Cited from real sources 5 min read Updated September 2026

A framework by Ann Handley

How to Start Writing: Ann Handley's Ugly First Draft

Ann Handley's ugly first draft splits writing into two jobs that most people try to do at once. First you get the thoughts out of your head. You judge none of them yet. Then you shape what came out for one reader. Handley wrote Everybody Writes. She says marketers freeze at the blank page because they try to produce something good on the first pass.

The framework

Two passes, never one

Handley starts from an observation about where the fear comes from. Everyone she talks to carries something left over from school. It is a belief that they are bad at spelling or terrible at grammar, and therefore not a writer. Her position is that none of that has anything to do with the ability to write.

the ability to write is to think about what it is that you want to say and frame it in a way that's interesting for somebody else

Handley, on what writing actually is Watch at 02:28

Two jobs are hiding in that sentence. Working out what you want to say is thinking. Framing it so it lands is craft. Attempt them at once and each one blocks the other. That is what a blank page is.

So the first pass has no quality bar at all.

It's really just about sitting down and getting thoughts out of your head, starting somewhere.

Handley, on the first pass Watch at 06:00

The second pass is where the reader arrives, and Handley is specific about who that is. Not an audience. Not a segment. One person.

How to apply it

How do you start writing when the page is blank?

Six rules, split across the two passes.

Pass 1 · Get it out

1

Give yourself permission to write an ugly draft.

Not as a motivational trick. The pressure to produce something good is the specific thing stopping the words, so removing it is the mechanism.
2

Write before the day gets hold of you.

Handley keeps a daily journal first thing, before the laptop and the phone. She drafts before everyone else claims her attention.
3

Do not edit while you draft.

Fixing a sentence pulls you back into craft mode and stops the thinking. Leave the mess; it is evidence the pass is working.

before my day is hijacked by other thoughts and other people

Handley, on writing first thing Watch at 06:21

Pass 2 · Shape it for one person

4

Name the one reader before you edit a line.

A real person, not a persona document. Writing to an audience produces the hedged, committee-shaped prose that nobody finishes.
5

Decide what you want that person to do.

Handley's framing is behavior or mindset. If you cannot say which one you are after, you have no target to edit toward.
6

Cut back to what is useful to them, not impressive to you.

The edit is where the reader's interest outranks yours. Everything that survives should be there because it helps that one person.

for one single reader at one time

Handley, on who you are writing to Watch at 02:35

Boundary conditions

When does the ugly first draft fail?

Works best when

You know the material but cannot start
The piece has one reader you can picture
You control the schedule enough to separate the passes

Fails when

The ugly draft is never edited, and ships as-is
You have no reader in mind, so pass two has no criteria
The real gap is research, which no amount of drafting fills

The first failure is the common one, and it is worth being blunt about. An ugly first draft can be bad because something happens to it afterward. Skip the second pass and you have not applied the method, you have just published a journal entry.

The third boundary is where Handley and Eugene Schwartz agree. Schwartz's 33.33 method also removes the obligation to produce, and also sits downstream of two weeks of reading. Both treat the blank page as a pressure problem and the quality of the finished piece as a preparation problem. Neither treats drafting as the place where you figure out what you know.

The sources

Where Handley discusses this

05:43

Timestamp

Think with Google · Ann Handley on the secrets of great marketing writing

The Ugly First Draft

"the idea of an ugly first draft is so critical for us to embrace."

02:28

Timestamp

Think with Google · Ann Handley on the secrets of great marketing writing

What the Ability to Write Actually Is

"frame it in a way that's interesting for somebody else."

02:35

Timestamp

Think with Google · Ann Handley on the secrets of great marketing writing

Writing to One Person

"for one single reader at one time, not an audience, not your teacher."

12:01

Timestamp

Think with Google · Ann Handley on the secrets of great marketing writing

Writing Is Thinking

"Writing is thinking. It's how we understand something completely."

Where experts disagree

Where writers disagree: write badly on purpose, or remove the demand to produce?

Ann Handley

splits writing into two passes and drops the quality bar on the first to zero. Get the thoughts out without judging them, then shape what came out for one specific reader. The blank page is what happens when you try to do both at once.

Eugene Schwartz

attacks the same anxiety from the other end. Set a timer for 33 minutes and 33 seconds and forbid yourself everything except the copy, with no obligation to write a word. Boredom does the recruiting, because writing becomes the most interesting thing left in the room.

Handley removes the standard, Schwartz removes the alternatives. If your problem is a harsh internal editor, Handley. If your problem is that you never sit down at all, a permission structure that does not require output will get you there when a pep talk will not.

Useful? Send it to whoever has been staring at the same empty doc since Monday.

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Two passes, never one

How do you start writing when the page is blank?

Give yourself permission to write an ugly draft.

Write before the day gets hold of you.

Do not edit while you draft.

Name the one reader before you edit a line.

Decide what you want that person to do.

Cut back to what is useful to them, not impressive to you.

When does the ugly first draft fail?

Works best when

Fails when

Where Handley discusses this

Where writers disagree: write badly on purpose, or remove the demand to produce?

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