Shitty First Drafts Response

ENC2135
Mia Permuy

In the excerpt “Shitty First Drafts”, Anne Lamott humorously explains the writing process that she and many writers like herself go through to get their final draft. Throughout the essay, Lamott creatively expresses the different steps that every writer should experience when writing. She speaks about the dull and tedious efforts that even professional writers endure when attempting to compose a solid piece. To Lamott, “the first draft is the child’s draft; a place where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place”. This means that the first draft to anything, whether it be a column for a magazine or even the beginnings of a new book, begins as a draft that is going to be edited more than once. She explains how writing a first draft assists the writer in letting out all of their thoughts, allowing them to fully express all of their feelings and “let everything out”, so-to-say. By granting the writers an outlet to articulate what they’re feeling, first drafts make final drafts much better. Lamott argues that, “almost all good writings begin with terrible first efforts”. Starting anywhere in the writing process, whether it be with the introduction, the body of the writing, or the conclusion, is a start to the writing process, which is the most important thing when attempting to write any sort of piece. Although it is very underestimated, the first draft is a vital and extremely beneficial step to always take when writing anything. Without the first draft, writing everywhere would be unclean, illegible, and most likely incoherent to the native reader.