Please read and annotate Anne Lamott’s essay “Shitty First Drafts”. You can find this assignment and the link to the essay on Perusall. Please add a minimum of three notes to Lamott’s essay. These could be reactions, questions, definitions, or alternate strategies.
Also read George Dila, “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft”, which you can find here on the blog, under the “Texts” tab above. In a comment on this post, please share your reactions to these two essays. Which approach more closely aligns with your own draft-writing style?How has that served you? Which essay did you find more convincing? Why? Your response should be 250-300 words and should be posted to the blog by 12:00 on Monday.
20 thoughts on “Homework for Monday, September 19th”
George Dila’s approach more closely aligns with my own draft-writing style. This method has done me justice in the sense that I end up with one product and that is the final one. On the other hand, if I am truly stuck, hours can go by and I will still have a blank page. The other method at least ensures that stuff will be written down. I found Dila’s essay more convincing for a few reasons. One reason is that instead of pushing one argument like Lamott’s essay, Dila’s essay encourages the reader to follow their own path in terms of which draft style will work for them instead of completely shutting down all other mediums and hailing her method as the one and only for writers if they want to be successful. The other reason is that Dila connected her way of doing her draft to an example of her personal work which made her more credible as she has proven results with it.
The difference between “Shitty First Drafts” and “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft”, by Anne Lamott and George Dila, is that they take different perspectives on how people write literature. With Lamott’s view on how we are supposed to write, we want to be able to express everything that we believe on a certain topic without any restraint and after narrowing it down until we have a finished product. Dila believes that different people have different styles of writing and need to find what works best for them as writers, as some people may have to get a solid starting point before knowing where they want to continue with their thought process.
Understanding how people express ideas and communicate with others is an interesting study that has not been fully narrowed down in which we know what will work for different people to express themselves. Many people when writing first drafts or trying to solve a problem completely throw out their first attempt at a solution. Some people are perfectionists, some people believe that they only need to get their work done quickly and that it will be good enough. There are so many different types of people and we are not able to understand the different types of writers especially. Dila has the more convincing argument because of this because he does not say that the bad first draft idea does not work for everyone, but says that not everyone should adopt this as it will not work for everyone. Especially for me, I like to do a mix of both in which I try to put all my ideas out, and then revise my writing to make it more understandable and concise.
The difference between the two essays , Anne Lamott’s essay “Shitty First Drafts” and George Dila, “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” is that they explain two different ways in how to do a draft essay. People around the world have different approaches on things for example on how to do your first draft of an essay – But in the end the result is going to be the same, having a final draft essay that is ready to be turned in. At the same time you need to be able to understand each POV because these methods are a few of the different ways people like to start writing their drafting essay’s. Some people do their essays based on how they are as a person, meaning that a person who is more organized and likes to have things in order will pick the second approach rather than the first one, while a person who is not as organized will pick the first approach because that’s how their brain functions and “helps them understand” things better. The second approach closely aligns best with my own draft-writing style because I like to do everything as I go, so in the end all I have left to do is re-read it a couple of times out loud and in my head to see how it sounds. Doing this method has never failed me and has always worked when I’m writing draft essays. The essay that I found more convincing was George Dila, “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” because he uses a real life problem – Building a house, and using Anne Lamott’s method, he shows how it will not work because eventually you’re going to have to re do the house all over again.
The approach that George Dila uses is the one that aligns with the way I personally create my first drafts. I like to revise each part of my draft and read it aloud to make sure it sounds good to myself and then continue to start the next part of the draft. For me this sort of writing style has been my favorite and it has served me well. Revisional writing as spoken by George Dila in “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” helps me create the building blocks for a house but in terms of a draft. If I were to do it in a messy type of way the house would not come out the way I would have liked it and would quickly collapse and would be easier to dismantle than to settle in. I find George Dila’s essay much more convincing than Amy’s essays as he covers both sides of the spectrum on what you should use to write a draft and implies that a writer should use the way that best suits them and shouldn’t drought themselves for not using the method that Amy explained in her essay since not every writer uses the same way of pouring out all the mess like Amy spoke of but rather there are some like George who like to take their time and fix their draft along each step. According to “Rethinking the shitty draft” by George Dila he states “So my advice, contrary to Miss Lamott’s, is to write the way that works for you. If it works for you to pour it all out, pour away. If you can’t write that way, don’t try. And by all means, don’t feel guilty about it.” This proves that George does not think there is a set stage for how you should write your first draft and its best to use the way that you like and has worked for you.
