Module Content

Now that you've spent a little time expanding on:

• Your Challenges + Effects

• What you did about them

• What you learned

... It's time to write your first draft.

Here are three ways to make that happen:

OPTION A:

If you're working on your own and want to do a simple draft in 30 minutes, try this:

Go to the "Full Outline" page in your workbook and paste in all the bullet points you've brainstormed, like this:

Challenges:

• Domestic abuse

• Alcoholic stepdad

• Little brother Fernando's birth

• Learning I was undocumented

Effects:

• My brother and I shared the mental strain

• Father was arrested

• Money was tight

• Mom worked two jobs

• My brother and I took care of one another

• We kept to ourselves when dealing with financial and medical issues

• I avoided going on certain school trips

• At times I was discouraged from meeting new people

• My grades started to slip

What I did about it:

• Took care of my youngest brother

• Became my own teacher

• Learned how to fix a bike, swim, socialize

• Found a job to help pay bills

• Improved his grades

• Broke a school swimming record

• Learned to play instruments

• Became the first student in my school to pass the AP Physics 1 exam

• Took a leadership role in clubs

• Tutored and counseled friends and peers

What I learned:

• Inspired to help others a lot more

• Realized there's a lot more I want to do

• Want to continue supporting my family

• Need to feel free—not just for them, but for me too

And guess what? That's your outline.

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Action Item: Set a timer for 30 minutes and write your first draft based on this outline. To keep everything in one place, you can do this where it says "First Narrative Draft" in your workbook. Need more time? Take a 5-minute break, then write for 30 minutes more. Repeat until your draft is done.

Some Tips As You Begin Writing:

1. Don't worry too much about your opening right now. Many students get hung up on the opening and never find out if the middle of their essay can work, which is what we need to know. Just write a simple opening and move on. We'll revise it on the second draft.

2. Expand as much as you can on the second (what you did) part as well as the third (what you learned) part, as these are the sections colleges will be especially curious about.

3. While ultimately your essay will be about a page, if this first draft ends up being longer, that's fine. Don't worry too much about word count right now—just write.

OPTION B:

If you have a partner or mentor nearby, and prefer to share with them what you have so far before you start ...

Consider sharing your Feelings and Needs Exercise with them and then have them tell your story back to you. Here's a video that shows how to do that.

Once you do that, create a bullet point outline like the one I describe above.

Then set a timer for 30 minutes and write your first draft based on that outline. Need more time? Take a 5-minute break, then write for 30 minutes more. Repeat until your draft is done.

Again: Don't worry too much about your opening; expand as much as you can on the "What I Did" and "What I Learned" sections, and don't worry about word count right now.

OPTION C:

If you want a slightly more advanced option (and have at least an hour to work on it) ...

Identify the following elements in your story:

• Inciting Incident: The moment it all started. This grabs our attention—it might even be in your first sentence. It could be an unexpected event, a phone call you received, or a moment that would change your life as you knew it. Often this makes the reader wonder, What will happen next?

• Status Quo: Give us some context. Help us understand why this event—whatever it may have been—was such a big deal. Was the initial moment (your Inciting Incident) something that happened out of the blue, or was it a long time coming?

  Note: Often the Inciting Incident happens chronologically after the Status Quo, but an Inciting Incident can work well as a hook. I'll point you to a link with some examples below.

• Raise the Stakes: What happened next? What impacts did this event have on you? Did things get worse? If so, what made them worse? This can create more suspense or tension in your story.

  Keep in mind that all this (Status Quo + Raising the Stakes) happens in the first ⅓ or ½ of your story, so up to about a half page so far.

• Turning Point/Moment of Truth: When did you decide to do something about it? And what made you decide to take action? Usually, this comes right around the middle of your essay.

• Falling Action: What else did you do? This helps us understand how you took action to overcome your challenge.

• New Status Quo: How did things turn out? What did you learn? This is the insight or lesson you gained from the experiences you've described.

Here's an example of what this format looks like in Adrian's essay:

• Inciting Incident: While Adrian is brushing his teeth, his father is arrested for domestic abuse.

• Status Quo: His father had hurt his mom physically and mentally, and the author and his brother had shared the mental strain. "It's what had to be done," he writes.

• Raising the Stakes: This happens throughout the entire second and third paragraphs, which describe how living without a father meant money was tight. Things improved for a while after his mother remarried, but his stepdad's chronic alcoholism (raise the stakes) plus a new little brother (raise the stakes again) made things even tougher. As if that weren't enough, the author raises the stakes even further by revealing that his family was undocumented at the time.

• Moment of Truth: At his lowest point, he decides to do something about it. "I grew determined to improve the quality of life for my family and myself," he writes, then goes on to tell us all of the amazing things he taught himself, the skills he learned, and interests he pursued. It's inspiring.

• New Status Quo: Remember that the initial status quo was the author doing "what had to be done." Not so, by the end of the essay. In the final lines, he writes, "I'll do as much as I can from now on. Not because I have to. Because I choose to."

To learn more about how this structure works, including an example from a movie (Finding Nemo), check out this podcast starting at 17:05.

For examples of essays that used this structure, check out the "Raising Anthony," "Easter," and "The Little Porch and a Dog" essays here.

And the same tips apply if you use this option:

1. Don't worry too much about your opening.

2. Expand as much as you can on the "What I Did" and "What I Learned" sections.

3. Don't worry about word count right now.

Why You Should Write Your First Draft Within 24 Hours of Brainstorming

You've got lots of ideas right now, and if you put off writing your first draft, you're likely to forget some of them, the way we sometimes forget dreams. Trust me, I see it happen every year.

So get started right now, if you can—even if it's just for 30 minutes.