In “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft”, George Dilla starts with a sentence that has exactly opposite view from Anne Lamott: “I do not write shitty first drafts.” He personally strongly refuses to write shitty first draft and permissions to write badly. He describes himself as “a ruthless reviser and an eager rewriter.” He gives us an example on how he writes the opening of a short story. He cannot allow himself to start with an unperfect opening sentence so he revises again and again until satisfaction. The story might be revised hundreds of times when the first draft is finished.
In contrast with George Dilla, Anne Lamott approaches first drafts without obsessively revising as she writes. She allows herself to start with anything, which may be terrible at the first but may become good or even terrific later on. She likes to pour out all the ideas into the first drafts. Because of that, her first drafts are always much much longer than the second and third drafts. She would take out the most interesting ideas, sentences, or everything she could from the first draft and start a new, second draft.
My strategy for drafting an essay is a combination of these two approaches. When I write a first draft, I cannot accept to start the essay with a terrible opening sentence but I can allow myself to start a terrible body paragraph. I always think the opening is the most important and the hardest to write because it determines the whole view and tone of the essay. I will revise it again and again until I can accept at a certain point. Then, I will allow myself to put all the ideas and sentences that pop up in my mind to be shown up in the first draft and revise them in the later drafts.