Manuscript Success: Writing the First Draft

Leslie H. Nicoll, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN

Writer’s Camp Director

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The moment has finally come to begin writing your article!

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Manuscript Success is a process. As is typical of most processes, Manuscript Success requires substantial preparation before you get to the actual implementation. But the time to write has arrived. You should be ready to go with:

• Your primary journal for submission selected;
• The Information for Authors (IFA) either printed out or bookmarked;
• A copy of your template article and its analysis;
• Your Manuscript Math Outline (MMO) finished and printed.

Keep these items close at hand because you will use them for your draft. Writing, the final step of the Manuscript Success process, builds on this groundwork. Don’t ignore these materials. With that in mind, let’s get started. Table 1 shows these elements, plus the first draft that you will write after you have finished reading this article.

Table 1. Manuscript Success Steps and Products

Manuscript Success Step	Product
Topic Selection	Clearly articulated focus for your article.
Journal Due Diligence	Three potential journals for your submission. For the first journal, have a clear rationale for why you selected it. Have the Information for Authors for your #1 journal, either printed out or bookmarked on your computer.
Template Article Selected	An example article (or 2), ideally from your selected journal. If it is from another journal, have an example article from your selected journal, too, to look at for length and style.
Template Article Analysis	Paragraph by paragraph breakdown of your template article.
Manuscript Math Outline	Paragraph by paragraph outline of your article, based on your Template Article Analysis.
First Draft	Completed first draft which should be: 1) organized; 2) correct length for your selected journal; 3) written with required elements in proper format; 4) formatted correctly.

Create Your Environment

Lots of people have writing rituals: they sit in a certain chair, use a certain pencil, and have a bottle of water nearby. Marsha Fowler likes Cheetos, Diet Coke, and noise from both the television and radio.¹ I prefer silence. Whatever works for you, create it.

It is ideal, of course, to have a dedicated space so you don’t have to set up every time you sit down to work. But I realize that living and working areas can be small and you may need to work at your kitchen table or another non-permanent space. Just find a way to quickly establish your spot with the props you need to get going. One tip: don’t use “setting up” as an excuse to procrastinate.

As you settle in, take a moment to mentally shift into writing mode. Close your eyes, count your breaths for a minute, and get ready to write.

Prepare Your File

As you sit down at your digital writing device, set up your file to meet the guidelines of your selected journal. If the IFA specifies a certain font (something generic, like Arial) and point size (usually 12), select that. If the margins need to be a certain size (usually 1” all around, but not always), set them. Most likely your manuscript will need to be double-spaced, so set the line spacing accordingly. I have discovered that with the word processors that are in wide use, it is much easier to have everything set correctly at the beginning, rather than going back and fixing it later. You will have enough to correct as you edit, so make it easy on yourself and take care of these basics at the beginning.

If you write on multiple devices (a laptop, a desktop, a tablet; computers at home and at work or school) then create a file sharing system so you can access your writing from any source. This used to be “thumb drives”; now it is cloud storage. Identify a system that you like and make sure it is set up on your various devices so you can save and access drafts no matter where you are. I believe it is a good investment to spend some money on cloud storage. This will ensure that you have enough space for your files over time. Having a paid account also gives you access to support which may be necessary in an emergency.

Be mindful of a computer at a workplace that may have a security system that prevents file sharing or using a cloud storage system. I had a job that blocked employees from using personal Dropbox accounts, so all my files were inaccessible. My solution? I brought my own laptop to work every day.

Pick Your Writing Time

Marsha Fowler likes to write in the evening;¹ Lynn Clutter uses her “A” time to be most productive for writing.² Figure out what is best for you and plan your schedule accordingly. If you want to get your first draft finished in a reasonable time frame,³ you need to have time to write. Make a date with yourself, put it on your calendar, and stick to it.

As you think about your time frame, set a goal for yourself for when the draft will be finished. External goals, such as a deadline from the journal or your work, can be strong motivators. If you don’t have an external deadline, then create one for yourself. I have seen too many people let their writing drag on and never get finished. Look at your calendar, see what’s coming up, what you need to do, and then create your writing schedule. Make these dates as important as going to the doctor or meeting with your boss. Don’t cancel. Most abandoned or incomplete manuscripts simply have no deadline.

