Shitty First Draft

​Like any other college student, or student in general, I’ve written many papers varying from topic to topic. These papers usually took on the same path; after hours of writing and erasing and repeating the process once more, I finally had a first draft. When it came to my first drafts I always found it hard to solidify my ideas and would crumble under the pressure of trying to create the perfect first draft. When I was writing I looked at my first draft as what I wanted my final paper to be, my final paper had to be perfect, so my first had to be just the same. Anne Lamott brings up the idea of accepting a less than adequate first draft. She brings up how many famous authors fail to strike gold with their first lines. Lamott brings up a good point where she mentions that not all great writers wake up feeling enthusiastic about the piece they’re about to right. Many professional writers create their first draft keeping their errors and mistakes while using those same errors and mistakes as fodder for their final pieces. I feel the advice given in this article should be greatly considered as many ideas are often lost as we as novice writers attempt to create perfection with our first pages. Through Lamott I learned that it’s not only to write a horrendous piece to start off with, but it should be encouraged and used as a method to lay out clearer ideas.