I am an undergraduate student at UC Davis, and after taking a couple of writing heavy classes, I have discovered an efficient writing method. I start out by just jotting down my ideas. I don’t worry at all about the flow because generally I think faster than I can write. This prevents me from getting a writer's block; having a writers’ block is one of the main reasons why I dread long term writing assignments and will tend to procrastinate on them.
After I am done with placing all of my ideas onto paper, I leave it aside for a day or two and come back to it with a fresh mind.
This is because I have found that trying to formulate a sentence 10 to 20 different ways is a waste of time. Author Anne Lamott (2005) agrees by saying that, " The first draft is the child's draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later." You might be able to get the perfect wording down, but it might not flow well with your future thoughts and sentences. I have learned that if I am stuck at any point in my writing, I should just skip over it and continue writing whatever comes to mind.I can always come back later to form more coherent and complete sentences. I would repeat this process a couple of times, depending on how much time I have for the assignment.
For me, I find this method to be super helpful and I believe it is one of my strengths as a writer because it allows me to write multiple drafts and edit my ideas as I go on. This is also a more effective and faster for me, as opposed to writing once from beginning to end with the hopes of creating the first draft.