Quest for Perfection a big stifler

Question

I have faced this many times before in my life, and I think it is relevant when it comes to B-school apps too. The quest for perfection can be a hindrance to your goal. It's true.
We might face the writer's block while writing the essays, trying to get down everything in the best way presentable. The key is to start! Just start with a rough draft, and then strive for perfection along the way, just like a sculptor who starts with a blob of stone, and chips away and polishes it to create a magnificent piece of art.
For everyone out there staring at a blank Word doc, type on. I am doing the same.

cheetarah1980 · Answer

I totally agree with you. Just getting the ideas down in either a brain dump or an outline is a great way to start. My first crack at assessing my career progress was over 1700 words. Ridiculous I know. But it gave me a place to begin and then refine from there. Now I've got it back to under 500 words (only 250 more to cut).

Perfect writing comes from the revisions not the initial draft.

Perfect writing comes from the revisions not the initial draft.

jamifahad · Answer

Absolutely true. Best thing to do is write write and write. Then edit edit edit.....That's what i am doing right now. I wrote essay on "Short-term and long term goal and why this school?" today. Mammoth essay :lol:

canadianchamp · Answer

I just deleted about 80% of the resume I started earlier this summer. Not up to b-school application snuff yet

Good luck to everyone!

cheetarah1980 · Answer

I don't delete vast chunks when I edit. Instead I cut and paste the sections into a notes document. Why? Because something that seems useless one day may contain a hidden gem that you want to use the next day. If I already have it written, I can just put it back into my resume/essay and tweak it for clarity. Cuts down on having to rewrite the same thing over and over and over.

losttraveler · Answer

My approach (15 essays later) has been just to write down my entire essay not adhering to word limits but being a little aware of how much I'm putting in. For example, if you hit page 5... you probably want to start over! I did same thing though, wrote all thoughts, then edit, reread it and count words, cut out more, rinse, repeat. Overall, I spent about 20-30 minutes writing each essay and probably 3-6 hours (depends essay) just editing and rewording to fit into guidelines.

cheetarah1980 · Answer

You are incredible! 20-30 minutes to write 3-4 pages? Your brain and fingers must work at warp speed.

losttraveler · Answer

Ha... no most of my essays are 1-2 pages depending on word count. I am pretty good with getting a 'rough' idea as I went so the most I normally had to trim was about 150 words. I do type fairly quickly and once I get the first sentence on the page... it goes really quick. The first pass is for content not quality.. I use the revisions for quality. I suppose we all have a different approach to it, some outline and gather thoughts... others just start right up (me included) and work from there.

Sampo · Answer

Yeah, I plan on brain-dumping and then editing and making it nice and concise. Remember, most of the essays are just 400-600 words, max. That's not a whole lot of space. The hard part is making that small of a space pack a lot of punch... editing probably should be the part that takes longest, by a significant margin.

Quest for Perfection a big stifler

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