How to plan and draft your writing

Most professional writers plan before they write and write multiple drafts before their work is published.

JK Rowling used handwritten plans to work out her ideas and plot for the Harry Potter novels, while the poet Emily Dickinson used to draft some of her poems on the back of envelopes!

Key learning points

• Plans are a thinking space. They are not marked and do not need to be well presented. This means you can put all your ideas into them and then cross out anything that becomes unimportant. The ideas you come up with do not need to be perfect.

• Planning helps you order and structure your ideas, arguments and notes into a clear and organised text.

Planning can help you organise your ideas before you start writing your text. This is especially important for longer pieces of writing that need a clear structure. A plan can also focus you on the purpose of your text.

You might use a plan for:

• a longer fictional narrative, like a short story
• a longer non-fiction piece, like a news article or speech
• an extended project, for example a detailed project on an artist’s life

A good plan can:

• organise all the important information, idea, notes and evidence onto one page
• help you visualise the whole task or plot
• save time
• stop you worrying about forgetting or ing everything while writing
• highlight gaps in your knowledge or arguments

Plans can come in a variety of layouts:

Spider diagrams and bullet points are suitable for short pieces of writing and writing under timed conditions such as exams. They take the least time and space on the page to produce.

Plans that use more detailed sections, like mind maps, tables and flowcharts work best for longer pieces of writing, like essays or coursework. These writing projects have longer deadlines and take days, weeks or months to produce.

The purpose of the task should always be the focus of every plan. This is why many plans place the question or title of the task at the centre or as the heading.

A fast first draft is when you quickly write all of the ideas in your plan into an essay form. The best way to create a fast first draft is to use the ideas from your plan and put them into the order you think they make the most sense in. This is useful if you are writing in exam conditions and only have a limited time to complete a piece of writing.

Key tips for a fast first draft:

• Develop a good plan that identifies the purpose of your task
• Follow the plan without editing it as you go
• Tick off the items in your plan as you write
• Ensure you read the question or purpose of the task each time you begin a new section/ paragraph to avoid going off topic
• Put pen to paper or fingers to a keyboard and write

The two parts to writing fast:

1. The thinking which is done when planning and editing.
2. The doing which is done when writing.

You will yo-yo between each of these two parts. As you write, you may think of other ideas that need to come later in your writing, put these into your plan so that you don't forget them.

After using a plan to write a first draft, it is common to revise the draft. This is a redraft and it is used to improve and proofread your work.

Redrafts enable the writer to:

• correct grammatical, punctuation and spelling mistakes
• remove any unnecessary repetition
• change the order of paragraphs
• reflect and improve the quality of the work
• make sure key information has not been missed
• make sure the purpose of the text has been met

How to redraft your writing

1. Annotating – Start by annotating your first draft. Annotating means to add notes and marks around a text. As you read through your first draft, add annotations to mark where any changes need to be made or details added.

2. Re-writing – The next stage is to write out another copy of your text, using the annotations to guide where the changes should be made.

3. Proofreading – The final stage is proofreading your draft and correcting any mistakes that were missed.

Redrafts provide you with the scope for improving the quality, content and structure of a piece or body of work. One way to accomplish this is by improving the vocabulary by:

• Using the correct terminology.
• Using a thesaurus to replace words with punchier, more effective or sophisticated substitutes.
• Shortening writing by removing overly wordy sentences or unnecessary words.

While attempting to improve your vocabulary through the use a thesaurus do not be tempted to show off your writing prowess by using vocabulary that is too complex for what you want to say.

When words do need to be changed, make sure they add value to what you’re saying. Make sure the word fits into what you mean, matches the mood and tone, and does not ruin the pace and rhythm of the text.

For example, see how substituting the adverb changes the meaning:

• Luis contentedly accepted his present.
  He is not too fussed. Luis sounds easy to please.

• Luis happily accepted his present.Score! Luis sounds pleased.

• Luis graciously accepted his present.Oops, Luis doesn’t sound happy. Is he just being polite?

Reading aloud is a fantastic, quick and easy solution for spotting:

• typos (typing errors)
• spelling mistakes
• missing words
• punctuation errors
• unclear sentences
• incorrect paragraphing and formatting

If you cannot read aloud then whisper it or use the Speak feature on your device with your headphones on.

Reading aloud allows you to hear what your writing sounds like. When reading aloud you will need to follow closely what’s written. If sentences are too long (as they’re missing commas or full stops) then you will quickly notice. Equally, when words are missing or in the wrong order, then you may verbally trip over them.

Pace and tone are also best heard when reading aloud. Both come from the punctuation used, the length of sentences and the vocabulary used.

For example, see how reading aloud the sentence below highlights spelling and punctuation errors. It also results in the sentence being edited by removing unnecessary words or replacing them with more suitable ones.

Bailey the Labrador stood by the door he wanted his best mate Jason the poodle to met him outside to play.

Bailey, the Labrador, whined by the door**.** He wanted his best mate**,** Jason the poodle, to meet him outside to play.

Commas separate clauses and change the pace by usually slowing things down. You can also hear where a sentence ends, therefore, where to place the full stop.