Tips for a Great First Draft
For your first draft, perfection is the enemy. Any collection of ideas around a central theme is a great first draft.
Feel free to do B-minus work. At least at the start.
If you parachute to a target in the middle of a field, you just jump from the airplane in the general vicinity. As you get closer and closer to the target, you keep refining and adjusting. Everything impacts the outcome, but none of it is above “B-minus work” until you get REALLY CLOSE to the end.
Take the pressure off yourself. Let creativity flow. Allow yourself to play with your writing.
Or think of it this way: No baby thinks, “I must walk a mile today” on the day they take their first step. They just keep trying, falling down, and gradually they get stronger. They WILL walk a mile. But not at the very start.
If you’ll do B-minus work, you might find you enjoy the earlier stages of writing much more. And at the very end, go the extra mile, and craft that A+ work that you can choose to do when a project merits that level of effort.
Not all projects — or parts of a project — deserve the same attention. Conserve energy. Go full out when it matters.
It all begins with brainstorming, so let your imagination run wild. Choose your theme and write an outline of anything and everything that might add to your story. Sure, that means you’ll write two or three times what you’ll actually use, but it’s much easier to pare a long essay down than to expand one that’s too short. Get it ALL out on paper (or into your doc).
When you think you’re done, ask yourself where you could write more. Then do it. Start with an outline, then get something more complete on paper.
Young, junior journalists typically gather JUST ENOUGH information to fill the column they’ve been assigned for the newspaper. After all, they have a deadline and and so they work to get that column written as quickly and efficiently as possible.
What do the seasoned, top journalists do? They dig and ask questions. They research. They talk to more people. In the end, they gather 2, 3, or FIVE TIMES the amount of material they need. They KNOW they won’t use most of it. And they collect it anyway.
Why? Because when the journalist gathers ALL they can find on their topic, something magic happens. The cream can “rise to the top.” But these pros know they needed to get the skim milk too. And once they have the cream, the BEST of the BEST, they dump the watery, less tasty part. And you can do that same.
So get going. Write that first draft. And write some more. Be like a journalist interviewing yourself. What else can you share? What other details were there? What did you feel? What did others actually say? Write it all. You’ll have 1000 to 2000 words when you’re done.
