Law school personal statement + writer's block

Writer’s block is never something students want to experience. If you’re writing your law school personal statement, it can be especially frustrating. There are many different tips you can use to beat writer’s block. But maybe you just need an entirely new approach.

Many students stress over the law school personal statement for a number of reasons. For one, they know just how important it is to write a thoughtful, concise law school personal statement to help them get into their top-choice school. Truthfully, the law school personal statement is one of the most important pieces of writing you’ll ever do. For another thing, many students just don’t know where to begin. Even after reading their prompts, discovering useful tips and advice, and doing ample brainstorming, they’re still stumped for an idea.  Here’s a secret strategy I share with some of my students: pretend you’re writing a letter instead.    While it won’t leave you with the final version of the law school personal statement you’ll send off to your schools, it will generate some useful ideas. Here’s how it works: Instead of focusing on writing a law school personal statement that admission officers will read, instead pretend to write a letter to your new law school roommate. (Believe it or not, Stanford and Harvard have actually included similar topics to this one in their undergraduate college essay prompts!) Brainstorming about the most important aspects your future roommate should know about you may lead to some interesting insights about yourself. For example, this exercise helps some students develop a deeper understanding of why their favorite books have made such an impact on them, how they’ve developed a passion for their favorite past times, and which shared values are most important to them when making new friends. Exploring these and similar subjects a bit deeper might just help you write a complete law school personal statement! Even if it doesn’t produce the perfect law school personal statement, at the very least this exercise will help you uncover some new ideas about yourself.  Until next time, Steve P.S. If you’re still struggling just to get started, be on the lookout for my next article. In it, you’ll find out how following one simple rule can make the law school personal statement-writing process much easier (and how my student used this rule to write her perfect law school application essay). Stay tuned!

Recommended Resources: 1. Law School Admissions Coaching Get personalized 1-1 help on every aspect of the law school admission process -- or just the law school personal statement. 2. Law School Admissions Guide I've written a concise guide to the law school admission process with tips on completing every aspect of your applications from start to finish. It's a small price to pay for a whole lot of guidance, and it's short enough that you'll actually read the whole thing. 3. Law School Admissions Cheat Sheet Quick-reference guide for the law school personal statement, the "Why X?" essay, and the law school résumé. (You can also get it with the LSAT Cheat Sheets.)

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