Maintain your draft’s momentum with these tips
If you’re too busy to complete a draft in one sitting, these tips can help.
When you return to a partly written draft, you may feel as if you’re starting from scratch again. You have lost your momentum because you have no idea what comes next. You can beat this “blank page” feeling by leaving yourself some hints for your next words.
Here are some techniques you can use:
1. Stop after you write the first sentence of your next paragraph. If it is an effective topic sentence, the rest of the paragraph should flow easily.
2. Jot down bullet points outlining what you’ll write after you return. It’s easier to turn bullets into sentences than to pull ideas out of your head in an organized manner.
3. Pull out your mind map, outline, or other notes. If you organized your ideas in writing before you started your draft, you can pull out your notes to ease you back into your draft. For me, this usually means looking at a hand-drawn mind map. You might prefer an outline or some other form of reminder.
YOUR tips?
I’m sure some of you have discovered other tips that make it easy to dive into your incomplete drafts. Please share.
Image courtesy of Zuzzuillo / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
In Susan’s blog class, I learned to use mind mapping to write both blog posts and my monthly newspaper column. Mind mapping reveals all the key points I want to make. It also shows the supporting points I need to include. With a mind map, I am never lost when I return to finish my post.
Tracy,
I am so glad that mind mapping is working well for you. Thank you for taking the time to comment!