All work, whether it is writing reports, plans, presentations, speeches, scripts, advertisements or marketing communications should begin as a rough draft.
Why? Writing is an ongoing process.
There is no such thing as writing, just re-writing.
The greatest benefit of drafting is it frees you from having to structure, so that you can create uninterrupted. How can the piece flow if you’re constantly worried about sentences, construction and spelling?
So the short answer is NO. Drafting is NOT a waste of time.
A rough draft should be done without particular attention to paragraphing, spelling, grammar repetition or whatever. Ignore the potential errors that would ultimately ruin a finished piece if they remained in place.
Just write.
It should be a brain-dump.
Use this as a rough guide map for the first draft:
- Set your working method in place.**
- Start to write.
- Try not to back-read more than is necessary to pick up the thread and ensure continuity.
- Do not even consider any structural faults such a spelling, grammar or repetition that may occur as you dump the words on the page.
- Put it aside for a period of time. Forget it, put it right out of your mind.
- Return to the work with a good dictionary and thesaurus.
- Be prepared to be ruthless.
Remember, editing is where the great and hard work is done.
And, there is no prescribed number of edits. Or rather drafts. Readability is the ultimate goal; that being, to get your reader to read on.
Editing will always result in additions and alterations of a great or small nature. How great these are depends on the individual. Some may make five drafts – an original altered and corrected four times, making substantive changes each time. Others only a few.
But all should start as a rough draft.
** So what’s the difference between a draft and a working method or process? Well that’s another post again!
Has this helped free you to do rough drafts (brain-dumps) rather than thinking it needs to be perfect the first time?
Please leave a comment and let us know.
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