The Epic and The Episodic 

While a personal statement is a piece of creative writing, outlining your story is an important step toward a successful essay. Having a strong outline ensures a narrative structure that acts as a beacon to follow throughout the drafting and editing process. There is not necessarily a correct structure, but there are a couple classics that both allow for flexibility and promote cohesiveness.

The epic structure is one of the most enduring in history. It has been used in everything from Homer's Odyssey to films like Star Wars and The Matrix. Commonly referred to as "The Hero's Journey", it is a great way to structure your personal statement. If you have one primary character strength or core value you want to highlight through one continuous narrative, this is the way to go. You can and should weave in additional character strengths and values along the way, but the defining characteristic of the Hero's Journey Structure is that the events are linked by causality.  

In contrast, the events in an episodic structure are linked thematically. We refer to this as the "Curated Stories Structure." Often used in short story collections like James Joyce's Dubliners or TV shows like "Law and Order", this is also an excellent way to structure your personal statement. If you want to tell multiple stories that highlight one primary character strength or core value this is the right choice. Don't worry, you will weave more in along the way here as well. 

Regardless, watch out for perfectionism at this stage in the writing process. As Anne Lamott, author of the great writing book Bird by Bird says, “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.”

There will be time to revise and polish your essay, but first you have to get something down on paper (or up on the screen).