---
title: "Write a first draft in one go from the outline"
description: "Fill your outline's blind spots, then go offline and pour out what you understand of each idea, by keyboard, voice or pen, into a first draft."
---

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# Write a first draft in one go from the outline

The Write step turns a locked outline into a rough draft that is long and not yet edited. You fill your blind spots first, then write in one go with no looking things up and no fixing words. Writing here means laying out your outline as fully as you can: you **write so that you understand it first**, and switching to your customers' words waits for the Edit step.

This page is for you when you have a locked outline. If you only have a one-line topic, follow [Outline a post from a one-line topic](/docs/content-system/idea-write-edit/guides/outline-from-one-line) first.

## What do you need to write a draft?

- **A locked outline**, made of the post title and the main ideas. An outline usually has six to eight ideas, short enough to talk through fast and deep.
- **About 1 hour with no interruptions** to talk the whole draft through.
- **A way of writing that suits you:** keyboard, voice, or pen and paper. Step 2 below helps you choose.

:::note[One recording is usually enough for both the Idea step and the Write step]
If your recording from the question set answered every question and went deep on each one, you do not need to record again: that transcript is both the place to filter ideas and your draft. Do an extra recording only to go deeper on ideas that are still thin after filtering, or if you got stuck on an idea in the post.
:::

## Write a draft in one go from the outline

![Write a draft in one go from the outline](/docs/_astro/illus-docs-go-va-noi.en.BQ6AMV0e_ZTKTiY.svg "Talk in one go, never stop to fix")

The three steps below take you from the outline to a rough draft: fill the blind spots, pick how you write and go offline, then write in one go.

1. **Find and fill the outline's blind spots**

   This is the handover between the Idea step and the Write step. Read each main idea and ask yourself how well you understand it:

   - Some you know 60 to 70%.
   - Some you have forgotten 30% of.
   - Some are still vague.

   Mark those ideas.

   For each marked idea, read documents, watch videos and read books until you can explain it yourself. Do not copy text into your notes to paste into the post later: you have to understand it to write it. All the looking up, checking and learning for the post **has to be done in this step**. You will see that you can explain every idea in the outline yourself.
2. **Pick how you write and go offline**

   ### Type

   Open a blank page. This suits people who type fast and are used to sitting at a computer. For a good typist, talking is only about three times faster than typing.

   ### Record

   Open the recording app on your phone. This suits people who type slowly, are often out, or have little time. For a slow typist, talking can be 10 to 30 times faster than typing: Cuong talks 17,000 words in 85 minutes, and in the same time he can type about 2,000 words.

   ### Pen and paper

   Take a pen and paper. This suits people who get dizzy looking at a screen for long. When you are done, take photos to turn them into text.

   You can mix the ways, as long as it is the fastest for you. Then **switch off the internet**, close your notes and tabs, do not open AI and do not go back to your documents. Now it is only you and the screen.
3. **Write in one go, one main idea at a time**

   **Go straight to the main content**, with no opening and no ending: you add those two in the Edit step. Go through each main idea in turn, then each smaller idea inside it. Dig deep: what you understand, the process you follow, your memories, your stories.

   For a long post you have two choices: do it part by part and put the parts together, or do it in one go.

   While you write, you do not do these things:

   - Fix words, stumbles or repeats.
   - Switch expert terms into your customers' words.
   - Try to persuade anyone, or stuff in keywords.

   **Try to say it right the first time** instead of saying an idea over and over: every time you say it again, that is more words to cut. When you type, it is easy to catch the editing disease, where you fix as you write and delete a line ten times, so typing is many times slower than talking.

   If you recorded or wrote on paper, turn the draft into text, changing only the form and not the content ([Turn a recording into text](/docs/content-system/idea-write-edit/guides/transcribe-a-recording)). You will have a rough draft that goes through every idea in the outline.

## How do you know the draft is ready to edit?

- **Have you gone through every idea in the outline?** If you skipped one, write it now.
- **Is there a part you copied from a document?** Rewrite it from your own understanding. The draft has to be yours.
- **Is the draft much thicker than the post you plan to publish?** It has to be thick enough for the Edit step to squeeze out something solid. A draft is usually two to three times as long as the final post: Cuong recorded 17,000 words for the Idea - Write - Edit post, and it was published at 5,400.

When all three hold, this is where the Write step stops.

## If the draft does not come out as expected

### You get stuck on an idea in the post

![You get stuck on an idea in the post](/docs/_astro/illus-docs-cay-khung-ngoi.en.D9fGb23M_ZTKTiY.svg "Stuck on a post idea is a blind spot")

If you get stuck on an idea that has nothing to do with the post, skip it. If you get stuck on an idea in the post, it is **a blind spot you missed**:

- A concept you cannot explain.
- A method whose name you forgot.
- A process where you only remember step one.

Play the customer and ask yourself that question: if you cannot answer, you are stuck. Go back to documents, notes and official guides until you understand it in your own way, then write or record that part a second time. Do not copy and paste.

### The draft is thinner than the post you want

A thin draft leaves you nothing to squeeze: squeeze it a little and it is paper thin. To make it longer, next time **record longer, talk faster and bring out more ideas**. Talking speed and the depth of your ideas grow with practice.

### You got interrupted and lost the fire

Stop, and do not try to push on to the end. When you come back, read the outline and the idea you were on, and keep writing from there. **The outline is what keeps you on course**: without it, one phone call in the middle is enough to make you lose your way. Other ways of getting stuck are covered in [Stuck at the Write step](/docs/content-system/field-guides/stuck/stuck-while-writing).

## Read next

- [Edit a draft into a post](/docs/content-system/idea-write-edit/guides/edit-a-draft) — Cut a rough draft into a post without touching the outline, by tightening the opening first, then cutting, using customers' words and formatting.
- [Truth vault](/docs/content-system/truth-vault/introduction) — This page shows what the Truth vault keeps and how facts go in and out, the docs where a brand's posts, pages and AI answers get their facts.
- [Build a three-post funnel](/docs/content-system/field-guides/quickstart) — Build the smallest funnel of three linked posts, from a Know post to a Trust post, then the Love post and your sales page, to start selling now.

Source: https://cuongthach.com/docs/content-system/idea-write-edit/guides/write-a-draft/index.mdx