Learn to Make “Chunks” Smaller

One thing you need to teach (train) yourself to do is how to write in small chunks of time. I know this can be done because I have done it! Too many people say they need a “large chunk” of time to write, and “large chunk” often translates into 6 or 8 hours. If they don’t have a “large chunk” available, then they say they “can’t write” and go off and do something else. Let’s be realistic—in today’s busy world, do we ever have the luxury of 6 or 8 hours for writing? I certainly don’t! So, you need to re-train your brain to think that 1 or 2 hours is a large chunk and use that time productively.

I actually learned to do this when I had an academic job where everyone was expected to stay at their desk (or wherever they were working) until 4:30 pm. (I mention academic because in my prior teaching position, people could come and go as they pleased, and by 4:30, the College of Nursing building was a ghost town.) Very often, I would have all my work wrapped up by 3:00 pm and 90 minutes were left on the clock. I shifted out of the “big chunk” mindset, closed my door, and applied myself to the task of getting something written. I’ll be honest, using this time efficiently didn’t happen overnight. It was late in the day and not my best “A” time (I am usually a morning person) but I was stubborn and made it work. Now I take advantage of hours and even minutes when they are available and most of the time I am successful in getting some good writing accomplished.

One advantage of the MMO is that you have everything broken down by paragraph, so in a small block of time, you can pick a paragraph or two to write. As I said earlier,³ for a 15-page manuscript, if you write 3 paragraphs per day (one page) you will be done in 2 weeks. You will probably be faster than that, but instead of focusing on the “whole thing,” break it up in parts and make it manageable. Remember the old saying, “You can eat an elephant one bite at a time.”

It Does Not Have to Be Linear

Another advantage of the MMO is that you don’t have to write in a linear fashion. You can dive in and work on parts that seem easier to complete. Personally, I find the abstract and introduction quite difficult to write, but when the manuscript is finished, they come together more naturally. The methods section is usually fairly routine so that might be a good place to start. Once you get into a flow, then the other pieces should fall together. Jayne Jennings Dunlap gave a nice example of this in her recent article on “The Writable Moment.”⁴ She used the body of an email as the centerpiece of the nascent article and structured a mini-outline around it. She also did this in 15 free minutes before a meeting, taking advantage of a small chunk of time. This really highlights the point that to be a productive writer, your article always has to be at the forefront of your mind, and you need to be ready to hop on it when inspiration hits.

Is Your Inspiration in Your Brain or Your Fingers?

Marsha Fowler’s statement that “about 25% of writers write in their head, full sentences, even paragraphs and pages,”^1p.1 was a revelation to me. This is how I have always written, and I have always felt like a bit of an oddball, since the majority of writing guides assume that everyone writes the other way, that is, at the keyboard. The words must be there in my mind and ready to spill out onto the screen before I can be productive. I have learned that it is not worth it to try to force something out that isn’t ready. What do I do if the words aren’t there, but it is my writing time? Work on something else. There are always references that need to be updated and added to your reference manager, or figures or graphs that need to be designed. Again, your MMO is going to guide you. Look in the “Other Elements” section and figure out what you can work on until the words coalesce in your mind.

If you are part of the other 75%, that is, keyboard composers, you have a different style from me. Most writing guides seem to be directed to these types of writers and suggest just getting the words out there—dump them on the page. If that works for you, great. I will add the caveat to keep the words to their assigned paragraphs. You have the MMO—use it to provide some structure and organization, even if you are free thinking the words as you type them.

I would hazard a guess that free writing runs the risk of ending up with a first draft that is much too long, which is another reason to keep your MMO handy. If your introduction is planned to be 3 paragraphs long, then stick to that. It is easy to go off on a tangent which may end up getting cut later. That’s not a good use of precious writing time. I have also edited papers with the unfortunate case of having a 13 page introduction and background, and everything else gets crammed into the final 5 pages. Remember the paragraph bar chart from my last article?³ That is what you are striving for.

Rolling Editing or Wait Until the End?

This is another area where my style differs from the standard advice that is frequently given. Most books tell you to “just get the words on paper” and after that is done, go back and begin the editing process. I, on the other hand, like to work and re-work a sentence or a paragraph until I am happy with it, then move on to the next one. Once again, I am in the minority. It took me a long time to discover that this is called “rolling editing” (not to be confused with the rolling editing that refers to video production). If you like to edit as you go, fine. If you are a “dump and edit” person, that’s fine too. What is important is to figure out what works for you and then fine tune it. Don’t try to make yourself fit into a square hole if you are a round peg.

