Picking up the writing, I expected a list of tips–tips to avoid shitty first drafts basically. But Anne Lamott embraces the fact that shitty first drafts exist and that there’s no escaping this reality. Lamott begins by destroying the fantasy that praised writers have their thoughts all pathed out in their mind, and that they’re simply putting those thoughts onto paper. No, even the best of writers have faced the dilemma of being worthless in the fact of a first draft.
As Lamott pointed out, a first draft serves to bring about better drafts–hopefully–unless you’re that one prodigy that every writer hates. A first draft serves as a basis for the writer to get their thoughts out, the drafts the proceeds are basically after the diamond gets polished by a jeweler. Lamott indicates that even at the final stage, not everybody’s going to like the piece, as shown by the un-subscription by readers after her review gets published.
“Shitty First Drafts” serves as an indicator that you are not the only one experiencing the feeling of writing the horrible first draft that you wrote. Most writers experience the same thing. It’s almost therapy in the form of writing. telling you that it’s okay to write such trash. After a few recycles, the trash will become something useful–an expensive and praised piece of paper. Basically, “you need to start somewhere” (2) in order to get anywhere.
I completely agree with you. I am more math person and for me writing never been that easy. All my life I was looking for some kind of formulas like in math. Like an equation, if you add X to Y and divided by Z you will get a right result. It took me a while to understand that writing is like a music, there is no right or wrong answer there are just unlimited amount of the attends and with each of them you’re improving or develop new ideas and thoughts to your project.
I also had a preconceived notion that this piece would be against writing shitty first drafts, and instead would give tips for getting your thoughts organized and together. The “fantasy” that Lamott “destroyed” serves as a way to relate to discouraged readers, I think. I feel as though an aspect that might scare off writers from this step-by-step process is time. It is extremely consuming to write and rewrite countless shitty and not-so-shitty drafts. That shouldn’t be an issue because, you know, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
A “shitty first draft” shouldn’t be considered a weak thing to do; its in fact extremely helpful for the flow of thoughts and ideas. It’s a nice- even somewhat comforting- feeling to know that “shitty first drafts” are common for writers (specifically professional authors). When I read this in her text, it was almost like a “connecting feeling” between amateur (for lack of a better work) writers and professional authors, in that all writers start at the same place.