I love essays. They are my favorite part of school. When I'm given them, it's basically the teacher giving me points for writing down my thoughts, speaking my mind. It's awesome.

How does one go about writing an essay? Some teachers will suggest that you must have x number of drafts, the first just being a sketch and so forth. I respectfully disagree. I believe that you will need only one draft for many occasions. Here, I'll explain:

When you write an essay, you already have a general idea of what your opinion on the subject is. You begin with certain facts to work with. From there, it's a logical process. It's like a story that writes itself. You may foresee where it's going, often that is inevitable, but that's okay. Stephen King said in "On Writing, a Memoir of the Craft" that writing is like archeology. You have your tools, and the story is a fossil. The entire fossil is there, and you see some of it, but you just have to brush away until you see the entire thing. With an essay, it's the same principle. The structure, the thought process, is there, you just have to be there to write it down.

When a teacher tells me to write an outline, I think "get real". One should have an outline in their head already and know what they want to say. If you don't, then it's still no big deal. You don't need the outline anyways, because then you can just write and see where it takes you.

However, if you take pencil to paper or start typing and you only have a small statement, chances are you don't see the entire fossil. You see the head and the tail, the beginning and the end, but you don't see all that's in between. The basics may be understood but there's still more to be said. Still, I don't heed to the teacher's advice of creating a list of things I have to say. If I can't write much, then chances are I don't know enough on what I am talking about and will either have to study more or understand the subject better. What more should the reader understand?

This is usually where a second draft is written. Go back, think it over, and write what you think, or you could talk to someone (it could be yourself) about the subject. Try to make it a conversation where you kind of ramble on. Think back on the conversation. If a short, insufficient essay was written, then chances are that you said more than what you wrote.

For those of you who read my entries regularly, if any such people exist, then you might notice that with me the term "essay" sort of equates with "journal". I'll be honest and say that that's exactly how I approach an essay. I don't see why not. When we journal we right down our thoughts and experiences, usually a bit more personal than an essay, but still the same. When I write an essay, I put myself into it, and make it part of me. Sometimes a teacher will ask to write a page on something personal, in which the line between journal and essay is completely gone.

I consider an essay healthy. I think that it's healthy to put it down my thoughts on paper. I don't know who I would be without it. I wouldn't go insane, but I'd feel less like I made my mark, and I would feel less like I'd composed my thoughts and beliefs.

So, yeah. I like journals, I like notes, I like essays, and I like this blog.

Live long and prosper.