ” is a direct result of the signature achievement of his administration: the appointment of three conservative justices to the Supreme Court, which subsequently led to the overturning of Roe v Wade.

As Biden put it recently , candidates underestimate the political and electoral power of women at their peril.

Among the leading women Republican VP candidates are Elise Stefanik, a congresswoman from New York, and Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota.

The fact both are considered leading candidates reveals the political calculations behind Trump’s possible selection. While Trump has flip-flopped on abortion restrictions himself, both Stefanik and Noem have extremely conservative positions on reproductive rights.

And given what we know about Trump’s views on women, it seems likely his judgement would be almost entirely aesthetic. There is a very specific political reason why Noem has grown out her hair and gotten new teeth.

Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Green is often added to this list, but may have slimmer chances. While she literally wears her Trump loyalty on her head , she attracts a lot of attention. And Trump does not much like to share the spotlight.

It’s also entirely possible Trump will go with a wildcard candidate. He is increasingly resentful of what we could loosely characterise as “establishment” political advice designed to curb his worst instincts. His campaign is now almost entirely based on a desire for revenge and retribution against the people he believes held him back.

There has never been a reason to believe Trump will follow conventional political wisdom.

The stakes are higher than usual

Given the cult of personality that has developed around Trump, some argue his choice of running mate is unlikely to shift many votes. As a result, it doesn’t actually matter all that much.

Other keen watchers of American politics, though, argue the opposite. Given the advanced ages of both Trump and Biden, the VP pick is more important than usual, not least because of the higher-than-normal chance this person could be elevated to the Oval Office at some point.

Read more: Biden and Trump, though old, are both likely to survive to the end of the next president's term, demographers explain

In Trump’s case, some argue that if he wins, he will be a “lame duck” president from day one since it would be his second term in office. So, all eyes will be on his VP as the presumptive nominee for 2028.

This glosses over the very real questions about the continuity of constitutional law under a second Trump presidency, and ignores the noises Trump supporters are already making about trying to remove presidential term limits. It also assumes that, like Pence, Trump’s next VP would choose to put their own political future or American democracy above being an enthusiastic supporter of Trump’s authoritarianism. This is unlikely.

Like everything this time around, the stakes are higher than usual.

• Donald Trump
• Vice President
• 2024 US presidential election
• Vivek Ramaswamy

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• The four main types of essay | Quick guide with examples

The Four Main Types of Essay | Quick Guide with Examples

Published on September 4, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

An essay is a focused piece of writing designed to inform or persuade. There are many different types of essay, but they are often defined in four categories: argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive essays.

Argumentative and expository essays are focused on conveying information and making clear points, while narrative and descriptive essays are about exercising creativity and writing in an interesting way. At university level, argumentative essays are the most common type. 

In high school and college, you will also often have to write textual analysis essays, which test your skills in close reading and interpretation.

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Table of contents

Argumentative essays, expository essays, narrative essays, descriptive essays, textual analysis essays, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about types of essays.

An argumentative essay presents an extended, evidence-based argument. It requires a strong thesis statement —a clearly defined stance on your topic. Your aim is to convince the reader of your thesis using evidence (such as quotations ) and analysis.

Argumentative essays test your ability to research and present your own position on a topic. This is the most common type of essay at college level—most papers you write will involve some kind of argumentation.

The essay is divided into an introduction, body, and conclusion:

• The introduction provides your topic and thesis statement
• The body presents your evidence and arguments
• The conclusion summarizes your argument and emphasizes its importance

The example below is a paragraph from the body of an argumentative essay about the effects of the internet on education. Mouse over it to learn more.

A common frustration for teachers is students’ use of Wikipedia as a source in their writing. Its prevalence among students is not exaggerated; a survey found that the vast majority of the students surveyed used Wikipedia (Head & Eisenberg, 2010). An article in The Guardian stresses a common objection to its use: “a reliance on Wikipedia can discourage students from engaging with genuine academic writing” (Coomer, 2013). Teachers are clearly not mistaken in viewing Wikipedia usage as ubiquitous among their students; but the claim that it discourages engagement with academic sources requires further investigation. This point is treated as self-evident by many teachers, but Wikipedia itself explicitly encourages students to look into other sources. Its articles often provide references to academic publications and include warning notes where citations are missing; the site’s own guidelines for research make clear that it should be used as a starting point, emphasizing that users should always “read the references and check whether they really do support what the article says” (“Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia,” 2020). Indeed, for many students, Wikipedia is their first encounter with the concepts of citation and referencing. The use of Wikipedia therefore has a positive side that merits deeper consideration than it often receives.

