Shitty First Drafts Analysis

Immediately after we are born, we start picking up sounds; the sound of our mother’s voice, the music playing in the elevator on the way to the car, and the happy cheers from a small child seeing their new sibling for the first time. We are always listening–picking up on conversations not meant for our ears, eavesdropping on the gossip of the adult world, and finding the meaning in the portentous silence. From all these auditory stimuli, we piece together the world around us to better understand what is happening to us, around us, and the secret happenings that were not for us to know. Great writers are the ones who listen and say nothing–who take it all in and save their classified information for a day when all the right words flow and form one epic story of the wondrous world we live in.

In the essay “Shitty First Drafts”, Anne Lamott addresses aspiring writers on the subject of the dreaded first draft. Lamott uses a disarmingly humorous tone to illustrate the value of putting pen to paper and writing shitty first drafts. Lamott goes on to say, “The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out… knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later” (234). The essay successfully delivers this message by use of its light and conversational tone. This amicability aids the essay by allowing the precise communication of the author’s ideas, by portraying the author personably and empathetically, and by allowing the author to finally advise from a place of authority and practicality.

Lamott compares the process of writing with the painful process of pulling the teeth. She believes that in order to produce a high quality writing, the author must first put together all their ideas and thoughts in form of the “child draft”. This draft determines the flow and dimension

In her article “I Stand Here Writing”, Nancy Sommers examines the writing process and formulating ideas for writing in a more empirical manner. She states that before she found her creative zeal/ niche her writing was often undisciplined, unmethodical, and sloppy. Sommers reveals that in college she was less known for her writing and more for her long hair and misapplication of phrases. She found her true inspiration while writing her Senior Thesis on Emerson’s “Eloquence.” Throughout the entire essay, Sommers provides the reader with advice about writing. A key point that she mentions is, “If I could teach my students about writing it would be to see themselves as sources, as places from which ideas originate, to see themselves as Emerson’s transparent eyeball, all that they have read and experienced-the-dictionaries of their lives circulating through them.”

Every day, all day we subconsciously breakdown our thoughts and process information to make a uniform decision in any given situation. Each person is different, so naturally the thought process will vary depending on the individual. The components that build an essay, create the “feel” of the essay so to speak. Those components are the thesis statement, transition sentences, and the structures or tone of the essay. In the essays, “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott and “How Not to Say the Wrong Thing” by Berry Goldman and Susan Silk, the authors describes effective ways to process and analyze a situation in the most compelling way possible.

Anne Lamott is a college graduate, the author of a variety of fiction and nonfiction titles, and has been a columnist for a multitude of magazines. In an excerpt called “Shitty First Drafts,” from her book Bird by Bird, Anne tells the reader that almost every great writer uses horrendous first drafts to create better drafts and works afterwards.

Whether while writing an essay or a birthday card, we have all struggled to find the proper words to illustrate our thoughts or feelings from time to time. Upholding the occupation of a writer would multiply that struggle tenfold. An occupation that depends on interesting, fluid pieces of writing every submission requires an adequate number of attempts and patience. Lamott expresses that writers “all often feel like we are pulling teeth” (Lamott), which proves the difficulty of writing is still there no matter the level of writer behind the work. Lamott also emphasizes that a writer “has to start somewhere” and shares her friend’s ideas in her writing to simply “get something - anything - down on paper” (Lamott). Lamott, and the other writers mentioned in this piece, carry incredible track records, while still admitting that perfection did not come initially, or even easily. Thus, proving that the Shitty First Draft has a place in any writer’s notebook or Word document. Lamott’s admission to struggling to properly begin a piece of writing surprised me, given of her success. I could not imagine a woman of her accomplishments stressing out over a food review, yet I felt relieved that someone of Lamott’s title relates to an amateur writer like myself. I often put off my writing as well when I cannot articulate a proper introduction. I do every other possible homework, or shy away from homework in general because the

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.

