Struggling in Literature! Help!

[Vexior]

Hello all! First off, I'm a year 12 student aiming for an ATAR of around 97+ in my hopes of entering a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery course next year. This is a desperate need of mine and I am willing to do whatever it takes to reach this goal. I am currently averaging A+ at the moment and I believe I can assume that I'm ranking high if not highest in my sciences and maths.

However. I. Am. Not. Creative.

Therefore my biggest downfall is Literature! I actually enjoy the class a lot and I love to read and discuss. I just can't and never have been able to get my head around essays. I find them difficult/impossible to start unless I'm under SAC conditions and this in itself stops me from studying for the class! This in turn has lead me to a Literature average of B+ which I think would rank me around 4-7 in the class which makes me nervous and uncomfortable.

I'm going to go personal here because I really do need to find a way to improve my literature marks. I have an anxiety disorder which manifests itself as perfectionism amongst other things which I would say is the reason behind my left sided brain (I wish I was creative..)

So Tl;Dr, I can't start essays, or write them at all and I really feel like I'm in a massive predicament. If my Literature grades don't improve soon I might lose my chance at medicine! (For a good 3 years.. Which is far too long!)

Any help at all would be most appreciated. How did all you other left sided students survive this hurdle or a class?

Worriedly,
Vexior

[LeahT]

When I really can't be bothered starting an essay, I set myself word limits, and then reward myself. So, 15 minutes on facebook/youtube for every 250 words, or each paragraph or something (this is my ten minute break since I've completed 5 of ten essay plans xD). You tend to loose a bit of the flow, but if you've made a good plan then it's not too bad, and especially if it's a requirement, at least you've got something on the page. The key to this is having a quiet space to yourself as well, without any distractions - don't do it with friends around or the TV on, you're too easily distracted.

My other advice is, trust your writing skill, and don't spend a lot of time perfecting one sentence of paragraph. If you tend to get anxious and need things to perfect, it can be relaly counterproductive because you spend a lot of time getting tiny bits right, instead of getting lots down and fixing it up later.

Finally, I know a lot of people, especially teachers, will tell you that your literature essay doesn't need to be structured, but if you're into formulas, you might find it easier to think of your essay as a formula, or use a template. For example, 'the author explores [theme/issue/contention] in [scene/character] by [technique/phrasing], for example [quote ]' Literature doesn't have to be creative, as long as you're getting your ideas down in a cohesive manner.

I don't know if that helps, but I hope it did

[Menang]

Just a quick suggestion.

I'm not sure how perfectionism works, but maybe you could try doing one paragraph at a time? (One passage at a time)
Don't do an entire essay - just read a passage of your text and start closely analysing it randomly. No intros, no conclusions, you don't even need an interpretation if you don't want to. Just work the text to gather details that lead to a possible meaning. And if you need to perfect it, craft that one passage until you're happy, but just work on that one paragraph.

[rama235]

Don't focus on the structure at all. You're left brain dominant, so your thoughts naturally flow in an orderly manner. all you have to do is connect pen to paper and let your thoughts arrive on paper. As long as your points are clear and as detailed as a prac's conclusion, and you can read it without thinking, 'wait, what just happened, how did i get here from that', you will ace it
Writing as a left-brain dominant lit student myself

[Vexior]

Thanks for the replies so far! I honeslt can't thank you three enough, those are all wonderful ideas that I will put to practice!

@Leah I LOVE your idea of turning it into a formula. I understand I can't create a reusable essay template but even just having something like that to aid in the introduction or conclusion could prove ivaluable to me. Anyone have. Resource I could turn to for this sort of thing?

@Rama I know what you mean about the 'thought flow'. I am able to write a complete essay under SAC conditions due to this but at the same time I feel that it is my downfall and the reason I get B+ as my marks so constantly. Not improving.. Just flowing..

Thank you all again!