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An expository essay provides a clear, focused explanation of a topic. It doesn’t require an original argument, just a balanced and well-organized view of the topic.

Expository essays test your familiarity with a topic and your ability to organize and convey information. They are commonly assigned at high school or in exam questions at college level.

The introduction of an expository essay states your topic and provides some general background, the body presents the details, and the conclusion summarizes the information presented.

A typical body paragraph from an expository essay about the invention of the printing press is shown below. Mouse over it to learn more.

The invention of the printing press in 1440 changed this situation dramatically. Johannes Gutenberg, who had worked as a goldsmith, used his knowledge of metals in the design of the press. He made his type from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony, whose durability allowed for the reliable production of high-quality books. This new technology allowed texts to be reproduced and disseminated on a much larger scale than was previously possible. The Gutenberg Bible appeared in the 1450s, and a large number of printing presses sprang up across the continent in the following decades. Gutenberg’s invention rapidly transformed cultural production in Europe; among other things, it would lead to the Protestant Reformation.

A narrative essay is one that tells a story. This is usually a story about a personal experience you had, but it may also be an imaginative exploration of something you have not experienced.

Narrative essays test your ability to build up a narrative in an engaging, well-structured way. They are much more personal and creative than other kinds of academic writing . Writing a personal statement for an application requires the same skills as a narrative essay.

A narrative essay isn’t strictly divided into introduction, body, and conclusion, but it should still begin by setting up the narrative and finish by expressing the point of the story—what you learned from your experience, or why it made an impression on you.

Mouse over the example below, a short narrative essay responding to the prompt “Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself,” to explore its structure.

Since elementary school, I have always favored subjects like science and math over the humanities. My instinct was always to think of these subjects as more solid and serious than classes like English. If there was no right answer, I thought, why bother? But recently I had an experience that taught me my academic interests are more flexible than I had thought: I took my first philosophy class.

Before I entered the classroom, I was skeptical. I waited outside with the other students and wondered what exactly philosophy would involve—I really had no idea. I imagined something pretty abstract: long, stilted conversations pondering the meaning of life. But what I got was something quite different.

A young man in jeans, Mr. Jones—“but you can call me Rob”—was far from the white-haired, buttoned-up old man I had half-expected. And rather than pulling us into pedantic arguments about obscure philosophical points, Rob engaged us on our level. To talk free will, we looked at our own choices. To talk ethics, we looked at dilemmas we had faced ourselves. By the end of class, I’d discovered that questions with no right answer can turn out to be the most interesting ones.

The experience has taught me to look at things a little more “philosophically”—and not just because it was a philosophy class! I learned that if I let go of my preconceptions, I can actually get a lot out of subjects I was previously dismissive of. The class taught me—in more ways than one—to look at things with an open mind.

A descriptive essay provides a detailed sensory description of something. Like narrative essays, they allow you to be more creative than most academic writing, but they are more tightly focused than narrative essays. You might describe a specific place or object, rather than telling a whole story.

Descriptive essays test your ability to use language creatively, making striking word choices to convey a memorable picture of what you’re describing.

A descriptive essay can be quite loosely structured, though it should usually begin by introducing the object of your description and end by drawing an overall picture of it. The important thing is to use careful word choices and figurative language to create an original description of your object.

Mouse over the example below, a response to the prompt “Describe a place you love to spend time in,” to learn more about descriptive essays.

On Sunday afternoons I like to spend my time in the garden behind my house. The garden is narrow but long, a corridor of green extending from the back of the house, and I sit on a lawn chair at the far end to read and relax. I am in my small peaceful paradise: the shade of the tree, the feel of the grass on my feet, the gentle activity of the fish in the pond beside me.

