I Have Nothing to Write About (Yes, You Do)
If you've spent weeks staring at a blank document waiting for the "right" topic to appear, Stop! The right topic isn't a thing you find — it's a thing you build, often out of material that's been sitting in your life all along, too ordinary for you to notice it.
1) Understand what a topic is and what it isn’t. Most students come to me with a memory of a significant event, person, object, etc. from their life. What they miss, is a great topic isn’t this memory – it’s what this memory tells the reader about who you are. For example, the topic isn’t something like “The time I made my own prom dress,” but rather, “Once I have a vision, nothing else will do, and I’ll do whatever it takes to see it come to life.” (Read more here)
2) Resist the urge to go with the first thing you think of. You may come back to it in the end but take time to evaluate several different options.
3) Push yourself to do some real brainstorming. I have a brainstorming guide in the Free Resources section of my website. There are exercises that help you generate a list of anecdotes to draw from, but as importantly, they help you examine your values, your personality characteristics, the way you think.
4) Use your family and friends. Ask people who know you two questions:
What adjectives would you use to describe me?
What memories of me stand out to you – even something small?
When are times you remember me struggling or having to solve a problem?
5) Look for patterns. Review your brainstorming and the memories of your friends and family.
Are there themes that emerge? Are the stories about your sense of humor? your independence? your persistence?
Notice how you’ve grown or changed over time? Where has your perspective shifted? What has your sense of humor, your independence, your persistence, taught you?
6) Craft your story. Once you have a clear idea of the characteristics that define you, choose a few moments from your life that show how those traits developed.
None of this works if you’re trying to get it right on the first try. The goal isn’t to land on the perfect topic immediately – it’s to gather enough raw material that a theme has no choice but to emerge. And this takes time and effort. But, if you trust the process more than your first idea, the topic will find you.