Backfill is a technique every worried undergraduate, over-stressed executive and fretful writer needs to master.
Backfill is based on the awesome recognition that we are never ready to start anything. What paralyzes most production is the mountain of preparation required before we can actually do the job that we are required to deliver. We may simply give up and curl up in the foothills of untouched research. Or, just as bad, we spend so many hours clawing our way through the material, we lose all sense of direction. We drown in detail.
Here’s where the Backfill comes to the rescue.
Backfill means you write your term paper first and read the textbook afterwards. Through the miracle of word processing, you retrace your steps and fill in the blanks that your own first draft produced. Good use of Backfill gives you the benefit of ignorance, a powerful tool when used wisely. Not knowing very much, you sketch out the bare essentials. You capture the big picture. You make the main points.
Now, your research is completed you can return to your sketch and flesh out its skimpy skeleton. But you already have the hardest piece done—that dreaded first draft.
Needless to say, Backfill often requires more than just adding detail to a bare-boned summary. Your research may lead you to radically change your initial draft. But the joy of it is, you do have a draft to change. You’re no long staring into the abyss of a blank piece of paper, or en empty screen.