Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott reassured me that it was not just me. I have done similar to what Anne has done a tremendous amount of times in a bunch of my classes. I could resonate with this article because even trying to write right now, I could not originally think to write anything down, but I just started typing and let my ideas flow. By doing this, it allows my imagination to shine through and allows my creative side be almost like a free spirit, going in whichever direction it wants to take me.
In my sophomore year of high school, I had an English teacher that in every class she began by putting a quote on the board. Each kid in the class would have to jot down their first thoughts on what the quote meant or what they thought of it. Even if the quote was difficult to understand or in my mind was so confusing that it was more like a bunch of words put together without a meaning to it, we were instructed to just write anything about it, and no one was allowed to have a blank piece of paper. I think this little daily activity actually taught me a few things about writing. When a few kids in the class would read theirs out loud, often their interpretations of the same quote would be very different, which was pretty cool to see. It showed me how creative people were with their ideas. This activity also taught me that sometimes in your writing you might not have an idea off the bat that you want to stick with, but when you just put anything down it allows your brain and mind to start thinking and will lead you in new directions, once you put something down. It might take a few tries to get it right, but you have to start from somewhere, otherwise you will never have anything other than a real shitty first draft.
I had a teacher in high school who did a similar exercise in class everyday and I think that really helped me out whenever I needed to write something and didn’t know where to start. I completely agree with what you said about just typing and letting your ideas flow. That’s pretty much the way I have been doing my writing recently and I find it to be much more effective than sitting around and waiting for writers block to pass.
I had the same experience as you while I was in school, not in high school but in middle school. Every time we arrived to class we didn’t do anything but write ideas or anything that popped up in our minds that related to the quote of the idea. We all had to read one or two sentences of what we wrote. I think this idea has helped out. When we had to write something it didn’t have to be complete sentences, just words related to the quote. I agree with you that while doing this exercise it helps our minds come up with ideas and we don’t have to stick with them, we can always change them.
I think it’s good to point out that this is an experience that many people have. When we read other people’s writing, we only see the finished product. We don’t see all the shitty drafts and revisions and changes. This leads a lot of people to think theyre simply bad writers.