Many people find it difficult to start writing an essay. It's truly challenging to start anything from scratch when you have only a clean page and a general idea of the final result. Let's find out what are the main problems to start an essay, and what tips you can use to solve them.
Difficulties with Start Writing an Essay
In your life there can be many different reasons that make beginning to write difficult. Starting with global problems that impact mental health and ending with notifications on the phone that distract you just the moment you start to type the first word of your essay. Let's consider the main problems you can face and what to do with them.
- Lack of ideas
You can put off later your essay again and again because you simply don't know what to write. A lack of ideas leads to frustration and wasting time until the minute you have the very bare minimum of time to write your text. What can you do in such a case? Read! Remember, the ideas don't arise from nowhere. Read something related to your topic, and search for examples of the essay on the web. You can find many argumentative, creative, expository, narrative, or other types of papers you need. Read them to give your brain some base on which it can develop your own essay.
- Tiredness
If your thoughts are slow, phrases and sentences you come up with are clumsy, and you simply feel tired, do yourself a favor and take a rest. Ok, you might not have enough time for that, but even 20 minutes can make a difference. Just make it a good rest. Don't start scrolling social media, even though this kind of rest is always tempting. Your brain doesn't rest when it is forced to perceive so much information. Meditation can be a good alternative, but don't be sad if you cannot do that. Make yourself a cup of tea, sit comfortably, listen to music, and allow your thoughts to flow.
- Perfectionism
You can say that you're not a perfectionist, but if you start writing again and again because you don't like your first sentence, perfectionism still can be a problem. Even though you might not like your first sentence or the way you start a paragraph in an essay, leave it for later. It's better to finish the paper as is and then edit it as many times as you need than spend an hour searching for perfect formulations. You can spend as much time for revision as you need but it's impossible if an essay is not written.
- Distraction
Unfortunately, the law of meanness works, and when you need to focus on the essay, someone will always text you or come to your room to talk. Writing the text itself doesn't take a lot of time. Preparation and getting the ideas take much longer than that. However, when you're ready to write, put the phone on mute, ask your family or roommates to not disturb you for a little while, and start off an essay.
Tips for a Good Start
Of course, the basic things for a good beginning to write an essay are your good mood and clear head. Except for that, you can use these tips to make your creative process less challenging.
Find quotes. If you have a deal with an academic paper or any type of essay for which you need to cite something, do it first. Find your sources, or take a book or an article to quote and find what you will directly or indirectly cite in your paper. Quotations are very useful things to make up the whole structure of your essay. Also, it's much better to know how many words you have to cite to manage the overall word count of your paper.
Make an outline. You don't need to bother yourself with the full outline including hook, informative long sentences, and all that stuff. Just make a basic plan of what you're going to write. It can be simple, short, and written in a way that you're the only one who can understand what those words and abbreviations mean. However, it's much easier to start writing when you have a plan for the whole thing and you know what you will have in the end. And it's less challenging to find words to start an introduction when the base for your essay is ready.
Read before writing. This is especially useful when you have no problems with an outline, and have a general idea of what you want to say in your paper, but don't feel confident about your style. An example of academic writing is the best way to solve this problem. Without deep analysis and reading theories, people can intuitively follow the example of necessary style when reading text in that style. If you feel the need for personalized examples of the paper, you can always use a quick essay writing service like FastEssay to get it online. So, when the citations and plan are ready, read the text you find good writing in the academic style or any other you need for your essay. It will help to adjust to this type of writing and make it yourself.
Starting an Essay Isn't So Challenging
The tips and advice from above can help students or any other people who need to write an essay with a good start. It doesn't matter if you need to write an essay about yourself, claim your opinion in the text, or create an academic paper on a professional topic. If you have a plan, it will be an essay for you to write any body paragraph, start a conclusion, or finish the introduction with a thesis statement. When you have a proper mood, a general idea, and a plan, you can create several hooks and choose among these options instead of feeling that making the first sentence is difficult. Use the tips as good ways to start your paper and end it brilliantly!
