John Paul Stevens on writing a first draft

“The Dissenter, Justice John Paul Stevens” recently ran in the New York Times Magazine. It’s worth a read — but this bit struck me, especially since I’m teaching (at least) 16 people about writing this semester:

“Sometimes the draft is pretty short,” Stevens told me, “but at least I write enough so that I’ve had a chance to think it through.” Stevens said writing a first draft was “terribly important” because “you often don’t understand a case until you’ve tried to write it out.”