When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner's pick, a woodcarver's gouge, a surgeon's probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory.

First draft - This should be done as soon as possible. I cannot emphasize this enough.

N.B. - The most common excuse I get is that I am not far enough along to write.
This is analogous to drawing up the plans for building a house when the house is almost finished.

Early writing will help you conceptualize your project and avoid pitfalls.

Surprisingly, the specific results section is the most important part to write up early (as a prediction).
If you do not know what you expect, how are you going to know what results are unusual?

The most interesting results in all of science were those that began as unexpected results.

Alternatively, this can be an early warning that something is wrong with your system and needed to be changed.

1) grants such as URO (and others)

2) feedback

3) getting your readers involved

What should be in your first draft:

cover page

1 page intro

1 page background

1 page methods

1 page results

1 page discussion of results

1 page discussion of global perspective, policy and other implications, future experiments

1 page bibliography

at least 3 pages - figures, graphs, and tables (from both the methods and the results sections)

- sketch out the format (what you will want it to look like) even if you do not have the content. This will help you conceptualize your results when you do get them.

1 page working notes - problems, further issues, resources, etc

results of computer search

results of web search