At some point, you will need to do the hard work of making letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs appear on that blank screen.

This summer, the Well-Ordered Blog has focused on writing advice for graduate students. Much like a thesis, capstone, or dissertation, this series has turned into a larger project than first anticipated. Unlike those of you working on a thesis, capstone, or dissertation, however, I have no looming deadline for project completion. So as summer fades into autumn, we beat on, boats against the current . . . borne not back but forward . . . into the next writing topic, which is drafting.

What Is Drafting?

Drafting is the part of the writing process in which you take ideas and, in the terminology of Flower and Hayes (1981), “translate” them into written words. If you have done brainstorming or freewriting activities, you will already have written words. If you have done outlining activities, you will have a basic structure in place. Attending to these parts of the writing process can make drafting easier, but at some point, you will still need to do the hard work of making letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs appear on that blank screen.

Flower and Hayes (1981), again, note that “the writer’s task is to translate a meaning, which may be embodied in key words . . . and organized in a complex network of relationships, into a linear piece of written English” (p. 373). You need to get what is in your head onto the page and transform what is in outline or note form into readable prose.

Why Is Drafting Difficult?

Drafting is just writing down your thoughts in logical order. How challenging can that be? Well, Flower and Hayes (1981) are here to affirm your sense that it is actually pretty challenging at times. Translating, they say, demands a kind of “juggling” of rules and practices including understanding genre and form, syntax and language, as well as just forming the letters (which we do nowadays on a keyboard, but typing can be its own challenge).

If you find drafting a challenge, your misery has company beyond the peer-reviewed world of Flower and Hayes. Bestselling author Anne Lamott writes in Bird by Bird that writers do not “go about their business feeling dewy and thrilled. They do not type a few stiff warm-up sentences and then find themselves bounding along like huskies across the snow.” Of her one writer friend who finds drafting easy, she writes “we do not like her very much.”

In a 2023 article called “Obstacles, Facilitators, and Needs in Doctoral Writing: A Systematic Review,” authors Calle-Arango and Reyes identify three main barriers for students in doctoral programs. These barriers might affect any stage of the writing process, but they certainly loom large in the drafting stage. The barriers are poor self-regulation, a negative view of oneself as a writer, and a lack of helpful feedback. I want to spend more time with these barriers (and the corresponding levers the authors suggest), so I will save that discussion for a future post. But I don’t want to leave you with the only minimally comforting news that you’re not wrong if you find this phase of writing difficult.

What You Can Do: Some Tips for Drafting

Set Aside Time

Drafting may be the part of the writing process that requires the most intense focus. If you can at all make it work, block off at least 60-90 minutes for each writing session at this stage. That will give you time to get started and (on good days) get into a groove where you are writing a few usable pages. If you do get into a groove, don’t stop to look up a reference or a fact. Make yourself a note and keep on typing. When it’s time to stop, write a few bullet points about where you are and where you plan to go next – it’s amazing how those great ideas can waft into the ether if you don’t write them down.

Be Consistent

If it’s not a good day, and you only get a few lines written, don’t despair. Just keep coming back. That’s the central point of Bolker’s (1988) Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day. The reason that point is still relevant decades after the book was published is the same reason that Aesop’s timeless fable, “The Tortoise and the Hare” still resonates. Slow and steady really does win the race.

Recognize Drafting as a Process

As with every other part of writing, you should not approach drafting as a single step. Rather, plan to write multiple drafts. That attitude gives you the freedom to let those initial words on the blank page be subpar. Tell yourself you can always go back later and find a clearer way to express am idea, make stronger connections, and even change your argument if necessary. The most productive doctoral writers, according to Sala-Bubaré et al. (2018), see writing as a knowledge-transforming process. That is, they view writing as a way to “learn about oneself as a writer, about the research topic, and about the text at hand” (p. 330).

Find a Friend

Writing is a social and well as a cognitive process. Writing with others can keep you on track by providing accountability and people with whom to troubleshoot barriers. It can also combat impostor syndrome by helping you realize that all writers struggle with similar challenges. Join a writing group. Set up a weekly time to meet a fellow graduate student – even on Zoom – and write together. Go on a weekend writing retreat if you can. At the very least, identify a friend to check in with once a week, whether they are writing or not. Self-regulation is vital, but we all need some external support as well.

How the Well-Ordered Mind Can Help

If you are looking for help with the writing process, external accountability, or time management and productivity tips as you work on your academic writing process, I’d love to talk to you! Set up a free consultation to learn more about how the Well-Ordered Mind can support your graduate journey!

References

Calle-Arango, L., and Reyes, N.A. (2023). Obstacles, facilitators, and needs in doctoral writing: A systematic review. Studies in Continuing Education 45(2), 133–151. https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2022.2026315.

Flower, L., & Hayes, J. R. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College Composition and Communication, 32(4), 365–387. https://doi.org/10.2307/356600

Lamott, A. (2019). Bird by bird: some instructions on writing and life (Second Anchor Books edition.). Anchor Books.

Sala-Bubaré, A., Peltonen, J. A., Pyhältö, K., & Castelló, M. (2018). Doctoral candidates’ research writing perceptions: A cross-national study. International Journal of Doctoral Studies 13, 327–345.

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