It doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned writer or someone who only occasionally writes for work or personal reasons — writing a first draft is hard.
Even if you move past the dread of a blank page, you might find yourself writing and rewriting the same first paragraph over and over. I think I’ve stopped, started, and completely rewritten this one at least six times myself.
So how do you write a first draft?
I find it easier to type GREAT FIRST SENTENCE and then write the sentence that comes after it. You might type FIRST PARAGRAPH and start from there. It takes the pressure off having to craft the perfect beginning for whatever it is you’re writing — and since you haven’t written the piece yet, you may not even know how to introduce your topic or story.
Besides, you’ve left this note for yourself in all caps, so you’ll see it and make changes before you submit the piece.
And because this is a draft — a first draft — you should fully review and rewrite sections of the piece at least once, if not multiple times, until it says all you want it to say in a way that clearly communicates your message to the reader.
As you write beyond the opening, there may be places where you don’t know what to say or what happens next. Here’s where you can turn on your caps lock again and type MORE HERE. Then keep going. The purpose of a first draft is to write down as much as you know. You can always fill in the blanks later. Some writers think of a first draft as the framework on which they’ll eventually build a fully finished piece.
These strategies work for me, and you’ll find plenty of other tips online. I’ll end with a quote so often shared that its true author has been lost: First drafts don’t have to be perfect; they just have to be written.
Jennifer Mattox is the Executive Director of the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning and a professional writer. The Carnegie Center, 251 W. Second St., is a nonprofit educational center offering seasonal writing, publishing, and language classes, among other community programming. For more information, visit CarnegieCenterLex.org.