Many academics try writing to avoid bad first drafts, treating writing as a performance rather than a process. We wait for the perfect moment, when we have all our thoughts organised, our research complete, and our arguments bulletproof. But the reality is that that the first draft is going to be – maybe even should be – terrible.

Instead of putting yourself under pressure to write well, what if you give yourself permission to write badly?

The power of a bad first draft

Writing bad first drafts is well understood by experienced writers:

Almost all writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something – anything – down on paper. What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head.

Anne Lamot. Shitty first drafts.

A bad first draft isn’t just a stepping stone to better writing – it’s an essential part of the thinking process. When we write before we’re ready, we:

• Discover what we actually think about our topic
• Identify gaps in our understanding that weren’t apparent in our mental outline
• Generate unexpected connections and insights
• Create something concrete that we can shape and improve

Think of bad first drafts as exploration rather than execution. Each draft is an experiment, a way to test ideas and see how they work on the page. The goal isn’t to produce perfect prose but to engage in a dialogue with our own thoughts.

Building momentum through iteration

The key is to separate the creation and refinement phases; don’t try to write and edit simultaneously. Instead, treat your first draft as a conversation with yourself about your ideas. You should revise and polish later.

Start with small, manageable writing sessions and aim to write for 25 minutes without editing. Let the ideas flow, even if they’re messy or incomplete. You might be surprised to find that what you considered “bad” writing contains valuable insights that you can develop further.

Remember: You can’t edit a blank page. But once you have something written – even if it’s rough, unpolished, or just terrible – you now have something you can work with. Each iteration brings you closer to clarity, not through perfect execution, but through the messy, non-linear process of thinking on the page.

The next time you catch yourself waiting to be “ready” to write, try this instead: sit down and write the worst version of what you want to say. It might be the first step toward your best work.