3 Levels of Drafting A New Piece of Writing
June 10, 2009 by Debra Marrs
Filed under Blog, Drafts, Writing
Several years ago I attended a weekend spiritual retreat organized by the Omega Institute in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Some of the notable headliners included Wayne Dyer, Joan Borysenko, James Van Praagh, Loretta Laroche, and Dr. Brian Weiss. I enjoyed the presentations by these wonderful teachers, but I’d come for one thing: to sit at the feet of author Anne Lamott and lap up everything she had to say.
Anyone who has read her bestselling writing how-to book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life knows she has a wonderful way with metaphor, and a grand sense of humor.
She tickled her audience that day with her wry wit while teaching us about her recommended 3 stages for writing drafts:
1. Start with a “down draft.” Just get it all down. Write, write, write. Don’t worry where things might fit in. Just get it all down before the muse runs away. Think of the “down draft” as your parking place for ideas, experiences, and memories.
2. Next, continue with “up drafts.” Raise your “down draft” from bare essentials to workable material. That might mean adding new material, taking things out, moving elements around, shaping the piece of writing toward its publishable form. Think of the “up drafts” as prettying things up. This stage of drafting is truly where “writing” takes place and will mean you spend the bulk of your writing time at this stage. Be okay with “up drafting” 5, 10, 20, even 40 times until you’ve refined your prose.
3. Finally, attack your prose for the “dental draft” as you polish and final hone. During this stage, go deep inside your draft, review every word, every sentence, every paragraph for polishing.
If you’re not 100% certain of your doctoring (or dental) skills, now might be the time to have an experienced editor take a final look. You’ll want your prose to be bright, shiny and smiling. 
