The natural writing process
Reflections on the natural writing process, its difficulties, and expectations.
Many content writing professionals focus on terms like strategic writing, marketing content planning, and other writing structures sold as recipes for success, such as initial prompts and keywords.
But what about the natural writing process?
Natural writing is not romanticized at all and presents its difficulties, challenges, and triumphs.
Many experienced and professional writers face difficulties when writing, such as writer's block, perfectionism, stress, or simply the feeling that nothing is good or makes sense. Spoiler alert: this is completely normal.
As Ann Handley reminds us in her book, we want the first draft to be perfect. But that's not how it works. The first draft is just a jumble of words, loose ideas, disconnected sentences. Grammar, logic, fluency… they're not always there. And that's okay.
The first draft is fundamental to the creative writing process, even if it doesn't make any sense at first. Through it, we can unleash creative thinking, discover new ideas, and relieve the pressure on the front lines.
We poured all our knowledge, feelings, and opinions on the subject onto paper, and so, instead of having to work staring at a blank page, we now have a raw material that only needs to be polished.
After taking a break, breathing, and resting our minds, we return to the text with fresh eyes. This is the second draft. It's time to edit, polish, revise, and gradually transform that initial tangle into something cohesive, clear, and impactful.
We often need a third draft as well, and many stages of editing and revision before publishing the final text.
Writing requires time, patience, revision, and a little self-compassion. No one writes a successful book in a year. No one publishes a professional article overnight. We don't become professional writers in months. And that's okay, it's the natural flow.
The important thing is to keep writing. Write, delete, write, edit, revise, and write some more.
Every word put on paper is a step towards the message we truly want to convey.