I
enjoyed reading “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott’s because it made me feel
less insecure about my writing. She talked about how many experienced writers
that have had their work published and viewed by hundreds of people run into
the same problems that students run into when constructing a paper. Most people
assume that experienced writers sit down for a couple of hours and automatically
start writing a perfect piece when they really don’t, they go through the same
cycle students do when writing a piece. Beginning a paper is the toughest part
in writing a paper because many ideas are all over the place and I am focused
on perfecting my first draft so that I do not have to put so much effort into
the other drafts when it should be different. A first draft should be a mess
but should hold the basic concepts and ideas that one plans on talking about
within the paper. Once the first draft has been finalized the other drafts will
enable the writer to input more intellectual words as well as fix any grammar
problems. Even though a first draft is dreadful, it helps a lot with the papers
outcome. I do not enjoy writing as much as other people do and came into this
course with a negative mindset but after reading this piece my perspective has changed
and I am looking forward to improving my writing. I plan on applying what I
learned through this piece to my present life when starting to write a paper.
Throughout chapter 1 of “The Bedford Book of Genres,” I learned that there are a variety of ways to improve one’s writing. Several writers tend to get carried away while writing that they forget who their audience is and what message they are trying to deliver. This is when one must ask themselves what their purpose of writing is, do they want to present a narrative/ tell a story, inform, or persuade. After figuring out ones purpose they must choose a genre to be able to shorten their idea and be concise. In order for this to occur one must know the basic qualities and agreed-upon rules about the genre they are composing. Once one makes those decisions they move on to the rhetorical situation which mainly explains the idea. This allows the writer to provide support on their purpose such as saying what is great about it or provide statistics, which will automatically make their writing more interesting for the audience to read, as well as, get t...
This article did shed some light as to what happens behind the works of some of the best selling novels out there and that those exact words did not go on the first draft as planned. It definitely made me feel better about my writings in their first draft phases and I agree that this is indeed the most difficult stage out of all aspects of writing.
ReplyDeleteYes! Exactly what I said! The way Anne Lamott wrote this piece definitely made me less insecure about my writing. She does a great job reassuring the audience that nobody's first draft is good. Spending too much time trying to perfect the first, or even the second draft, can hurt not only your time management, but your creative process. You have to let your ideas flow before you can worry about perfection.
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