The bad first draft.

No one writes great copy the first time they sit down to write. And most of us don’t do it on the second draft either. Which means you can’t worry about the quality of your ideas or the quality of your writing as you’re doing it. You just have to get started.

The idea of the shitty first draft was first shared by Anne Lamott, in her book about writing, Bird by Bird. She said that “all writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts.”

Here’s why this is important. When you give yourself permission to write poorly, you not only get started faster, but you can get all the ideas out of your head and down on paper. It doesn’t matter if they’re good or bad, you’re just getting them out of your head. No one is going to see them.

Don’t edit as you write. Don’t even go back and correct spelling mistakes at this point. Just get the words down on paper. You can cut later. You can add later. You can rewrite, rework and redo later.

The bad first draft is just the first step. With this course we’ve provided several proven templates to make writing that first draft easier. They’re loose outlines that will provide some structure as you let the ideas pour out.