​THE UGLY FIRST DRAFT

​THE UGLY FIRST DRAFT 
​

Something I’ve noticed during my writing sessions with students is the expectation of producing good writing in the first draft. If only things were that simple.  Even literary geniuses admit penning perfect prose the first time around is not going to happen. 
 
Best-selling author Anne Handly talks about the TUFD, or The Ugly First Draft. A wonderful, accurate description of roughly sketching out on paper what you want to say: It’s messy, it’s not beautiful, and its definitely not something you want someone else to see.  This first draft is when you transform your ideas into words, sentences, and paragraphs. There will be spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and probably way too many words. But that’s ok.  It’s all part of the writing process. Even professional writers go through this stage. 
 
Research suggests that different parts of the brain are active during the distinct parts of the writing process. First draft writing is more of a creative process while editing and proofreading tasks, which typically come later, use a different part of the brain. And as anyone who has attended my writing workshops will know, my mantra is  "writing is rewriting".  This maim is not intended to make the writing process appear more onerous. Quite the opposite. I think there is freedom in understanding that writing is a process and that no matter how ugly your text is, you can always improve it. 
 
So be proud of your Ugly First Draft.  It‘s better than no draft at all. ​
​
​

---

Author

By Lesley-Anne Weiling

---

Categories

All
Grammar
Tip

---