I am not someone who loves writing, but I do appreciate it and love to read. I find it hard to bring myself to write for the fun of it because I couldn't get past the first draft of it due to embarrassment, when all I was doing was comparing my work to novels who were published on maybe their third or fourth drafts. Anne Lamott's article about shitty first drafts puts into perspective how most successful writers go through the same horrible first draft. She makes the process more relatable for everyone going through their first drafts, because after that is where the "magic" happens. This article definitely makes me feel better about my upcoming writing assignments in this course and beyond. No one is perfect when it comes to writing and to know the other side of successful author's lives and the work that is put behind their novels makes it feel like it is more attainable than I had originally thought it would be.
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...
I agree with your sense of relief after reading this article, and how much work is put into a good piece of writing. With the knowledge of a 'Shitty First Draft' and how much it can help with any form of writing, makes the "magic" seem not so out of reach.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the article makes things more clear when it come to writers and how much effort they put into it before they have published books. it shows that they don't just write amazing first drafts and are done with it, they have to continue to review.
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