The text “Shitty First Draft” by Anne Lamontt and “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” by George Dila share contrasting methods of how to write. Lamott’s belief is that you should dump everything that comes to mind in the first draft. Although beginning off “shitty” you laid out a foundation where you can pull the keep the good pieces and pull the bad out. This way you can better your writing with every draft you do. Dila’s belief is that instead of starting “shitty”, you should continuously revise what you write. This way you still end up with good writing and you don’t have to play with bad writing which might not even become useful.
In the past I have used Dila’s way of writing more. I avoid drafts because they require me to write more and I’d rather write once and revise. I used this method to write my college essay and I was very proud of what I wrote. It took me three days to finish writing it, but maybe two weeks to finish revising it. I never found revising my essay to be tedious because I was already fine with what I already wrote. Although Lamott’s method is best to start writing when you are stuck, which is a problem I have, I would say Dila was more convincing to me. The other benefit of Lamott’s method is that your writing gets better draft by draft, but Dila’s method is still open to improvement through revision. Dila also provides the counter argument that starting off with a bad piece of writing can mean you have to tear it all down to fix it.
The two essays “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott and “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” by George Dila show two different ways to write a draft. In “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott she believes that you should write down whatever comes to your mind no matter what it is. She said that no one is going to see your draft and that you can fix it later. While on the other hand “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” by George Dila he explains that his method of writing is to edit along the way while you write rather than putting all your thoughts at once and fixing them later. The one I closely align with is George Dila. I always didn’t like wasting time making multiple drafts so instead, I like to make corrections as I write my essay. This method has gotten me an above expectations score. While this method does the job, I feel like there are better ways to exceed this method. The essay that got me convinced was “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” by George Dila when he talked about the building of the house. As stated “The builder has all his materials on site. He begins pouring cement for the foundation, it is uneven and the cement is somewhat watery, but he can’t stop to fix it. He begins hammering the walls up. They are cockeyed, and a bit shaky, but no problem, he can fix them later. He begins working on the roof. Oops. Forgot the electrical wiring. Well, he’ll get it later”(1 Dila). I was shocked at how he showed a comparison to Anne Lamott method by saying that what is the point of building a house that is uneven when you have to take it down and redo it again eventually.
My own preference of the two stories is “Rethinking the shitty first draft” by George Dila. i prefer this story due to the fact that i am a person that likes to follow my own path when it comes to writing a draft. i like to let my thoughts flow my own way. Dila doesnt force writers to shut down every other method and only use their own way of writing which is really nice because sometimes the same style isn’t for everyone. this makes it feel more professional/
In the two essays “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamot and “Rethinking The Shitty First Draft” by George Dila, both share different opinions about writing a first draft. They both share two methods they use to write their first drafts. In “Shitty First Drafts”, Anne believes that in order to achieve a good final draft is to jot down all ideas in your first draft. To brainstorm and write it down because it may take a few pages of ideas to then find something that really stands out to you and build upon from there. However, in “Rethinking The Shitty First Draft” George completely disagrees with the method Anne uses for drafting. She believes that you should revise as you go in the draft. You should not wait until the end to go back and fix everything up. She provided an example of a builder building a house. How if the builder allows all the mistakes to occur in the process of building the house instead of fixing them at the same instant the house wouldn’t turn out great in the end. In my opinion, I connect more with Goerge Dila in regards to writing my first draft because I tend to fix my mistakes as I go, I feel like only then all my ideas in my head would display better. It has helped me write all my essays in high school which really made me see the George Dila essay more convincing to me. I say this because I feel like not only will you be able to know what you are doing wrong at the moment, it also saves you time. For example if you have a 10 page essay due you may not have the time to do double or triple drafts. Instead you can fix your mistakes as you go and then polish it up once you are finished.
