📝

Substance Draft

You’ve chosen a topic you want to write about.

You put your ideas on the page by writing a Bullet Draft.

Now, you need to add some substance to the post. Here's how:

First, we’ll recap steps 1 and 2 of The Publishing Process:

1). Topic. Choose your high-level topic for the week.

Here are the best prompts to inspire high-quality writing: 🌟
The Best Writing Prompts
 

2). Bullet Draft. Write a Bullet Draft to get your ideas on "paper."

Writers who have gone through our cohorts have said the Bullet Draft has transformed their writing process.

Read more: 🚄
Bullet Draft
 

3). Next, the 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 idea

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)

Substance Draft

You’ve chosen a topic you want to write about.

You put your ideas on the page by writing a Bullet Draft.

Now, you need to add some substance to the post. Here's how:

First, we’ll recap steps 1 and 2 of The Publishing Process:

1). Topic. Choose your high-level topic for the week.

Here are the best prompts to inspire high-quality writing: 🌟
The Best Writing Prompts
 

2). Bullet Draft. Write a Bullet Draft to get your ideas on "paper."

Writers who have gone through our cohorts have said the Bullet Draft has transformed their writing process.

Read more: 🚄
Bullet Draft
 

3). Next, the 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 idea

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)