havemybloodchild

I would have the conversation with your current faculty and ask their advice.  You've built trust with them, so show them you trust them by asking them for their input.  These people obviously do what they do to help students like you succeed.  They should be open to your concerns and willing to help you through them.  Good luck!

Something that helped me was to email a particular professor ahead of time about the work they've published. Something along the lines of "I was intrigued by your treatment of X in your essay X...." Academic writers work incredibly hard on the intricate process of publishing an article, and then often receive an underwhelming and oftentimes non-existent response from readers in the disciplinary community. Sending these emails demonstrates at least three major items about you: 1. That you keep up on disciplinary literature, 2. That you're interested and invested in that subdiscipline (Object-oriented ontology in Victorian literature; Community literacy in Rhet/Comp, to name two), and 3. That you have a distinct interest in that scholar's particular work. 
After doing this, ideally ahead of time, feel free to mention that you're considering their graduate program for MA/PhD work. Only after. Tell them a bit about yourself, and mention your interests. They'll ideally be able to tell you if you're a fit or not. 
Do this MONTHS ahead of the grad application's due date. It's a low-risk way to get your name out there, at the very least. It helped me get into two top-tier grad programs. 

Omg yes,100%. I’ve had trouble reading for pleasure for a while now because my brain is like “you should only be reading books related to your research topic to improve your SOP!” I am so relieved to just have this whole process over with soon.

Ugh, I submitted my 4th out of 7 apps today, and I'm so fatigued! I'm hitting that point where my apps are all my brain can process. Anyone else feel that thing where your brain shames you for doing anything else (especially fun/silly things) with the time that you could be spending on your apps? Like, I need to rest and do things just for the enjoyment of them, but every time I do, my brain tells me I should be working on my apps instead haha.

@Matthew3957 thanks! taping was SO fun. my episode airs February 5th in case anyone wants to see me be awkward on national television.
i submitted one more and am seeing my LORs come in. feeling now like I could have improved SOP more but i just... no.

Applying to the 2019 cycle of PhD programs, first-time applier. Writing an M.A. thesis at the moment, and have completed my course requirements.
SoP still in work, but has gone through a few drafts, and pretty near finished except for the program-specific paragraphs and some touching up. I have a pretty solid list of programs that I need to finalize; currently looking at 14, but want to narrow this down to 10-12. WS in poor shape, but I have a schedule for completing this, and I hope to get feedback from at least 3 people. Have taken the GRE and TOEFL, and this was by far the easiest for me to actually get done. SoP has put me in an existential crisis (WHO AM I? WHY DOES MY EXISTENCE MATTER?) and WS has brought me to the verge of tears. Not taking the subject test. Will need to get feedback on my CV. So still a long way from being ready to apply...
My interests are theory-centered, focusing on feminism, queer, and disability. Concerned with 20th/21st American/Brit representations of bodies in both poetry and prose. I'm a bit worried about this, because it runs counter to how many departments frame the field/subfield, geographical, and generic divisions. Will have to think how to fill the field/subfield categories in the applications.