Drafts are super important.
I’m about to sound like a crazy person, but I promise you I have a good point.
Drafts are the stages of evolution your content goes through before reaching its final form.
Imagine your content is a Pokémon.
Yes I know how that sounds. Stay with me, people.
Your first draft of anything is like catching a little baby Bulbasaur. It’s cute. It has potential. It needs your love and attention to turn it into what it’s truly meant to be.
If you’re a closet nerd (like me) who knows a thing or two about Bulbasaurs, right now you’re probably thinking, ‘So what you’re saying is, it’s essentially useless.’
Let’s not get too down on the little guy. Don’t underrate him before he’s fully trained. Or – bringing us back to copywriting – fully developed. Your first draft isn’t useless. It needs to be edited.
Woah. I know – mind blown, right?
Give your drafts some training
It’s not as hard as it sounds to turn that squishy little guy into a total badass. The first thing you need to do is get your content out of your head and onto a page. Then you need to work with it a bit.
First, take a look at the overall structure of your content. Does the order of your paragraphs make sense? Content that jumps back and forward too much can be difficult to follow. Make sure you have a good introductory paragraph that leads into the bulk of the information. Check that your conclusion, well, concludes what you have written, and doesn’t leave the audience hanging.
Look at your sentence structures and make sure they are grammatically correct. Notice the way you write; too much passive voice can make you sound uncertain. You should aim to write with friendly authority. How about the words you have used – are they appropriate for the audience? Using industry-specific terms might be perfect for internal communications, but they could be lost on external readers.
Just by performing a couple of these basic checks and tweaks, you’ve transformed your little Bulbasaur into a mighty(ish) Ivysaur!
Proofreading – I choose you!
Now that your draft has evolved to its penultimate state, you can perform the final checks that make it really shine. Proofreading and editing are terms that are often used interchangeably. However, proofreading is actually the final stage of the editing process – not the entire thing. This is your chance to check the spelling of everything. Even if spellcheck hasn’t underlined it. Even if that’s how you’ve spelled ‘seperately’ your whole life (wrong by the way, sorry).
If you can, read all of your drafts out loud, word by word. This will help you to make sure that your word processor hasn’t helpfully substituted ‘consternation‘ for the much more regular ‘constipation‘ (pun 100% intended).
Right before proofreading is the perfect time to give yourself a break. If you can, leave your draft to mature overnight and go and do something else entirely. This is to give yourself time to forget exactly what it said, and it’s very important. Human brains are extremely helpful. They like to make things make sense, particularly our own work. One of the ways your brain will do this, is to automatically correct things like inverted or missing words in a block of content. Your brain knows what you meant to say, so it processes it as though that’s what is in front of you. You may not realise until days later (usually after you’ve sent it to your boss, or had it printed 10,000 times) that you’ve somehow managed to misspell your own name. Ah well, at least your brain knew what you meant.
So please, if you do nothing else – take a break before you proofread.
Take care of your draft, give it some love, and it will evolve into its final, awesome, fight-ready form!
Trainer tips
Friendly battles
Give your drafts to someone whose opinion you respect, and get them to look them over for you. Ask them to make notes on what does and doesn’t work. Constructive criticism = gold.
Catch ’em all
Have you ever thought of something great you could write about, but because it wasn’t perfect for right now, you didn’t write it down? Yeah, me too. Don’t let those ideas slip away. Instead, chuck a Pokéball at it. If you don’t have a Pokéball handy, you could just write it down somewhere. Start a list of great ideas that you can come back to when you don’t know what to write about.
Choose the right opponent
You would never pit your baby Bulbasaur against a fully-fledged Charizard. You’d choose something that could stand the heat. The same is true for content. Just because you love the idea, doesn’t mean it’s right for the job. So take a minute and think about whether what you’re saying is responding to a need, or just filling the position.
Practise makes perfect
I can’t stress this enough: you’re not going to get it right straight away. I certainly don’t, and I practise writing all the time. Please don’t underestimate the power of revision.
Not everyone’s a winner
Sometimes, no matter how much you love what you’ve written, no one else is going to get it. Be open to the fact that we all miss the mark sometimes. Gather that little guy back up into the Pokéball, and live to fight another day.
Final thoughts
I know that I’m pushing the analogy, but here’s the thing: writing should be fun. We don’t have to be serious all of the time. Topics like ‘polishing drafts’ or ‘what to write a blog on‘ can get pretty dry. So let’s have fun with them as much as possible, shall we?
I’m super enthusiastic about writing blogs (and just writing in general) – and I would love to help you with yours. So get in touch and let’s talk about working together!
