And so now you are at the next stage — rough draft.

Previously I had written about prewriting and how you may have placed your thoughts on the page.

Now it’s time to turn those thoughts into sentences and paragraphs. It’s time to make sense of your words and ideas, and place them on the page.

I’m right there with you.

And if you think you are the only person who experiences problems with getting words to the page, then you are incorrect. There are many people that experience the same problem.

But I think of it as a good problem because you have all of the information in your possession. It’s your job now to put your words into some kind of order. If it’s an essay, then you know you need an introduction, some paragraphs which are your body, and then your conclusion. It’s basically the same format if you are trying your hand at writing a fictional novel.

For the intro, give your reader a sense of what you’re writing about. Let’s say you found some information about a certain topic, and it was broken down into four different parts. You are halfway home.

You have your introduction, and then you move to your paragraphs.

You got this.

Your first paragraph is about your first part. You should strive to write from 10 to 12 sentences. And for your second part, you can think of a transitional phrase or word to begin the second paragraph. Next, repeat the 10 to 12 sentences writing, and you guessed it, no smoke and mirrors here, repeat the steps for the fourth paragraph. And if you are writing a scholarly essay, then remember to cite information that you borrowed. You probably will use one of two styles — MLA or APA. MLA is used for English and literature, and APA is for social sciences, so depending on what you are writing about, just follow the rules of either style. If you are writing a novel, then you would be safe using MLA.

Now you have five paragraphs. And you thought you would not get that far, but as I have written earlier, you had all of the information in your possession.

The conclusion should be easy. Some people will tell you to rewrite the intro and then flip-flop them, so your conclusion is now your intro because it sums up what you have written about. I am saying that is not a rule, but more of a guideline. I would not worry about flip-flopping until you are very confident with your skill as a writer.

You are finished. Yes, that’s right you are finished writing — for now.

Put your paper down and take a break. You have earned it.

Get ready for the next step — revising and editing.

It’s that simple.

It’s that hard.