I used to draft slowly. It didn’t feel slow – in fact, it felt quite productive. I’d write and write and write and get lots of words on paper – but at the end of the day, I’d look back and read complete garbage.
Other days, I’d be more cautious, trying to avoid the dumpster fire I produced on previous attempts. But that didn’t work well either – I’d constantly try to edit my sentences to make them sound more eloquent and impressive. Result: half a paragraph that took three hours to write.
Why was drafting going so poorly?
My problem was that I didn’t know what drafting actually meant. I thought it was synonymous with writing, typing, getting words on paper. But that’s not what drafting is meant to be. Drafting is creating functional text that’s ready to be revised and polished. In other words, it’s communicating ideas. And that’s not at all what I was doing.
How to draft fast: a practical system
So what to do instead? You probably guessed: just do one thing at a time – in other words, just draft. Here’s how I do it:
Step 1: Know what you’re going to write
That means you need to have done most of* the researching, thinking, and outlining – so you know which questions you’re answering, how you’ll answer them, and where each idea goes
*You don’t have to have done all of the research, thinking, or outlining because that is simply impossible and probably causes a ton of unnecessary perfectionism. Eighty percent done is more than enough.
Step 2: Write without stopping
Give yourself a specific time limit (for example a 25-minute pomodoro session). During this time:
- Write without stopping
- Don’t edit to make your sentence nicer
- Don’t stop to look up a reference
- Just write
If you’ve done a half-decent job in step one, this step should be fairly doable.
Step 3: Use placeholders to avoid getting side-tracked
While you draft, some thoughts will inevitably pop up. Perhaps you’re not happy with a sentence, you can’t remember a specific value, or you’re not entirely agreeing with what you’re writing just now.
Whenever that happens, don’t stop to chase those thoughts, but stay focused on the main train of thought. Instead, capture those asides with a code (such as [ref] for missing reference) or a comment in the margin.
I’ve put together a sheet with cheat codes I use while drafting. Tip: hang it near your desk while you’re drafting so you can maintain your momentum.
Step 4: Draft in sections
There’s no need to draft the whole paper at once. In fact, that sounds horribly overwhelming to me. I like to break it down into manageable chunks. How big those chunks are, depends on how I’m feeling that day:
- An entire section
- One paragraph
- Or some days, just a couple of sentences
Step 5: Take a break
It can be tempting to start editing immediately after finishing (a part of) your draft. But I recommend stepping away for a couple of days. Mental distance will make your edits much, much better.
Tip: finished your draft and ready to polish? Try this short (free) email course that teaches you how to copy-edit your scientific drafts to sound clear, confident, and academic.
When you separate drafting from thinking and editing, drafting becomes much faster, and your sentences flow better, because you’re not interrupting yourself. Try it out with your current writing project – and see how much easier it is to get your ideas on paper.