In a compelling article, one author challenges the perspective of another on how to write a first draft. In Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts”, she goes on about how shitty first drafts are the way to go. Whereas George Dila confronts this perspective in his article “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft”.
Lamott uses her friendships to support her claim that good writers write shitty first drafts. She mentions that she knows “Some very great writers… Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her.” This seems pretty harsh and Lamott comes off very strong and snarky. However, her next point is interesting and agreeable. Essentially, she says to have fun with your writing and let all of your thoughts come out onto the page. She gives us an example, “If one of the characters wants to say, ‘Well, so what, Mr. Poopy Pants?’ you let her. No one is going to see it.” She goes on to say that in all of the crazy writing, you might find something amazing. I can see how this can be beneficial when writing. She does throw me off by the end of her article when she goes on about the voices in her head telling her what to write. It truly is a very interesting read.
Dila is also very snappy in his article. He says, “I cannot even allow myself to write a shitty first sentence, let alone immediately follow the first with another few hundred shitty sentences.” It is safe to say that Dila does not agree with Lamott’s perspective. He talks a bit about his writing process. Essentially, he writes a first draft as if it were his final draft. He doesn’t believe his writing is perfect when he first types it, but he is consistently re-reading and revising as he writes whereas Lamott writes everything manically first and then revises it later. He ends his article by reminding the reader to write the way they know best.
It is difficult to agree with one author more than the other. I write like Dila by treating my first draft as if it were my final draft. I find it to be more efficient and I am more pleased with my writing if it is good and not shitty. However, I cannot just agree with him solely based on that. Lamott also has an interesting style of writing. She blurts everything out onto the page which is smart because there might be something great in between all of the craziness. However, I like the way Dila goes about his message in his article. He disagrees with Lamott because she made it seem like to be a good writer, you have to do it her way. He reminds his audience to do whatever they want which is what we should tell all writers. Writing is hard as it is, so why stress about the right way to go about the writing process?
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