How to draft fast without writing garbage (a 5-step system for scientists)

I used to write and write, only to end up with pages of garbage. Or Iโ€™d get stuck trying to make every sentence perfect โ€” and produce almost nothing. Turns out, I wasnโ€™t drafting. I was just overthinking. Once I learned what drafting actually means everything changed. Hereโ€™s the simple system that helped me write faster and think clearer.

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Why you should focus on the writing process, not just the finished journal article

"Write the abstract first," or "start with the methods". I see this type of advice often in academic writing: it tells you what to do, but not how to do it โ€“ leaving you wondering what exactly youโ€™re supposed to do. Here are some pieces of advice Iโ€™ve seen a lot, and why they tend to fall short in practice:

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Back in Feb 2025 (+ 10 writing resources to keep going)

In my last newsletter, I wrote that I was going to keep sending newsletters, even though I'm going on maternity leave soon. Turns out, that was a wildly optimistic plan ๐Ÿ˜…. So, hereโ€™s what Iโ€™m going to do instead: Iโ€™ll share an overview of the writing resources currently available to you as a subscriber. Let's have a look!

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Why creativity helps to write an interesting Discussion section (+ 3 tips to get started)

Creative thinking is essential for developing interesting new conclusions. Yet, as scientists, weโ€™re often not actively trained in the divergent thinking skills needed for this. Hence, why Discussion writing is so hard. With practice, prior knowledge, and a mindful inner critic, we can foster creativity and make that Discussion easier to write.

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Structuring your writing process: 6 stages to produce more coherent papers

The paper writing process comes in six stages: researching, prewriting, drafting, copy-editing, mechanical editing, and revising. By learning to recognise these, you can plan your process more effectively and avoid common pitfalls such as irrelevant side-quests and the perfect sentence vortex.

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