Lesson 7
From Notes to First Draft
Use the one-sentence test, draft fast, then edit from the top down.
A draft is something to work on
Aisha has a folder of notes about her mum’s care-home fees, and a family WhatsApp group waiting for “the update”. She has written and deleted the first sentence four times. Each time she tries to make it right, she stops writing.
She’s writing and editing in the same breath. Writing makes the material; editing judges it. Try to do both in the same moment and each blocks the other. Some people find their point by writing freely first, and that’s fine, as long as the judging comes afterwards.