Writing Tip: Keep Going

Students and writers (myself included) like to have a nearly perfect first draft that doesn't need much revision and/or editing in the final draft.  Now maybe there are people who can pull this off, but I'm certainly not one of them.

What I do, and tell the students I sit with to do, is remember the first draft is the "vomit draft" that no one will see but you (and maybe a tutor who won't judge you).  This is your place to put everything you can possibly imagine would go in your essay.  It's your "test zone." Use it to help you decide what works and what doesn't work.  

Maybe you spend half the paper writing with one working thesis, decide it doesn't hold up, and change thesis mid-paper.  No problem, as long as you make it cohesive in the second and subsequent drafts.

The bottom line is Keep Going because you don't know what doesn't work until you try to make it work.