My cat crosses the garden nimbly and leaps onto the fence to survey it from above. From his perch he can watch over his little kingdom and keep an eye on the neighbours. He does this until the barking of next door’s dog scares him from his post and he bolts for the cat flap to govern from the safety of the kitchen.

With that, I am left alone with the fish, whose whole world is the pond by my feet. The fish explore the pond every day as if for the first time, prodding and inspecting every stone. I sometimes feel the same about sitting here in the garden; I know the place better than anyone, but whenever I return I still feel compelled to pay attention to all its details and novelties—a new bird perched in the tree, the growth of the grass, and the movement of the insects it shelters…

Sitting out in the garden, I feel serene. I feel at home. And yet I always feel there is more to discover. The bounds of my garden may be small, but there is a whole world contained within it, and it is one I will never get tired of inhabiting.

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Though every essay type tests your writing skills, some essays also test your ability to read carefully and critically. In a textual analysis essay, you don’t just present information on a topic, but closely analyze a text to explain how it achieves certain effects.

Rhetorical analysis

A rhetorical analysis looks at a persuasive text (e.g. a speech, an essay, a political cartoon) in terms of the rhetorical devices it uses, and evaluates their effectiveness.

The goal is not to state whether you agree with the author’s argument but to look at how they have constructed it.

The introduction of a rhetorical analysis presents the text, some background information, and your thesis statement; the body comprises the analysis itself; and the conclusion wraps up your analysis of the text, emphasizing its relevance to broader concerns.

The example below is from a rhetorical analysis of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech . Mouse over it to learn more.

King’s speech is infused with prophetic language throughout. Even before the famous “dream” part of the speech, King’s language consistently strikes a prophetic tone. He refers to the Lincoln Memorial as a “hallowed spot” and speaks of rising “from the dark and desolate valley of segregation” to “make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” The assumption of this prophetic voice constitutes the text’s strongest ethical appeal; after linking himself with political figures like Lincoln and the Founding Fathers, King’s ethos adopts a distinctly religious tone, recalling Biblical prophets and preachers of change from across history. This adds significant force to his words; standing before an audience of hundreds of thousands, he states not just what the future should be, but what it will be: “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.” This warning is almost apocalyptic in tone, though it concludes with the positive image of the “bright day of justice.” The power of King’s rhetoric thus stems not only from the pathos of his vision of a brighter future, but from the ethos of the prophetic voice he adopts in expressing this vision.

Literary analysis

A literary analysis essay presents a close reading of a work of literature—e.g. a poem or novel—to explore the choices made by the author and how they help to convey the text’s theme. It is not simply a book report or a review, but an in-depth interpretation of the text.

Literary analysis looks at things like setting, characters, themes, and figurative language. The goal is to closely analyze what the author conveys and how.

The introduction of a literary analysis essay presents the text and background, and provides your thesis statement; the body consists of close readings of the text with quotations and analysis in support of your argument; and the conclusion emphasizes what your approach tells us about the text.

Mouse over the example below, the introduction to a literary analysis essay on Frankenstein , to learn more.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, protagonist Victor Frankenstein is a stable representation of the callous ambition of modern science throughout the novel. This essay, however, argues that far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as. This essay begins by exploring the positive portrayal of Frankenstein in the first volume, then moves on to the creature’s perception of him, and finally discusses the third volume’s narrative shift toward viewing Frankenstein as the creature views him.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
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At high school and in composition classes at university, you’ll often be told to write a specific type of essay , but you might also just be given prompts.

Look for keywords in these prompts that suggest a certain approach: The word “explain” suggests you should write an expository essay , while the word “describe” implies a descriptive essay . An argumentative essay might be prompted with the word “assess” or “argue.”

The vast majority of essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Almost all academic writing involves building up an argument, though other types of essay might be assigned in composition classes.

Essays can present arguments about all kinds of different topics. For example:

• In a literary analysis essay, you might make an argument for a specific interpretation of a text
• In a history essay, you might present an argument for the importance of a particular event
• In a politics essay, you might argue for the validity of a certain political theory

An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.

An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.

The key difference is that a narrative essay is designed to tell a complete story, while a descriptive essay is meant to convey an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept.

Narrative and descriptive essays both allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays , and similar writing skills can apply to both.

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