The two essays “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” and “Shitty First Drafts” have different points of view on writing. Anne uses a lot of humor for the audience to better understand her perspective on what happens when writing a first draft. While George talks about a straight forward plan on writing a good draft. George relates to writing a draft to building a house and Anne relates it to a dental step. I enjoyed reading Anne’s message that it takes time for a good writer to publish a good piece. Her essays include a variety of humor and includes many of her personal experiences which were quite interesting.Furthermore, in my perspective Anne closely aligns with my own draft-writing style. This is because her experience whenever writing a draft is something I relate to. I like to believe “trusting the process” as Anne mentioned is more important than rushing into a writing that doesn’t make sense. For example, if I had an idea that came across my mind I would keep on writing before I lose my thought rather than going back to fixing each little mistake.
I’m glad that you took note of the “style” of the two essays. I agree that Lamott uses a lot of humor in her essay. That is a good reminder that we don’t need to be afraid to inject humor or lightness into our own writing – even when it’s for school!
“Shitty First Drafts” by Anna Lamott and
“Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” by George Dila are both texts about the dreaded first draft of writing. I enjoyed reading both perspectives because I found that I am a mix of both.
Lamott’s idea is that the writer should just write to write. Ideas will flow, and before long the draft will be complete. In this draft, Lamott claims that there must be at least a few good ideas that you can take with you to the second draft, which is why brain dumping for the first is a good strategy. Dila offers writers another way of thinking in which he states that different people will have different ways of writing and should find what works best for them. A one-size-fits-all policy for writing wouldn’t work, simply because people think and articulate themselves differently. For example, while some people like Lamott’s brain dumping strategy, perfectionists might find it hard to move on if every part of the piece is to their standard.
My style of writing takes a hybrid of both essays but I enjoyed Dila’s essay more. I appreciated how he identifies that writers should strive to find their own unique style that works for them instead of using just a standard one. Personally, I write all of the ideas I want to convey in the essay and then outline the structure that I want to use. The outline provides me with a brain map and I use it to write my essays quickly and effectively. When I’m stuck, I use Lamott’s strategy and just write to write. Otherwise, I stick to my outline strategy.
After reading both essays, I can relate more to “Rethinking The Shitty First draft”. The reason for this is that I too struggle to start out an essay, poem, or short responses. I just don’t know what to write. The idea of writing a first draft is to notice what you can improve on. It is a step towards making your writing perfection, “Just let it all pour out. Let it romp around. The result will be shitty, but you can make it perfect, or at least better, later on.” It is important to realize that your first writing draft is never going to be perfect. You will have to make revisions. Thats why there is Draft 1, then draft 2 and finally draft 3. That way you should have a perfect essay or poem by the end.
What you are describing sounds a lot more like Anne Lamott’s approach (“Shitty First Drafts”) than George Dila’s!!!
Anne Lamott’s style of drafting is what I use for everything. Whether I have to write an essay for school or send a long text message to a friend, I will start off with a “shitty” draft. I write down the main points that I am trying to make, and everything else afterwards. In my opinion, once you start editing your first draft like George Dial does, it is not a “first” draft anymore.
Sometimes the most spontaneous ideas are the best ones. It is very important to not invalidate your own thoughts when it comes to writing because then your confidence will start to fade away. I really disliked an example of a builder that George Dial provided. Writing and building are completely different things. When building something is more of a physical work, writing is your mental state. If a person was to write an essay on a topic, and then write another essay on the same topic a few days afterwards, there would be two completely different pieces. It is very important to let your essay sit untouched for a day, so tomorrow you could go over it and come up with something better.
I appreciate your critique of Dila’s central metaphor (building a house)! I wonder what metaphor you might replace it with? What would take into account the idea of spontaneity that you highlight here?
