ABSTRACT
Every draft I write will need to be rewritten-that’s what a draft is. It’s a start. Then comes the next draft. And the next, and the next. Each draft is what I have so far. Rewriting is implicit in the word draft. (Cooke, 2001, pp. 27-28)
It’s perfectly okay to wait before you start writing about an idea.… But once you know you’re ready, it’s up to you to make a start.… One paragraph is fine. Two paragraphs are terrific. A whole page of writing is heroic. (Fletcher, 2000, p. 40)
You will have to give yourself permission to write badly at first in what historian Neill Irvin Painter refers to as “zero mind drafts.” (cited in Lamb, 1997, p. 142)
The good news is that you will have ample opportunity to make it better. (Jalongo, 2002, p. 55)
In the previous chapter, we focused on invention, or prewriting, often the first stage in the writing process. As we move into the drafting stage, we find that we must blur the lines between these two steps. We discovered in chapter 3 that some writers do their prewriting by drafting, as with discovery drafters. Although many writers prewrite by drafting, others use extensive prewriting strategies coupled with think time to engage in an “essential delay” (Murray, 1989). Still other writers move back and forth between invention and drafting, knowing that the discovery process involved in their writing may reveal a need to return to specific invention strategies.