One of the criticisms that is often leveled at rolling editing is that you can spend too much time trying to perfect a sentence or paragraph, only to have it be jettisoned in the next round of editing. That is not my experience but then again, I see the words in my mind before they hit the screen. For me, the two styles work very well together but I can easily see how rolling editing can roll you right into fiddling and tweaking and wasting time, so be alert to this. What is important is to figure out what works for you. If you are wearing uncomfortable shoes, you are not going to get very far on a walk or a hike. Writing is also very personalized. Find the right fit for everything and then use that knowledge to your advantage to be successful.

Go Back to the MMO

Once you have your first draft written, go back to your MMO and look at what you outlined.³ Count your paragraphs. Does everything line up or is there a shift? If so, can you explain it? Remember, the MMO was written as a guide, not a piece of paper that you cast aside and ignored. I use the Manuscript Success process when I lead writing retreats, and I review everyone’s documents as part of the program. I can immediately tell when someone has just blithely written their draft and the MMO is a forgotten memory. Key giveaways are that the paper is unorganized and often too long. If you have deviated from your MMO, you might want to add a third column to your Analysis/MMO form and detail the changes. Your draft should reflect what you planned. If it is way off the mark, then you need to understand why, or fix it.

Next Steps After the Draft is Finished

Once you have your article completed, set it aside for 24 hours. Now by complete, I mean mostly finished. I believe a first draft should be pretty close to a final product, even if it is called “rough.” Have your reference list in order and tables and figures prepared. If the IFA says that these elements need to be in their own files, do that and insert markers in the text where they should go. Make sure you reference them in the text, either as a statement or parenthetically. You should never have an element as part of a manuscript that is not linked in the text.

After 24 hours, it is time to read what you have written. Either print it on paper or pull it up on the screen. For years, I was a “read on paper to edit” person, but not anymore. Of course, it took time for me to re-train my brain, but I did it. The point is, edit in the way that works for you. Go through your manuscript carefully, fix spelling, punctuation, and other mistakes, move paragraphs around, re-write sections—whatever you need to do to make it right. Once that is done, share it with a trusted colleague for feedback, polish it up, and submit to your journal. That’s it! Congratulate yourself, celebrate if you wish, and then get to work on your next project.

Conclusion

Writing the first draft is the most personal part of the Manuscript Success process, so the information in this article is intended as a guide. You need to spend time on a personal assessment to figure out how you write and how to create the best environment for you to be productive. Reading a writing guide or two might be helpful in this respect, but don’t let yourself get distracted with reading about writing and not doing the actual writing work.

Keep in mind that we all write, all the time. Writing a manuscript for publication is a specific type of writing project, but don’t forget the daily emails, memos, minutes, and reports that you probably have on your “to do” list. Use every opportunity to write as an opportunity to practice and assess your personal style. Learn what works for you and use that knowledge effectively, or as the immortal John Candy said in Splash (1984), “Look, if something works for me, I stick with it.”

Writing a manuscript for publication can be daunting the first time, but it does get easier. If you are a nurse who has chosen an academic or scholarly path as part of your career, then writing for publication will be a professional expectation, but make it a personal one, too. The thrill of seeing your name in print is a feeling that never gets old.

References

1. Fowler MD. Wrestling with the muse: The journey of learning to write. The Writer’s Camp Journal. 2025; 1(2):8. Doi: 10.5281/zenodo.16570220
2. Clutter LB. Guard your academic writing “A” time. Nurse Author and Editor. 2018;28(4):1-6. doi:10.1111/j.1750-4910.2018.tb00026.x
3. Nicoll LH. The Manuscript Math Outline. The Writer’s Camp Journal, 2025; 1(2):9. Doi:10.5281/zenodo.16644557
4. Dunlap JJ. The Writable Moment. The Writer’s Camp Journal, 2025; 1(1):11. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15564731

Author: Leslie H. Nicoll

Reviewed and Edited by: Jayne Jennings Dunlap and Peggy Chinn

© 2025, Writer’s Camp and Leslie H. Nicoll

Citation: Nicoll LH. Manuscript Success: Writing the First Draft. The Writer’s Camp Journal, 2025; 1(2):11. Doi:10.5281/zenodo.16687909