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Tip Of The Day — On drafting

This is part of a series of daily tips for writers, published to share ideas and suggestions on our craft. Everyone will have different advice on writing, so the tip below is just a personal selection which I hope you will find useful. Do share any of your own in the comments.

Don’t be afraid to revise and rewrite your work. It is often necessary to go through multiple drafts before you have a finished product that you’re happy with.

There are few of us who can turn out the perfect product at the first attempt, and most high-quality articles and books are subject to numerous drafts, new versions, and rehashing.

So however hard and frustrating it is, most of us have to revise and amend our first efforts, sometimes with input from an editor, friends or family if it helps, as a fresh pair of eyes often spots things we have missed, or can provide constructive criticism to make the finished product even better.

Of course, these days with word processing, the physical part of producing new drafts is relatively easy compared to the days of typewriters and pen. I remember my father years ago, hammering away on a typewriter, the carbon copies, the Tippex to amend mistakes! Thankfully these days that side of things is much easier.

As a fascinating aside, as a counter-argument to the idea that great works of literature take many months or years to produce, the Beat writer Jack Kerouac is said to have written “On The Road”, a classic about the Beat writer era, at a single sitting. However since he was on amphetamines at the time it is definitely not recommended you copy his approach. More about this story on the link below if of interest:

And more about the Beat Generation of writers:

So to return to the theme of this tip, don’t be afraid to amend your first attempt. As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect!

I hope you found this article useful, and any tips of your own in the comments.

Previous tips:

Day 26 — On Medium etiquette

Day 25 — On using informal language

Day 24 — Put a Tigger in your prose

Day 23 — Dedication — time, place, space

Day 22 — On spell-checking, Grammarly and proof-reading

Day 21 — The five unspoken commandments of Medium

Day 20 — George Orwell’s six tips on writing style

Day 19 — The importance of interaction

Day 18 — Replying to comments

Day 17: Engagement

Day 16- Attention-seeking behaviour — the importance of your first sentence –

Day 15 — Keep it snappy — headlines —

Day 14- Subject selection —

Day 13 — Making time —

Day 12 — Deadlines —

Day 11 — Layout —

Day 10 — Niches for Riches —

Day 9 — Do your own research —

Day 8 — Choosing your subject —

Day 7 — Reverse engineering success —

Day 6 — Planning —

Day 5 — Location —

Day 4 — Dictionary and thesaurus —

Day 3 –Quotations

Day 2 — Mind your language — learning new words

Day 1- The Notebook

As always, thank you for reading.

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