We’ve noticed a very common theme when we’re working with applicants:

They think that writing their personal statements for their applications should be painful.

But it shouldn’t be painful at all if you’ve picked the right topic. Picking the right topic if half the battle.

If you’ve picked the right topic (and it’s one you can do justice to in two pages double-spaced), the writing and the storytelling should flow pretty naturally, and it shouldn’t require a gazillion drafts to make it submission-worthy.

So if your essay is done at draft 4, that’s not a sign that you’ve cheated yourself, or that you’ve compromised the admissions outcome. If you’ve done it right, it’s a GOOD sign.

And if instead you’re on draft 14 and it still feels like pulling teeth, that’s a strong sign that you picked the wrong topic, or you’re trying to cram too much into two pages, or it’s a sign that you don’t know when to leave well enough alone. Sometimes it’s because you’re consulting ten different sources, everyone from your mom to your roommate to random people on discussion boards, and you’re getting conflicting advice and you’re trying to make everyone happy. That’s a painful way to go about it, and won’t result in a better essay. More likely, you’ll end up with an essay written by committee, which is never a joy to read.

Another possible diagnosis: If you’re on draft 14 because you were actually done at draft 4 and you can’t keep your mitts off your essay and you keep futzing with it because you’re compulsively feeding the anxiety beast, stop it. You are not helping yourself or making your essay better.

Remember that admissions officers evaluate your entire file holistically. They don’t care if you substitute one equally good word for another in your essay. There really aren’t magic words any more than there are magic beans.

Or maybe you’re trying to get your essay to do the impossible: talk about your motivations for law school, your qualifications, all your cool work experience, look how smart and academic you are, things that make you personally interesting, etc.

Guess what? You can’t. And the essay isn’t expected to do all that. It’s part of a whole application, and admissions officers will review it as a whole. They do not read essays in a vacuum. They also have your resume, and your transcripts, etc. etc. So stay focused. Nobody expects you to do the impossible in your essay. If you wait until the day when you can do all that (or do it well) in two pages double-spaced, you’re never going to submit your applications.

Have enough respect for your essay and the process and your own sanity to treat it as done when it’s done. Otherwise you’re just making more work for yourself with no payoff for that extra work, and — here’s an even bigger problem — you risk making your essay worse, not better. Because every essay hits a tipping point where further changes are neutral and you’re just tinkering at the margins (which is a complete waste of time), and after that tipping point the essay actually declines. By that point, you’ve probably lost all perspective.

If you’re going down rabbit holes with version 14, go back and diagnose the problem. Do you need to revisit the topic? Do you know what you want to say? Are you trying to cram in too much? Are you just feeding the anxiety beast? Are you writing an essay by committee? Are you trying to find magic words?

Once you have diagnosed the problem, you can finish your essay and get it out into the world.