Anne Lamott's Shitty First Drafts

“Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott, is a hilarious must read for junior high school students and any other aspiring writers. Her essay inspires comfort and confidence in writing a first draft. It concretes that all writers experience the “shitty” first draft. Anne Lamott wrote this instructional information in 1995, but it is timeless information. She blows the idea of writing an immaculate first draft out of the water. Anne supports the idea that bad first drafts will almost always lead to better second, third and final drafts. She symbolizes the first draft to be like a child. Where you put all your thoughts and emotions out there in words on paper, you go all over the place, you say all kinds of ridiculous things, and all with the

By examining the ideas in the essays Freewriting by Peter Elbow and The Makers Eye: Revising your own manuscripts by Donald Murray. One can gain a better understanding of the process of turning a piece of writing from an inspiration into a craft. By examining the elements lined out in each essay can be beneficial in creating a piece of writing that is beyond a college or student level. Elbows essay lines out the importance of a strong prewriting regimen. That editing too early can ruin writing. He believes that by using the method of free writing, it can inspire ideas that may be limited when worrying about grammar. While Murray emphasizes the necessity to create many drafts to form writing into its full potential. Saying each draft is an opportunity to discover what the author has to say and they the best way to say it. By transforming writing into its maximum potential it goes from being an idea an inspiration a masterpiece.

Lamott states the main point of “Shitty First Drafts” quite plainly: “For me, and for most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts” (234). There, stated plainly and with the controversial adjective for emphasis, is Lamott’s message. To paraphrase: first write bad, then write good. Let’s take a moment to consider the target audience of the essay. Presumably, Lamott is writing to beginning writers, many of who are struggling and may not be versed in the wordy lexicon of formal writing. Therefore (and paradoxically), had Lamott written in a higher-brow, clinical voice, her advice on writing could have been misunderstood or unheard by

In ‘’Shitty First Drafts,’’ by Anne Lamott argues that in order to create ‘’ terrific third draft’’ you must first start out with a ‘’shitty first draft’’. She believes that every good writers, should write shitty first drafts, because the writer will produce better second drafts and ‘’terrific third drafts.’’ I completely agree with Lamott, because the first draft will never be flawless, and therefore from the moment I start writing an essay I fairly pour everything out, all of thoughts and ideas into the first draft, which becomes my ‘’shitty first draft’’. In my first English class in college, I was explained it’s beneficial to write a ‘’shitty first draft’’, since the first draft is like an exercise. Thought out this course I continued using Lamott idea of writing a first shitty draft. Thus whenever I created my first draft I only wrote my views and indications and it was always atrocious, although the process I took was precisely helpful in creating final draft, for instances I would gather all the information plus during the teachers ' conference I would take all of the errors the teacher exposed put into inconsideration. I always wrote a first shitty draft my final draft would be strictly acceptable. Nevertheless it is paramount to create a first shitty draft, because occasionally the mind goes blank and other times the mind is full of the ideas and beliefs, and since it’s the first draft later on add more knowledgeable ideas to the final essay.

After examining “Shitty First Drafts”, by Anne Lamott, and “Write before Writing”, by Donald M. Murray, each writing process has some good prospects. Anne Lamott is a little crazy, but passionate writer that can really surprize you. In Anne Lamott 's article “Shitty First Drafts”, she believes that any writer should write a shitty first draft, and that’s how anyone ends up with a better second draft and a “terrific third draft” .Lamott declares in order to be good, the writer needs to first allow for the words and ideas to come flowing out without restriction. Donald M. Murray, an English Professor, that has a different writing process, wrote an article “ Write before Writing” . He explains, Students who are not

Although this is an effective way to explain the process, “Shitty First Drafts” uses a different styles of transition. When the first few words of each paragraph are singled out and analyzed, the reader can compare those words to the essay “How Not to Say the Wrong Thing” and see a distinct differences. For example, “draw a circle”, “here are the rules”, and “when you are…” are phrases that concede in the idea of the diagram drawn in the essay (Lamott, 337-40).

