After reading, “Shitting First Drafts” I feel like my writing style when it comes to essays lean towards Lamotts style then Dila’s style. I expect my first draft to my second draft to be on the shitty to mediocre side due to the inexperience or the randomness of the specific topic. Also the fact that my work always sounds better when revised and looked at multiple times. I feel like with George, he takes Lamott’s style a bit serious and take offense to his statement. Unlike Lamott, George takes offense to the thought of any first pieces of his as shitty. I’m assuming due to the fact that your diminishing your creative and writing value before you even start the written assignment/subject. You set the bar for your first piece low since you already assume that it’ll be crap, resulting to crappy work. The fact that you feel your first piece of work isn’t good enough also prevents the motivation a writer needs in order to perfect his craft. So, I feel I can relate my writing style in the middle with both Lamott’s and Dila’s aspects and view points on their first drafts. I expect my first pieces of writing to be lacking the requirments for the assignment/subject but I don’t expect myself to be writing something that I feel would belittle how I write. I shouldn’t expect every first piece of my writing to be straight garbage, and/or being the best piece of writing when it’s a first draft.
Even though Lamott and Dila both use the adjective “shitty,” one suggestion I would have would be to try to avoid judging your own work so harshly. Even if your first draft is a mess, as Lamott describes, that doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong or that it’s bad work. That mess is a vital part of the process towards the finished piece of writing.