Fed up with the number of complete re-writes you have to do of your papers or proposals?

I suggest you delay writing until the last viable moment.

« What? Is she really telling me to procrastinate until my only option is a one-and-done draft? I don’t need that kind of advice. I do that already and the outcome is horrible! »

No. I’m not telling you to procrastinate. I’m not telling you to delay working on your writing project. I’m telling you to delay the actual writing.

So what’s the difference?

Working on a writing project involves much that has nothing to do with writing:

• Brainstorming ideas (possibly with others)

• Getting clear on the story you are trying to tell.

• Trying out different outlines. Discussing them with co-authors, peers, supervisors, anyone who will listen.

• Making a storyboard of your project with any tables and figures you will use.

• Only once your story is clearly outlined and you know where you are going, writing the first draft …

• … then revising it.

If you follow this process, will will spend much less time writing prose, and your first draft will not have any major structural problems so should require only line-editing revisions.

Take a leap of faith: try this process on your next piece of writing.