Welcome to F1GMAT’s #askAtulJose series. I am Atul Jose. If you recognize that storytelling for essays is not your strength, March is the perfect time to start a personal blog. Today’s question is related to storytelling. The question is:
Q) My storytelling skills are not that great. How can I improve my skills in the shortest time so that I am ready for the Round 1 deadline in September?
I would say – start a blog.
Writing freely and capturing your authentic self requires writing the good lines, the mediocre lines, and even lines you won’t be proud of in a few months. If you write with your actual name, the creative expressions could be misinterpreted by your friends, family, and, worse the MBA admissions team. A better strategy is to use a pseudo name and make sure that your primary network has limited access to the blog. This means not promoting the blog to your friends and finding communities of writers outside your network who would be glad to offer you technical feedback on the use of certain phrases and the overall theme of the blog.
Why the strange strategy?
Just like essays, when shown to family and friends, writing a personal anecdote that features them won’t invite honest opinions about your writing. Also, they don’t want to hurt your feelings and would hesitate to offer constructive criticism. They will be excited about appearing in a story more than judging you on the quality of storytelling. I used to write a personal blog and would generously interpret private moments as creative narratives – often leading to awkward moments with friends and family. They clearly didn’t like some of my interpretations, and eventually, I started self-censoring, and finally, I stopped writing in the public domain under my name.
Writing a Blog is a creative exercise that will sharpen your use of words and give you a certain unique flow for the MBA application essays.
If you want the time invested in writing a blog to be relevant for your MBA admissions essays, here are 10 blog ideas that you can use:
1) My First Failure
Writing about failure is not easy. Once you spend time thinking about the failure and writing about it without any target audience, you will capture phrases that will be unique and could be borrowed for the MBA application essays. Consciously, make sure that the blog is not for the admissions team.
2) The moment I realized that <my_current_profession> is for me
We all have that moment in life when we were about to take a wrong turn into a profession, but better sense prevailed, and finally, you could choose a profession where you were at least in the top 25%. Capture that moment.
3) The moment I realized that <my_current_profession> is not for me
Once you work in the industry or function for 3-4 years, any good candidate will find the problem solving boring. It is just the nature of our curious mind. Think about a project/an event or an interaction that finally gave you the confirmation that you have overstayed in the function/role.
4) My First big success professionally
This could be a creative endeavor or a project that was successful primarily because of your contribution. Focus on how you felt, the challenges, and how you overcame them.
5) My First big success personally
This could be from a non-profit that you supported or a personal milestone like completing a marathon, losing weight, performing in front of an audience and getting laughs or applause, or getting your first customer as an entrepreneur. It could be anything personal that is relevant for you.
6) A life philosophy that has helped me cope with challenging circumstances
Different people manage their stress differently. Some go with honest self-reflection through a silent retreat. Some journal their life every day. Some choose to release stress through exercise. While many takes on new challenges like mountaineering or skydiving or some extreme sport that requires you to face your demons and through the process, you learn a lot about yourself
7) A conflict with a friend/co-worker I regret
It could be a conflict that escalated, a bias in your thinking that clouded your judgment, or it could also arise from a lack of experience in interpreting a customer or an event.
8) How I see myself 5 years from now
Expand on your short-term goals, preferred post-MBA location, and what you like about the city where you want to move
9) How I see myself 10 years from now
Expand on your long-term goal, the milestones you have to achieve in order to reach the goal, and other personal ambitions. Make sure that you capture the ‘why’ also in addition to creating an extensive plan to overcome the obstacles.
10) 10 Things I would change in the society
Focus on the policy, operations, technology, and funding dynamics in the market or the government or your neighborhood. For this blog idea, you can leverage your chosen function to interpret a weakness in society.
If you are from a Finance background, think about the inefficiencies in funding, shortlisting target companies, or other biases prevalent in your industry.
If you are from Marketing – how has social media hijacked the art of branding and the lost art of slogans in advertising.
If you are from a non-profit, you certainly would have a lot of opinions on businesses that create and solve the same problem and the limitations of crowdfunding.
The 10th blog idea should be technical and demonstrate your thinking as a functional expert.
Apart from the 10th blog idea about 10 things I would change in society, keep the narrative casual and personal rather than an essay-like tone.
The reason why I recommend keeping a casual or personal tone is that most of you are good at writing professional emails or memos but not that great at interpreting life events. One reason is that you feel that oversharing or writing a heartfelt interpretation of an event will be ridiculed by the consultant or the admissions team.
The truth is that some form of vulnerability must be captured in the essay to show your human side and the motivations that are driving you to target the ambitious goals for the next 3-10 years. Unless you write a lot of personal interpretations, it would be extremely challenging to start creating such narratives when the deadlines are near.
Or if you need help directly from me in creating narrative, editing or guiding you through the writing process, subscribe to F1GMAT’s Essay Review Service by visiting https://www.store.f1gmat.com/essay-review