In both Essay’s, “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott and “Rethinking the shitty First Draft” by George Dila take on contrasting perspectives on how first drafts should be written. Anne Lamott’s writing style focuses on writing various drafts and revising them until the writer is satisfied with their work. On the other hand George Dila Is more comfortable with he idea of having one draft instead of obsessively revising a paper. George Dila’s drafting style aligns with what I feel comfortable with. I tend to go over what I wrote by reading it over several times to get a sense of what it is that I’m trying to write down and by doing this I am saving myself sometime rather than making many drafts. In the end I feel satisfied with all my ideas being placed in one draft. I found Dila’s Essay more convincing because he gave an example such as the “shitty house” to demonstrate readers the difference between his style and Lamott’s. He also points out how everyones writing style is unique because it is what works for them. He states, “All first drafts are shit,” Hemingway said. I think what he should have said was “All my first drafts are shit, because that’s my writing method.” But it’s not my writing method.” In the end he advises writers to not feel guilty when it comes to revising a paper various times because they should do whatever style it is that they feel the most confident in.
Your last point is an important one!
The two essays “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott and “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” by George Dila talks about two different different ways people write a draft. In “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott she believes that you should write down whatever comes to your mind, She states that no one is going to see your draft and that you can fix it later. In the essay “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” by George Dila he explains that his method of writing is to edit along the way while you write rather than putting all your thoughts at once and fixing them later. The one I mostly relate to is George Dila’s essay. I personally don’t really like doing drafts, I just write and fix as I go. Actually its kind of a mix of both because I do edit as I write but then sometimes when I’m finished writing I like to go back and fix some errors and sometimes add new things that came through my head.
The approach that George Dila uses is the way I personally write my first drafts. I always to revise and reread each part of my draft and read it aloud and make sure everything is sound good. This writing style has been the best way to do it for me and it has serves me well.
In the two readings “shitty first drafts” and “rethinking the shitty first drafts” both perspectives show how two different people write their essays one is a perfectionist and very demanding of themselves and another is very outgoing and likes to go into major detail about the smallest things. Anne Lamott is very explanatory and has wild thoughts about her essay and gets her thoughts to her fingertips to the keyboards and says what comes to mind about what is being experienced at the current moment. On the other hand George Dila is a perfectionist she has a rule that you can’t start off the writing in a shitty way, no mistakes are allowed, you can’t edit your writing later on, you can’t end of your essay in a bad way or else you can’t consider yourself a writer.
George Dila’s approach more closely aligns with my own draft-writing style. This method has done me justice in the sense that I end up with one product and that is the final one. On the other hand, if I am truly stuck, hours can go by and I will still have a blank page. The other method at least ensures that stuff will be written down. I found Dila’s essay more convincing for a few reasons. One reason is that instead of pushing one argument like Lamott’s essay, Dila’s essay encourages the reader to follow their own path in terms of which draft style will work for them instead of completely shutting down all other mediums and hailing her method as the one and only for writers if they want to be successful. The other reason is that Dila connected her way of doing her draft to an example of her personal work which made her more credible as she has proven results with it.
The difference between “Shitty First Drafts” and “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft”, by Anne Lamott and George Dila, is that they take different perspectives on how people write literature. With Lamott’s view on how we are supposed to write, we want to be able to express everything that we believe on a certain topic without any restraint and after narrowing it down until we have a finished product. Dila believes that different people have different styles of writing and need to find what works best for them as writers, as some people may have to get a solid starting point before knowing where they want to continue with their thought process.
Understanding how people express ideas and communicate with others is an interesting study that has not been fully narrowed down in which we know what will work for different people to express themselves. Many people when writing first drafts or trying to solve a problem completely throw out their first attempt at a solution. Some people are perfectionists, some people believe that they only need to get their work done quickly and that it will be good enough. There are so many different types of people and we are not able to understand the different types of writers especially. Dila has the more convincing argument because of this because he does not say that the bad first draft idea does not work for everyone, but says that not everyone should adopt this as it will not work for everyone. Especially for me, I like to do a mix of both in which I try to put all my ideas out, and then revise my writing to make it more understandable and concise.