She begins by pointing out that writing is not an easy process with a clear path; according to Anne it is something that almost everyone, even professional writers, struggle with. She explains that the only way she can begin to write is with horrible first drafts because they are private, can be written more loosely than typical essays, and can lead to a more defined

Lamott's personal narrative, "Shitty First Drafts" from Bird by Bird (1994), is a witty, unique expression of the day to day struggles of creating an interesting, accurate piece of writing. Lamott describes the first draft of a piece of writing as sloppy, low quality work that she would be embarrassed to associate her name with. Lamott walks us through her resume describing how she transforms from the "shitty first draft" to the elegant, polished second and third draft throughout her various types of writing. Anne Lamott even goes as far to explain that neither herself, nor her colleagues “routinely sit down wildly enthusiastic and confident” as many might imagine successful writers do (Lamott). Lamott explains that she allows herself

From the start of reading “Shitty first drafts” I have concluded that even the best writers, write horrible drafts first. In the passage it even says when you start off with a shitty first draft, this is how they end up with good second grafts, and terrific third drafts. This shows that a lot of effort goes into writing an essay. You have to start from somewhere, put what comes to your mind immediately on paper. It suprises me that even professional writers struggle with writing rough drafts. The author talks about when you write a rough draft, you have to take bits and pieces of the essay out.

Lamott 's effective persuasion was greatly due to her reflection on the writing process that writers go through and at the same time informing her audience the importance of first drafts. Most people assume that accomplished writers can easily write something they could be proud of, but that is not the case. According to Lamott, all good writers write a not-so-good first drafts and “this is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts” (Lamott, 191). For the most part of a writing process, mistakes will be made and it will most likely not contain everything the author wants to say. Lamott addressed new writers that the first draft is where writers assemble their ideas making it the most important step to a writing. Lamott pointed out many times that first drafts will not be

In Anne Lamott’s essay, “Shitty First Drafts,” she explains her writing philosophy of just getting ideas down on paper and then editing them later. While some disagree with this method, such as George Dila in his critical response, “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft,” many writers employ this technique to not only better their writing, but to overcome obstacles in the writing process. Even the most successful of writers will say that they actually hate writing, Lamott even compares it to pulling teeth. The intimidation of just starting to write becomes too much and leads writers to procrastinate. For many, an overwhelming, overbearing sense of perfectionism creeps in and creates anxiety and often lead to writer’s block. Everyone writes first drafts, but if a writer allows themselves to let go of all personal judgment and permits their writing to be “bad,” then they will most likely end up with great ideas that they did not even know were inside their heads. Once these ideas are allowed to flow out, then it becomes easier to visualize a realistic way of developing them into a full composition. By writing inferior first drafts, writers can focus on and express their ideas while overcoming the difficulties typically associated with the writing process.

Reading the two articles, Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” and Donald M. Murray’s “Write Before Writing” numerous times made me realize a connection with their writing process that I can relate to. Lamott believes that every good writer, or every writer should write shitty first drafts because the writer will produce better second drafts. In her article, she gives examples of her writing struggles and gives her point of view of the writing process. In order to have a good piece of writing, one must write all of their ideas onto paper. Murray’s article gives some instructions on how to create and start a better writing. He expressed that writers should give time to what they’re going to write about, so that they can understand and make it easy on themselves. After reading the articles, I realized some of the complications I suffer within my writing process, but one strategy that I found helpful is Lamott’s drafting development strategies.

Shitty First Draft a novel written by a woman named Anne Lamott is an educational novel that talked about her life experience in writing her novels. In Free Writing Exercises written by Peter Elbow, he explains that everyone limits themselves in writing because they are constantly editing their work. In the Pleasures of Reading written by Rebecca Mead it talks about how people read to impress themselves. When I was younger, I loved to read because the stories kept me entertained when I was bored but, as I grew older the books I read started to get more complicated because I didn’t know all the vocabulary which made it harder for me to understand the book I was reading. Finally, “The Maker’s Eye” written by Donald

I liked this article of Anne Lamott about Shitty First draft because it was easy to read and understand .I learned as Anne said: The writers don’t know what they are doing until they’ve done it. I’m agree with the paragraph about the first draft is down draft because I think starting is the hardest level to do anything and with down draft you are free to bring everything on the paper with knowing that no one is going to see it. The common thing I noticed is that writing is hard also for good writers . and almost all good writers start with shitty first draft and you have time to fix it later . The exercise of hypnotist was very interesting for me . That you isolate the voices in your head and you can get free of them by putting the people who

Everyone knows what writing is to one extent or another, but we all have different definitions of how it should be done and varying degrees of seriousness about the art. We all have a process of writing, but each is unique to ourselves and our own experiences. Annie Dillard and Stephen King are two well known authors who have published many pieces, two of which describe how they view the writing process and let their readers get a peek of what goes on through their minds when they write. These two pieces are Dillard’s The Writing Life and King’s “What Writing Is.”