Crucial steps before starting the writing process

I was recently asked what are some crucial steps one should complete before starting the writing process.

My initial reaction was (as often): it depends…

How you prepare for writing a paper, depends on how you write. Some of us create a lot of text first, and then trim it down as gardeners, other carefully build their writing like architects.

Giving the question some further thought, I came to the conclusion that there is very little that needs to happen before you can start writing.

Let me repeat that: there is very little that needs to happen BEFORE you can start writing.

If you have a computer, a word processing software, a topic and a journal/audience, you can get started.

For some papers, I write when all the research is done. This case happens for my experimental work: we will write a preparation report, do the experiments and develop the experimental report, and write an analysis report. So, writing happens while doing the research, but it is geared towards the project deliverables.

For theoretical work or review papers, I will actually do the research while writing the paper. I find it easier to use writing as a tool to think through the concepts. In that case, I go through many drafts – many awful drafts, which I will not show to anybody, but that help me develop my ideas and bring topics together.

So, all in all, I think it is important to acknowledge that you should not use “preparing” yourself for writing as a way to procrastinate on the actual writing. As some sports brand once said: just do it.

What do you think? What do you need to get started with writing?