We all know that moment: you’ve blocked out time in your schedule, prepared your workspace, made your coffee, and now you’re staring at the blank page. You feel the weight of everything you need to say but struggle to type a single word. If you’ve ever wondered why the first draft is so hard to write, you’re not alone. The conventional wisdom suggests that getting started should be easy – “just write,” we’re told. “You can fix it later.” This seems logical, but what if our understanding of the first draft process is the real problem?

The first draft is the hardest

The way to do a piece of writing is three or four times over, never once. For me, the hardest part comes first, getting something—anything—out in front of me.

John McPhee, Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process

The first draft isn’t merely a rough version of the final piece – it’s really the most demanding part of the whole process. It’s where we navigate the greatest uncertainty, face the blank page, and attempt to transform abstract thoughts into concrete words. Rather than viewing this difficulty as a problem to overcome, we could think of it as an inherent and valuable part of knowledge creation.

Writing isn’t linear

Writing isn’t a linear progression from rough to polished, but is instead an emergent process where meaning and understanding develop through the act of writing itself. The first draft isn’t just a simple preliminary step – it’s where we engage in the deepest intellectual work, where we come to understand what we think, and where new connections emerge that we couldn’t have planned in advance.

This shift in perspective changes how we approach writing. Instead of expecting the first draft to flow easily and viewing its difficulty as a sign of failure, we can recognise that the struggle itself is an essential – maybe the most important – part of the scholarly process. The resistance we feel isn’t an obstacle to overcome – it’s the sensation of engaging with difficult ideas and allowing new understanding to emerge.

Resistance leads to discovery

When we stop treating the first draft as a preliminary step and start seeing it as a crucial site of intellectual discovery, we transform our relationship with the writing process. The difficulty becomes not something to avoid, but a valuable signal that we’re engaged in meaningful scholarly work.

Take a moment to reflect on your own writing practice: What would change if you approached your next writing session with the expectation that the first draft should be challenging? Try setting aside a focused 30-minute block tomorrow morning specifically for wrestling with a first draft, knowing that the difficulty you encounter isn’t a barrier to overcome, but rather a sign that you’re doing your most valuable work.