I talked about getting the writing process started with some prewriting strategies in my last post, so now we get to put the products of those strategies to use for everybody’s favorite part of the writing process, drafting! This critical stage of the writing process allows us to finally transform our projects from small kernels of ideas in our heads to a complete expression of whatever our purpose might be.
“Due tomorrow? Do tomorrow.”
For many busy writers, drafting might be the alpha and omega of the writing process. Through my first two years at DePaul, I lived by the motto Due tomorrow? Do tomorrow, which often left me staring at a blank Word doc at 9 pm wondering how I was going to hammer out a paper by 11:59. I didn’t break this habit until I read an essay in my creative writing class that inspired me to slow down and give myself time to get my writing right.
If you’ve ever had a cool writing teacher, you might’ve read Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts.” If you haven’t yet, then I highly recommend that you do. As much as I would love to suggest that when we take time to brainstorm, mind-map, or construct an outline, the writing then comes easy, the truth is that sometimes it just doesn’t. But as Lamott proudly proclaims, “Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it,” and so we must simply do it.
Getting Started
You probably wouldn’t try to build a house without a blueprint. Even though writing might be difficult to start, having a foundation at least ensures that you’re not going in clueless and hoping for the best. If you give yourself enough prep time, the stakes of drafting an essay, poem, or research paper are low, and you can afford to make mistakes. In fact, you should make mistakes. Identifying weaknesses in our first drafts and then fixing them is how we come to the “good second drafts and terrific third drafts” that Lamott describes. While the general advice that I or Lamott might offer is to simply write, having some direction might be helpful for writing your next (or last) paper.
Getting Inspired
- Review: If you took advantage of the prewriting process, then you already have a foundation for your draft. Spend some time rereading your notes, texts, outlines, or mind maps to refresh those ideas before you start writing.
- Setting: Your environment can really factor into your concentration. If the space where you normally write isn’t working for you, or if you get stuck in a rut, try a new location. I recommend writing somewhere that is moderately quiet and isn’t your room/bed. Having separate spaces for work and for rest will give you a buffer zone between your writing sessions to relax and reflect.
- Time: As students and generally busy people, getting a head start on a writing project can be much easier said than done. But giving yourself time and space to work through drafts can help produce some of your strongest writing. If you have a looming deadline, try giving yourself daily or weekly time blocks that work for you. Taking breaks between sessions and drafts allows you time to process and return to the writing with fresh eyes.
Writing the Draft
When you start writing, be sure to focus on content rather than form. The drafting process is about getting your ideas expressed more fully than they were in the prewriting stage. So, try not to worry too much about making the writing “sound” good–you can (and should) always revise and edit later. To get your ideas down on the page, you might take a few different approaches.
- Top-Down Approach: Starting the project from the top down means starting from the introduction, or first line, of whatever writing you’re working on. For some writers, coming up with a strong introduction and thesis statement can guide them through the rest of the paper since it provides a kind of outline.
- Building Block Approach: While the top-down approach is effective for those who think sequentially, the downside is that you might find yourself stuck trying to write a strong hook or struggling to introduce a paper that hasn’t been written yet. The building block approach essentially encourages you to consider your project as a set of blocks. You can start from anywhere that makes sense to you and connect the pieces later. Having an outline prepared can make this approach much easier and help you stay organized even if you aren’t starting from the top.
- Experiment (and Save): Between writing sessions, or as you write, you might be inspired to try something different. As blossoming writers, it is always beneficial to experiment with our approaches in order to learn what works and what doesn’t. Be sure to save and backup each new version of your draft as a separate file so that you can compare your changes later.
Even though you should not aim for perfection on the first try, you should still try to make your first draft the strongest that it can be. Try to include all your pieces of evidence, a thesis, an introduction, and a conclusion. These will all likely change as you write and rewrite your next drafts, and I encourage you to welcome those changes. Don’t be afraid of starting over if inspiration strikes. Writing about an idea you’re passionate about will make the drafting process much easier and will likely lead to a more fulfilling product.
So, before you sit down to write your next project, consider these questions: what are the elements that you need to prosper in the drafting stage? Where do you work best and could a change in setting help you? And finally, how much time do you need to produce the strongest work you can (i.e. short intervals versus long stretches of time)?