As you rough out an initial draft, focus your attention on ideas and organization. Writing tends to flow better when it is drafted relatively quickly, without many stops and starts.

Keep your planning materials—lists, outlines, freewriting, annotated sources, and so on—close at hand. In addition to helping you get started, such notes and blueprints will encourage you to keep writing.

For most kinds of writing, an introduction announces the main point, the body paragraphs develop it, and the conclusion drives it home. You can begin drafting, however, at any point. Some writers find it easier to draft the body first and save the introduction for later.