Shitty First Drafts
“Shitty First Drafts”
In the essay “Shitty First Drafts”, Anne Lamott describes the process of writing first drafts. She addresses the many steps she goes through to come up with her final “polished” works. First, Lamott starts off with a brief summary of what she believes in, she also gives a short description of her thoughts and personal life. Lamott then addresses to what I believe is her thesis and is finally ready to talk about her “Shitty” first drafts. At first she writes what she calls a “child’s draft” which is her first 5 pages of just brainstorming. In this “child’s draft” of just visions and some what nonsense, she does this in thought that no one is going to see this first draft anyway so she gives herself the ability to write anything that comes to mind. However, as a writer she is always nervous that someone will get a hold of her first draft before she is able to revise it. She gives distinct visuals of her process, “It was almost just typing, just making my fingers move. And the writing would be terrible.” After crossing out lines and phrases that she could live without, she would continue on to rewriting a second draft.
Even though Lamott’s process of writing and revising seems crazy, I definitely agree with her and say that writing is an exhausting process. She mentions thoughts of suicide and panic, which is a coincidence because I feel the same way when writing a paper. I feel that rough drafts are completely necessary, reason being, real writers always have room for improvement and growth. Therefore, a first drafts give writers the opportunity to see overlooked mistakes and correct them before handing in the polished final draft. My first drafts tend to be well written simply because I am a perfectionist. There is always room to grow, that I believe is the exception for a “shitty first
In the essay “Shitty First Drafts”, Anne Lamott describes the process of writing first drafts. She addresses the many steps she goes through to come up with her final “polished” works. First, Lamott starts off with a brief summary of what she believes in, she also gives a short description of her thoughts and personal life. Lamott then addresses to what I believe is her thesis and is finally ready to talk about her “Shitty” first drafts. At first she writes what she calls a “child’s draft” which is her first 5 pages of just brainstorming. In this “child’s draft” of just visions and some what nonsense, she does this in thought that no one is going to see this first draft anyway so she gives herself the ability to write anything that comes to mind. However, as a writer she is always nervous that someone will get a hold of her first draft before she is able to revise it. She gives distinct visuals of her process, “It was almost just typing, just making my fingers move. And the writing would be terrible.” After crossing out lines and phrases that she could live without, she would continue on to rewriting a second draft.
Even though Lamott’s process of writing and revising seems crazy, I definitely agree with her and say that writing is an exhausting process. She mentions thoughts of suicide and panic, which is a coincidence because I feel the same way when writing a paper. I feel that rough drafts are completely necessary, reason being, real writers always have room for improvement and growth. Therefore, a first drafts give writers the opportunity to see overlooked mistakes and correct them before handing in the polished final draft. My first drafts tend to be well written simply because I am a perfectionist. There is always room to grow, that I believe is the exception for a “shitty first