Day 4: Adding some substance
Cohort Day
4
Hey there,
Our last tip covered Step 2 of The Publishing Process: Bullet Draft.
This email covers the Substance Draft.
📝 Substance Draft
As the name implies, the objective of the Substance Draft is to add substance to your post.
Let’s dive in.
First, copy your Bullet Draft into a new section of the page and remove the bullets.
Then, add additional context to each bullet.
The Bullet Draft was a chance to put unrefined ideas on the page.
Now, the Substance Draft is the chance to refine and expand on them (but not edit).
Can you clarify your bullet? Can you add more context? Can you reframe your idea? Can you add an example?
During the Substance Draft:
➤ Add additional sentences to expand on bullets from the Bullet Draft
➤ Add sections and structure to the post (ex: headings, subheadings).
➤ Rewrite bullets from the Bullet Draft. The Bullet Draft gave you the idea, now clarify that thought
The Substance Draft is NOT:
➤ Editing. Don’t slow yourself down with edits (this will come later).
➤ Deleting. The focus should be on adding more content not deleting it.
The Substance Draft should be a sprint (similar to the Bullet Draft).
15 minutes of focused writing during the Substance Draft is better than 1 hour of distracted writing.
Also, the Substance Draft can be repeated.
For example, give yourself a few hours/days to reflect after conducting a Substance Draft sprint. Then, do another Substance Draft sprint (repeat until all ideas are on the page — we’ll be editing next).
Go Deeper:
- As you continue to write, try to understand why you’re writing your post. Knowing your goal allows you to write a more clear, focused post: Understand the WHY
- Check out “Copy of Writing Tips Email Sequence” for a copy of every email in this series
- Check out Cohort Resources for all resources
- Explore the Notion Home for cohort-specific information, like the Leaderboard