The standard impression most people have of writers is that they can sit down and just let a perfect composition flow from their heads onto paper. In her writing career, Lamott has observed how “writing is not rapturous. In

Writing may be an enthralling experience for one and a clever way to decompress for another. In general, however, writing has different purposes for a variety of people. “Why I Write,” written in the late 20th century by Terry Tempest Williams, describes various reasons for writing narrated from a female’s perspective. The short essay begins in the middle of the night with a woman engulfed in her own thoughts. She abruptly goes forth by reciting the multiple reasons why she continues to write in her life. Through a variety of rhetorical devices such as repetition, imagery, analogies, and symbolism, Terry Tempest Williams produces an elegant piece of writing that offers the audience insight into the narrator’s life and forces the audience to have empathy for the narrator with the situation she is incurring.

In his essay, “Thought,” Louis H. Sullivan illustrates the importance of real thinking and creative thinking. He asserts that words are not really necessary to use to express our thoughts. He presents other wordless forms of communication to translate our thoughts into loud expressions. Music, painting, images and other wordless forms are the solution the author suggest, as better forms of communication. “Real thinking is better done without words” Sullivan argues. “Words” cut off the inspiration of creative thinking, and disturbs the imagination when someone tries to translate their thoughts into spoken language. According to the author, images are the best way to translate our creative thoughts without the interruption of finding the perfect word to describe an idea. Sullivan attempts to persuade his audience to avoid reading because it deprives them from real thinking: asserting that it must be only done in the present. He discusses that writing is a slow process: many thoughts dissipates as one struggles to put their thoughts into words. Another point that Sullivan argues is that one should only think in the present, and focus in the present alone because the present is the only thing that matters. Sullivan explains, “You cannot think in the past, you can only think of the past… you cannot think in the future, you can only think of the future” … “One is dead and the other is yet to be born.” The author argues that it is not good idea to expand our imagination onward and

In his 1947 essay, “Thought,” Louis H. Sullivan offers concepts on how to improve one’s creative thinking process. He suggests that the most highly productive, creative thinking is accomplished better without the use of words, thus promoting the use of more imaginative cogitating. Sullivan calls the process of thinking an art, a science, and compares it to being like an army. He also equates thinking to being a philosophy, and it is here that a problem arises. He mentions the use of reading and states, “The best that reading and listening can do is to stimulate you to think your own thoughts, but nine times out of ten, you are thinking the other man’s thought, not your own.” Sullivan is suggesting that generally, the act of reading only permits the reader access to the author’s thought process and does not allow them to develop their own ideas from the source. Therefore, does the act of reading diminish one’s creativity and originality? Certainly not, reading inspires one to meditate on the source’s idea; therefore, stirring up the reader’s thought process to create new thinking schemes.

“Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge: Roles and the Writing Process” written by Betty S. Flowers suggests that writing is a process that can be blocked by different personas, or roles, in our brain. These personas can fight against each other or skillfully work together. The writing process can either be difficult or “can come only when the energies are flowing freely-when you’re not stuck”. To write successfully, we must separate these energies. Otherwise, you risk not ever starting or starting and not finishing. The roles that help use in the writing process are the madman, architect, carpenter, and judge.

“In truth, I’ve found that any day’s routine interruptions and distractions don't much hurt a work in progress and may actually help in some ways. It is, after all, the dab of grit that seeps into and oyster’s shell that makes the pearl, not pearl-making seminars with other oysters. And the larger the work looms in my day—is that I hafta instead of just an I wanna—the more problematic it can become. One serious problem with writers’ workshops is that I hafta becomes the rule. You didn’t come, after all, to wander lonely as a cloud, experiencing the beauty of the woods or the grandeur of the mountains. You’re supposed to be writing, dammit, of only so that your colleagues will have something to critique as they toast their goddam marshmallows there in the main lodge. When, on the other hand, making sure the kid gets to his basketball camp on time is every bit as important as your work in progress, there’s a lot less pressure to produce. (232)

The human consciousness can manifest itself as an individual’s most prominent antagonist. This cognitive assault against oneself often stems from circumstance, evoking feelings of loneliness, hopelessness, or alienation within the individual. Thus, a mental affliction can appear to discern itself physically, symbolizing the dominance of the aforementioned mindsets surrounding the character. This is prevalent in both Mirra Todd’s Fearless and Daniel Keene’s Life Without Me. Todd’s unflinchingly honest depiction of the marginalized voice provides the perfect context for this perspective, depicted through the intuitive inclusion of an array of dramatic and production elements such as the use of symbolism, proxemics, tension, and characterization.