Getting started on a writing assignment isn’t always easy. Especially when it comes to writing the first draft. it’s like, where do I begin? I did brainstorm some ideas but still I have no clue where to begin, I’m stuck.
Anne Lamott says that okay. Throughout her “Shitty First Drafts” article she uses humor and sarcasm to let the readers know that they are not alone in the feeling of being lost when it comes to beginning your assignment. She also explains it’s okay to make mistakes, everyone makes them. Lamott even shares, ” even after I’d been doing this for years, panic would set in. I’d try to write a lead, but instead I’d write a couple sentences, XX them out, try again, XX everything out, and then feel despair and worry settle on my chest like an x-ray apron”.
We’ve all been there. Where we are trying to write something then we get so frustrated and just erase what we had and start over. I know this has happened to me a few times. My process for writing a paper is so complex in my opinion.
I open a GoogleDocs and start to collect all the information I need for the assignment there. And then I’d open another doc and take information from my first doc and elaborate on it in my second doc. In that process I always find more information I want to add so I go back and forth between the two docs until I feel like I’ve fully completed the assignment. Then I’d open a third doc and that would be my final draft, the one I’m actually going to turn in. I would copy and paste everything from my second doc then go in and add anything I feel like I should add to spice up my writing and that completes my final copy.
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