"Shitty First Drafts" Reaction
After reading the article “Shitty First Drafts� by Anne Lamon, I was extremely relieved. I am never satisfied after I write a first draft, and reading her comment “all good writers write them� took a big weight off of my shoulders. I never feel confident when I sit down and whip out a quick and extremely unorganized first draft of a paper, and I am never happy with what comes out in the beginning. The good ideas always flow in after my initial thoughts are on paper, and I have gotten some feedback from either my peers or my teacher. I agree completely with Lamon when she says “very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it�. Once you see your initial thoughts, then your deeper and stronger ideas come out to be later put on paper in an academic, formal paper structure. I always feel that when I just throw my first thoughts down on paper, I am being lazy, and not putting 100% into my paper. However, after reading Lamon’s statement that “the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts� I feel better just letting my thoughts out and putting them on paper, knowing that I can shape them later. It is relieving to know that no one will see my first draft and make any huge judgments on it, because everyone reading my “shitty� first draft is in the exact same position. No one will roll their eyes and think I am a terrible writer in their heads, but they will work with my paper to try and give me some direction and structure, so when I do my self revision I have not only my developing thoughts to work with, but also the developing thoughts of others. I know there will be a lot of revision to be done, but I must take it solely as constructive criticism and use it to my advantage to tweak and clean up my terrible first draft. This article reassured me that papers never start well, and papers are never truly finished or perfect, we just run into due dates.
Comments
I had exactly the same reaction to “Shitty First Drafts� that you did. I also felt a lot of relief knowing that even good writers can have problems writing first drafts. I also feel that those initial thoughts can later turn into some very good ideas. I liked how you said “papers are never truly finished of perfect, we just run into due dates�. It is so true because there can really always be improvements in our writing but we just have to work hard and put a lot of thought and effort into what we do.
-Megan Ernst
Posted by: Megan Ernst | February 1, 2007 1:59 AM
Landyn,
We got a lot of the same things out of this reading. I was also very relieved to hear that all good writers have shitty first drafts. I agree on the point that I never feel satisfied with my first draft, but it's just a part of writing. I think it's a good point that you can write whatever you want in your first draft and nobody has to see it....but not in our case. haha, oh well. But good job! I like your ideas.
-Rob
Posted by: Rob Shields | February 2, 2007 1:41 AM
Not to sound redundant to others, but i agree with you 100%. Its almost as comforting and reassuring to hear someone else express the same feelings I have as being told that shitty first drafts are essential and that everyone writes them.
-Mike
Posted by: Mike Leininger | February 2, 2007 6:10 AM