Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” delves into the idea behind the process of writing and the ways in which we should go about it. Her writing is assertive and demanding, pressuring readers into believing that they must write in the manner that she does. George Dila contradicts Lamott’s piece in his own article “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft.” While Lamott states that in order to write effectively, you must write down essentially everything that comes to mind, resulting in an abundance of information and ideas, Dila explains a more reasonable method in which you revise as you write. I don’t doubt that Lamott’s method works for her and others, but I don’t believe that her technique is the only suitable way to write.
I tend to go about writing in a very similar way to Dila. Writing, for me, has to be very detailed and precise. I cannot write pages of nonsense in order to find one good sentence. While I am sure that many people are able to write a sentence without finding the exact words they are looking for, I simply cannot do that. I must find words that are close to or precisely the words I am looking for in order to write a sentence. Even doing so, I will still go back and revise after finishing my piece, but I feel as though this makes the process of writing a lot simpler.
I believe that each individual has their own unique way of writing, whether it be similar to Dila, Lamott, or someone else. I don’t think that there is a correct or incorrect way to write or revise and I see that as a huge contributor to what makes writing so beautiful. It is important to remember that a first draft is not going to be exceptional or meet the standards of what you may want, but that is exactly why it is a draft. However, this does not mean that the first draft has to be shitty.
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