Need a Longer Personal Statement...

You can't just sit down and write it. You need to do planning and preparation first!

Think about all the things you've done that will make you stand out. Write this down as just bullet points, or some people like a spider diagram or mind map. If you think of any good sentences then you can write those too, but at this stage you're not trying to write sentences or anything finished. You might want to look through the [wiki]Personal_statement_library[/wiki] to see what other people included - you're not copying, but it might spark some ideas. You might also want to play with the personal statement builder.

Wrong. If you have a true passion in the subject, you should be able to write the "what interests you about the course?" within minutes of turning on your computer. Granted, the rest may need more planning.

No, you really can't. You should have ideas of what interests you and why you want to study it, but just writing it off the top of your head will produce a mad jumble of words with no logical order. Which is great if it's part of a bullet point list or mind map, but not so good as a first draft like you're suggesting.

I disagree, it depends one one's abilities I suppose.