Organizing and Writing the First Draft

Organizing and Writing the First Draft

Current Position

At this point in the writing process you have completed your research and developed an outline for your first draft.

Writing the First Draft

Writer’s Block

Sometimes the most interesting part of developing a document is the research leading up to it. Yet despite a mind full of ideas and a well developed outline, the hardest part of writing the first draft is actually starting it. This condition, which all writers fall victim to, is known as writer’s block.

Most writers develop strategies to overcome writer’s block; the following are some of those strategies.

Strategies for Writing the First Draft

Time-Boxed First Draft

The time-boxed first draft strategy is effective for those who work well under pressure.

Give yourself a limited amount of time to develop your first draft. Discipline yourself to write the draft within this strict time-box. Once your time is up, step away from the draft.

The ability to select an effective time-box coincides with level of writing skill.

Work in Reverse

The work in reverse strategy works well for those who have defined a clear purpose for their document.

First, develop a brief paragraph summarizing the purpose and final point of your paper. This paragraph becomes your conclusion. Second, write a few paragraphs supporting the purpose of your paper. This becomes the body of your paper. Finally, re-write your conclusion paragraph

Work from Inside Out

The work from inside out strategy works well for those who have a general subject field for their document but are still unclear on what their document will conclude. Occasionally writers will find they must first begin writing about their topic before they discover the purpose of their writing.

Your outline likely summarizes points you want to use in the body of your document. By transforming these points into the body of your document, your document’s purpose may reveal itself.

Build in Quality

Step through your first draft sentence by sentence. Ensure each sentence is a self-enclosed statement that can exist on its own outside of your document.