The difference between the two essays , Anne Lamott’s essay “Shitty First Drafts” and George Dila, “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” is that they explain two different ways in how to do a draft essay. People around the world have different approaches on things for example on how to do your first draft of an essay – But in the end the result is going to be the same, having a final draft essay that is ready to be turned in. At the same time you need to be able to understand each POV because these methods are a few of the different ways people like to start writing their drafting essay’s. Some people do their essays based on how they are as a person, meaning that a person who is more organized and likes to have things in order will pick the second approach rather than the first one, while a person who is not as organized will pick the first approach because that’s how their brain functions and “helps them understand” things better. The second approach closely aligns best with my own draft-writing style because I like to do everything as I go, so in the end all I have left to do is re-read it a couple of times out loud and in my head to see how it sounds. Doing this method has never failed me and has always worked when I’m writing draft essays. The essay that I found more convincing was George Dila, “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” because he uses a real life problem – Building a house, and using Anne Lamott’s method, he shows how it will not work because eventually you’re going to have to re do the house all over again.
The approach that George Dila uses is the one that aligns with the way I personally create my first drafts. I like to revise each part of my draft and read it aloud to make sure it sounds good to myself and then continue to start the next part of the draft. For me this sort of writing style has been my favorite and it has served me well. Revisional writing as spoken by George Dila in “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” helps me create the building blocks for a house but in terms of a draft. If I were to do it in a messy type of way the house would not come out the way I would have liked it and would quickly collapse and would be easier to dismantle than to settle in. I find George Dila’s essay much more convincing than Amy’s essays as he covers both sides of the spectrum on what you should use to write a draft and implies that a writer should use the way that best suits them and shouldn’t drought themselves for not using the method that Amy explained in her essay since not every writer uses the same way of pouring out all the mess like Amy spoke of but rather there are some like George who like to take their time and fix their draft along each step. According to “Rethinking the shitty draft” by George Dila he states “So my advice, contrary to Miss Lamott’s, is to write the way that works for you. If it works for you to pour it all out, pour away. If you can’t write that way, don’t try. And by all means, don’t feel guilty about it.” This proves that George does not think there is a set stage for how you should write your first draft and its best to use the way that you like and has worked for you.
The text “Shitty First Draft” by Anne Lamontt and “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” by George Dila share contrasting methods of how to write. Lamott’s belief is that you should dump everything that comes to mind in the first draft. Although beginning off “shitty” you laid out a foundation where you can pull the keep the good pieces and pull the bad out. This way you can better your writing with every draft you do. Dila’s belief is that instead of starting “shitty”, you should continuously revise what you write. This way you still end up with good writing and you don’t have to play with bad writing which might not even become useful.
In the past I have used Dila’s way of writing more. I avoid drafts because they require me to write more and I’d rather write once and revise. I used this method to write my college essay and I was very proud of what I wrote. It took me three days to finish writing it, but maybe two weeks to finish revising it. I never found revising my essay to be tedious because I was already fine with what I already wrote. Although Lamott’s method is best to start writing when you are stuck, which is a problem I have, I would say Dila was more convincing to me. The other benefit of Lamott’s method is that your writing gets better draft by draft, but Dila’s method is still open to improvement through revision. Dila also provides the counter argument that starting off with a bad piece of writing can mean you have to tear it all down to fix it.
The two essays “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott and “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” by George Dila show two different ways to write a draft. In “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott she believes that you should write down whatever comes to your mind no matter what it is. She said that no one is going to see your draft and that you can fix it later. While on the other hand “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” by George Dila he explains that his method of writing is to edit along the way while you write rather than putting all your thoughts at once and fixing them later. The one I closely align with is George Dila. I always didn’t like wasting time making multiple drafts so instead, I like to make corrections as I write my essay. This method has gotten me an above expectations score. While this method does the job, I feel like there are better ways to exceed this method. The essay that got me convinced was “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” by George Dila when he talked about the building of the house. As stated “The builder has all his materials on site. He begins pouring cement for the foundation, it is uneven and the cement is somewhat watery, but he can’t stop to fix it. He begins hammering the walls up. They are cockeyed, and a bit shaky, but no problem, he can fix them later. He begins working on the roof. Oops. Forgot the electrical wiring. Well, he’ll get it later”(1 Dila). I was shocked at how he showed a comparison to Anne Lamott method by saying that what is the point of building a house that is uneven when you have to take it down and redo it again eventually.
