Who would have thought that the start of a paper, book, or any writing would be so difficult for not only students but also experienced writers. Anne Lamott expresses the process she goes through during her “Shitty First Drafts” and how she goes about when writing them. Not only she gets ideas from her every day life, but also from people who surround her. Lamott mentions that every good read, no matter who the writer is, came after a couple of written draft pages. The first draft is what she likes to call a child’s draft or what her friend calls “the down draft” where she just writes anything on her mind, in order to figure out what she wants her topic to be about. The second draft is “the up-draft” to get her ideas more clear and the third draft is what her friend calls “the dental draft” where you analyze every sentence to make a terrific well written piece.
Anne Lamott’s writing give me a sense of comfort and encouragement. I’ve always had difficulties writing an essay or project for school forcing me to always brain storm first, then write a couple of bullet point ideas and then proceeding into writing my first draft page. This strategy might take longer than it would take a native speaker, but knowing that even well-known writers have to go through various draft pages to make a final piece, give me some peace of mind.
Anne’s writing definitely comforted and encouraged me too. It made it clear that it’s perfectly ok to have an ugly writing process and to go through multiple bad drafts before getting things right. That certainly takes a lot of pressure off!
I also felt a sense of encouragement and relief when I read what Lamott pointed out about even the most experienced of writers. As much as you know that everyone starts out at the same place, no matter their professional level, when writing a piece it’s nice to be reminded that it’s okay not to have your ideas straight right off the bat. Everything takes time. Thinking of the drafts as a “down draft”, like you said, takes a lot of the pressure off when writing, and I like that idea.