Blog #2

In this article, Anne Lamott discusses the importance of shitty first drafts in writing. She discusses her struggles and numerous other writers’ struggles being lost at figuring out where to begin. When faced with the frustration of writers’ block, Anne found that starting out by jotting down any idea that comes to mind as a first draft helps. No matter how ludicrous the idea may be, write it down because when looking it back over, one may find aspects of the crazy ideas inspire them. After sorting out all the mess, writers often find a sense of direction where they want to take their piece and can begin writing an improved second draft.

For some reason, Anne’s and my experience writing seem to contradict. After 12 years of grade school English and countless papers, never once did I make a shitty first draft. My first draft was always my final draft, and somehow I never made less than an A+. Yet Anne states in her article, “Now, practically even better news than that of short assignments is the idea of shitty first drafts. All good writers write them.” It would only make sense to take a published, successful authors word, right? Does that mean I’m a shitty writer and my good grades were just flukes? Hopefully not. Hopefully the more important message being conveyed is that there is no right or wrong approach to a first draft as long as you begin writing.