My own preference of the two stories is “Rethinking the shitty first draft” by George Dila. i prefer this story due to the fact that i am a person that likes to follow my own path when it comes to writing a draft. i like to let my thoughts flow my own way. Dila doesnt force writers to shut down every other method and only use their own way of writing which is really nice because sometimes the same style isn’t for everyone. this makes it feel more professional/
In the two essays “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamot and “Rethinking The Shitty First Draft” by George Dila, both share different opinions about writing a first draft. They both share two methods they use to write their first drafts. In “Shitty First Drafts”, Anne believes that in order to achieve a good final draft is to jot down all ideas in your first draft. To brainstorm and write it down because it may take a few pages of ideas to then find something that really stands out to you and build upon from there. However, in “Rethinking The Shitty First Draft” George completely disagrees with the method Anne uses for drafting. She believes that you should revise as you go in the draft. You should not wait until the end to go back and fix everything up. She provided an example of a builder building a house. How if the builder allows all the mistakes to occur in the process of building the house instead of fixing them at the same instant the house wouldn’t turn out great in the end. In my opinion, I connect more with Goerge Dila in regards to writing my first draft because I tend to fix my mistakes as I go, I feel like only then all my ideas in my head would display better. It has helped me write all my essays in high school which really made me see the George Dila essay more convincing to me. I say this because I feel like not only will you be able to know what you are doing wrong at the moment, it also saves you time. For example if you have a 10 page essay due you may not have the time to do double or triple drafts. Instead you can fix your mistakes as you go and then polish it up once you are finished.
The two essays “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” and “Shitty First Drafts” have different points of view on writing. Anne uses a lot of humor for the audience to better understand her perspective on what happens when writing a first draft. While George talks about a straight forward plan on writing a good draft. George relates to writing a draft to building a house and Anne relates it to a dental step. I enjoyed reading Anne’s message that it takes time for a good writer to publish a good piece. Her essays include a variety of humor and includes many of her personal experiences which were quite interesting.Furthermore, in my perspective Anne closely aligns with my own draft-writing style. This is because her experience whenever writing a draft is something I relate to. I like to believe “trusting the process” as Anne mentioned is more important than rushing into a writing that doesn’t make sense. For example, if I had an idea that came across my mind I would keep on writing before I lose my thought rather than going back to fixing each little mistake.
I’m glad that you took note of the “style” of the two essays. I agree that Lamott uses a lot of humor in her essay. That is a good reminder that we don’t need to be afraid to inject humor or lightness into our own writing – even when it’s for school!
“Shitty First Drafts” by Anna Lamott and
“Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” by George Dila are both texts about the dreaded first draft of writing. I enjoyed reading both perspectives because I found that I am a mix of both.
Lamott’s idea is that the writer should just write to write. Ideas will flow, and before long the draft will be complete. In this draft, Lamott claims that there must be at least a few good ideas that you can take with you to the second draft, which is why brain dumping for the first is a good strategy. Dila offers writers another way of thinking in which he states that different people will have different ways of writing and should find what works best for them. A one-size-fits-all policy for writing wouldn’t work, simply because people think and articulate themselves differently. For example, while some people like Lamott’s brain dumping strategy, perfectionists might find it hard to move on if every part of the piece is to their standard.
My style of writing takes a hybrid of both essays but I enjoyed Dila’s essay more. I appreciated how he identifies that writers should strive to find their own unique style that works for them instead of using just a standard one. Personally, I write all of the ideas I want to convey in the essay and then outline the structure that I want to use. The outline provides me with a brain map and I use it to write my essays quickly and effectively. When I’m stuck, I use Lamott’s strategy and just write to write. Otherwise, I stick to my outline strategy.
