Monday, September 1, 2008

Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott

Lamott with a sense of humor outlines the way to write a paper. She simply says sit down and write down everything that comes to your mind to create a shitty first draft, then a second draft, and finally the wonderful third draft. I cannot remember how many times I have heard from countless of people about writing more than one draft. Yet, the way Lamott wrote toward her readers had left a greater impact on me than another person that told me to do so.
This is probably because I could relate to Lamott when starting that ‘first shitty draft.’ When she started explaining her situation on the food reviews, I kept saying to myself, ‘I do that’ or ‘I can understand where she is coming from.’ I never took it in to consideration to write to whatever happens to come in my mind on the subject. The idea of just writing is a lot better then what I typically do, which is to wait until I have no choice but to write the paper.
I think there is a lot of truth to this, “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper” (77). It gives me a little hope that my writing will improve.

1 comment:

rachel groening said...

I agree with what Cori was saying. It is very true that everyone is and is going to make a shitty first draft in their eyes. Lamott did a great job describing what it is like to sit down and write a first draft. She explains that you have to sit and just write not when you absolutely have to. I agree that every first draft will be shitty and that you just have to write as much as you can without worrying about what you are writing.