Summary Of Anne Lamott's 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 her article “Shitty First drafts”, Anne Lamott presents her opinion that every writer and author, no matter how good they are, are bound to produce shitty first drafts that eventually improve in later drafts. Lamott stated that shitty first drafts turn out to be “terrific third drafts” with continuous revisions and improvements. Her main argument in the article was in favor of writing shitty first drafts based on her personal experiences and observations.

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).

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.

Uninteresting, stale, and dull are three words to describe “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott. This article by Lamott is about not creating the perfect paper on the first go round, and how uneasy it is to finalize the paper. Writing papers makes anyone have migraines, even for myself and also people that enjoy writing papers. Lamott says: “we all feel like we are pulling teeth”(1). This quote means that all authors that have published writings have struggled as well which shows in the article that other publishers struggled and had to type more than one rough draft. Creating the first draft is just a bunch of ideas thrown on the paper, then later on the writers’ can reshape it and remove the unimportant

Unlike reading, when writing, it is important that grammar, spelling and vocabulary terms are used correctly, therefore restricting me from writing in the way that I would prefer. The most stressed phrase while in high school was, "It is not the content of the essay, but rather the mechanics of grammar and speech that are most prominent." Unfortunately, I have never been one to enjoy the art of writing. In fact, I was recently given a diagnostic test, determining at which level I write and whether or not I should be upgraded to a higher achieving English class. Unfortunately, I did not pass the test with flying colors. This was not due to the fact that I am incapable of writing a good paper, but rather that I am unable to write in a limited amount of time, using the emphasized principles of correct; grammar, vocabulary and spelling. In the reading, Shitty First Drafts, by author Anne Lamott, it is a fact that in order to write a brilliant paper, a first draft must be created. According to Lamott, "The Only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts, all writers write them." (94) This is a quote in which I can relate being that in order for me to begin a final draft, I must first have written a first draft, usually one that is in absolute

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.”

It is pretty awkward to see such a professional writer as Anne Lamott talk about first drafts with such praise. Her fourth paragraph actually makes me question my own process of writing. My writing process is pretty similar to her own, however, I tend to think that writing in such way is a sign of weakness as a writer. Even though I tend to have the same process, reading this article, confirm that my beliefs were wrong. Nevertheless, I have always believed that before writing you have to know the structure, the way things will flow, the coherence and the adequacy of your writing. However, after reading the article, I understood that “[...]all first drafts are terrible.Coherence and, yes, brilliance come from revision”(Anne).

Drafting is a complex process of writing that all writers, professionals and amateurs, can identify with. Since there are infinite interpretations a piece of work can be interpreted by, writers often scrutinize their work and modify it to their "perfection" during the draft process. In "The Makers Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscript," the author reveals that in order to write a successful piece of work, writers need to produce a series of drafts. Each draft can be changed and rearranged to be