Stage 2 of the Writing Process: Drafting

In a previous post, I discussed the first stage of the writing process: prewriting. Prewriting is coming up with an idea, doing your research, and gathering your resources.

In today's post, I'm going to discuss the 2nd stage of writing: drafting or writing the first draft.

This is the part of the writing when I tell my students that you just need to sit down, shut up, and write. This is the part where you're getting your ideas out on paper (or a digital document). 

When drafting you don't worry about any of the following:

• spelling
• grammar
• usage
• mechanics
• sentence fluency
• word choice (to some degree)

Just put your butt in a chair, gather all of your materials around you, and just start writing.

Ideally, I will write for at least thirty minutes, stop, take a five-minute break, come back to writing. I'll do this for at least 4 sessions (2 hours) before taking a longer break or perhaps stopping and doing something else for a while. 

But whether I come back to in a couple of hours or even a day, at this point, I just don't worry about good qualities of writing. At this point, I just want to get my ideas on paper.

While it's easy for students to draft, many of them consider this last step to publishing.

Ibn the next section, I will discuss that thorny rose: revision.