Your First Draft Is Lying to You

_{Day 64/100}

Hey - It's Tim.

Short one today.
Not because I don’t care -
but because I’m swamped.

I’m planning the new product roadmap of Penfriend.
It’s the biggest rebuild we’ve ever done.
So naturally, instead of doing any of that...
I opened a Google Doc and wrote about editing.

Because sometimes, writing the newsletter feels productive enough to dodge the scary stuff.
(A lie I will continue telling myself, this has become my comfort task.)

Anyway.
Today’s topic is one I’m intimately familiar with:

Recovering terrible, unholy, borderline-illegal first drafts.

I opened a doc yesterday and it literally said:

No context.
No structure.
Just vibes and despair.

But here’s the thing I’ve learned after 600+ of these:

The first draft isn’t the problem.
The problem is thinking it’s supposed to be good.

It’s not.
It’s supposed to exist.
That’s it.

Here are four fast editing techniques that save my worst writing from the trash bin:

✂️ Technique #1: Delete the first paragraph

It’s not the start.
It’s you building up to what you want to say.

Delete the first paragraph.
Every time. No negotiation.
It’s 90% you trying to warm up and 10% overexplaining something nobody asked for.

🔥 Technique #2: Find the only sentence that slaps

Every mess has one line with a pulse.
Copy it.
Paste it at the top.
That’s your core. Build around it.

🧠 Technique #3: Rewrite without looking

If your draft sucks but the idea is still hot in your head…
Close the doc.
Open a new one.
Try to rewrite the same idea, without looking.

It’s like breaking up with a draft and dating its hotter twin.

☕ Technique #4: Read it like you’re explaining it to a friend

Not a colleague.
Not your old English teacher.
A friend.
If it sounds like you - it stays.
If it sounds like ChatGPT wrote it during a power outage - rewrite it.

The easiest way to do this is to speak it out loud. Into your phone, or laptop or what ever. Just use your words.

The point is:
Your draft isn’t bad.
It’s just not done being bad yet.

See you tomorrow.

✌️ Tim "Ctrl+Z Is My Emotional Support Button" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

Same brain, different platforms: X, Threads, LinkedIn.

P.S. If today’s email feels a bit chaotic - it is.
That’s what happens when you’re juggling a product roadmap, 47 tabs, and a newsletter habit you refuse to break.
Appreciate you being here anyway.

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