After reading both text by George Dila and Anne Lamott, we can see that their writing styles differ immensely. While George Dila prefers to revise his sentences as he writes his papers, Anne Lamott prefers to do the opposite. Instead, Lamott prefers that you let it all out by writing a crappy first draft, knowing that no one is going to see it, and then later revising it continuously through second and third drafts.
Throughout my entire writing career, I have used Anne Lamott’s approach. Every time, I begin a paper, I find myself always in a phase of writer’s block. Sometimes, I would start a paper in the body, rather than starting with the introduction. Sometimes, I would just start listing ideas that can possibly be added to my paragraph, however those ideas would not flow with the sentence before. Writing has never been my strong suit, that a sentence that I type onto Google Docs would be perfect. Sometimes, I may need as many as ten drafts before it’s at least a decent to read. Just as Anne Lamott states, “A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft – you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft – you fix it up. You try to say that you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it’s loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy.” I find myself often always elaborating on my ideas at random times of the day. It could be the middle of the night and I’m lying in bed having a hard time falling asleep, I would come up with some of my best thinking at that time. For me, there’s not enough drafts for me to write a perfect paper – maybe it’s because sometimes I can be a perfectionist.
I give a big prop to writers like George Dila because it’s not easy spitting out a perfect sentence. Being able to only draft one writing means you have confident in your writing and that’s something I lack. Definitely, someday I do hope to be at this level.