Keep your drafts: they show your thinking.

A finished essay looks the same however it was produced. A plan with three crossed-out structures, a first attempt that went nowhere, a paragraph rewritten four times. That's a record of thinking, and it isn't something you can produce after the fact.

Keep your drafts.

• Write in something that keeps version history automatically.
• Don't overwrite your plan when you start the essay. Start a new document.
• Save the version you sent to a friend to read.

There's a practical dividend. Getting feedback at the plan stage and again at the halfway point produces a better piece of work than getting it once at the end, and it means the record of your thinking exists as a by-product rather than as a chore.