After reading both essays, I can relate more to “Rethinking The Shitty First draft”. The reason for this is that I too struggle to start out an essay, poem, or short responses. I just don’t know what to write. The idea of writing a first draft is to notice what you can improve on. It is a step towards making your writing perfection, “Just let it all pour out. Let it romp around. The result will be shitty, but you can make it perfect, or at least better, later on.” It is important to realize that your first writing draft is never going to be perfect. You will have to make revisions. Thats why there is Draft 1, then draft 2 and finally draft 3. That way you should have a perfect essay or poem by the end.
What you are describing sounds a lot more like Anne Lamott’s approach (“Shitty First Drafts”) than George Dila’s!!!
Anne Lamott’s style of drafting is what I use for everything. Whether I have to write an essay for school or send a long text message to a friend, I will start off with a “shitty” draft. I write down the main points that I am trying to make, and everything else afterwards. In my opinion, once you start editing your first draft like George Dial does, it is not a “first” draft anymore.
Sometimes the most spontaneous ideas are the best ones. It is very important to not invalidate your own thoughts when it comes to writing because then your confidence will start to fade away. I really disliked an example of a builder that George Dial provided. Writing and building are completely different things. When building something is more of a physical work, writing is your mental state. If a person was to write an essay on a topic, and then write another essay on the same topic a few days afterwards, there would be two completely different pieces. It is very important to let your essay sit untouched for a day, so tomorrow you could go over it and come up with something better.
I appreciate your critique of Dila’s central metaphor (building a house)! I wonder what metaphor you might replace it with? What would take into account the idea of spontaneity that you highlight here?
In both Essay’s, “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott and “Rethinking the shitty First Draft” by George Dila take on contrasting perspectives on how first drafts should be written. Anne Lamott’s writing style focuses on writing various drafts and revising them until the writer is satisfied with their work. On the other hand George Dila Is more comfortable with he idea of having one draft instead of obsessively revising a paper. George Dila’s drafting style aligns with what I feel comfortable with. I tend to go over what I wrote by reading it over several times to get a sense of what it is that I’m trying to write down and by doing this I am saving myself sometime rather than making many drafts. In the end I feel satisfied with all my ideas being placed in one draft. I found Dila’s Essay more convincing because he gave an example such as the “shitty house” to demonstrate readers the difference between his style and Lamott’s. He also points out how everyones writing style is unique because it is what works for them. He states, “All first drafts are shit,” Hemingway said. I think what he should have said was “All my first drafts are shit, because that’s my writing method.” But it’s not my writing method.” In the end he advises writers to not feel guilty when it comes to revising a paper various times because they should do whatever style it is that they feel the most confident in.
Your last point is an important one!
The two essays “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott and “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” by George Dila talks about two different different ways people write a draft. In “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott she believes that you should write down whatever comes to your mind, She states that no one is going to see your draft and that you can fix it later. In the essay “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft” by George Dila he explains that his method of writing is to edit along the way while you write rather than putting all your thoughts at once and fixing them later. The one I mostly relate to is George Dila’s essay. I personally don’t really like doing drafts, I just write and fix as I go. Actually its kind of a mix of both because I do edit as I write but then sometimes when I’m finished writing I like to go back and fix some errors and sometimes add new things that came through my head.
The approach that George Dila uses is the way I personally write my first drafts. I always to revise and reread each part of my draft and read it aloud and make sure everything is sound good. This writing style has been the best way to do it for me and it has serves me well.
In the two readings “shitty first drafts” and “rethinking the shitty first drafts” both perspectives show how two different people write their essays one is a perfectionist and very demanding of themselves and another is very outgoing and likes to go into major detail about the smallest things. Anne Lamott is very explanatory and has wild thoughts about her essay and gets her thoughts to her fingertips to the keyboards and says what comes to mind about what is being experienced at the current moment. On the other hand George Dila is a perfectionist she has a rule that you can’t start off the writing in a shitty way, no mistakes are allowed, you can’t edit your writing later on, you can’t end of your essay in a bad way or else you can’t consider yourself a writer.