How to start writing an essay when you can't get going
Nobody has trouble writing the fourth paragraph. The trouble is the first sentence, because it has to be good, and it has to set up everything else. It doesn't, and it won't be the first sentence of the final essay anyway.
Your first step
Open a blank document, paste in the essay question, and type three messy bullet points under it. Spelling doesn't count.
Do only this, for two minutes. When the timer ends you can stop, and it still counts. If even this feels like too much, do half.
Why writing an essay is so hard to start
An essay looks like one task but it's really a stack of them: understand the question, find sources, decide what you think, structure it, write it, fix it. Opening the document asks you to do all of those at once.
There's also the quality trap. When the first thing you write has to be good, writing anything feels risky, so you research a bit more, or tidy your desk. Drafting and editing are different jobs, and trying to do both at once is what stalls you.
After the first two minutes
- Turn bullets into headings. Each bullet becomes a section. Under each one, write one sentence saying what that section argues. That's your outline.
- Write the middle first. Start with the section you know best. Introductions are easier to write last, once you know what you actually said.
- Draft ugly, then edit. Give yourself one session to get words down without fixing anything, and a separate session for editing. Mixing the two is what makes writing slow.
If you're still stuck
- Explain the argument out loud, or in a voice note, as if to a friend. Then type up what you said.
- Set a target of 100 words, not a page. Small targets get hit; big ones get avoided.
- If you're stuck on the question itself, write 'I think the answer is... because...' and finish the sentence three different ways.
