After reading Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” and Renee Long’s “Why I Reject the Idea of Shitty First Drafts (And What I Do Instead),” I found myself deeply considering my own processes when approaching my writing and creating a first draft.
In Lamott’s article, she emphasized the importance of writing a messy first draft to allow herself to enjoy the writing process. She went on to mention that when writers can accept the fact that a first draft will most likely be unorganized and unpolished, it allows them to relax more in the beginning stages of writing and recognize that the first draft is simply a foundation of the piece that will be refined and edited. As a whole, Lamott encourages her audience to embrace the imperfections of their first drafts to create an incredibly intricate and well-thought-out final draft eventually. However, in Long’s article, she disagreed with Lammott’s idea of the importance of writers making a horrible first draft and feels that it is more valuable for writers to engage in a more drawn-out and intentional writing process. Along with this, Long emphasized that her view allows writers to create a more refined piece from the beginning stages of their writing as they are more deliberate with the words they place on the paper, ultimately cutting down the number of revisions needed for their final product.
When I reflect on my writing processes and goals for my first drafts, my views align more with Long’s claims. I do not enjoy writing unorganized first drafts to eventually transform them into a solid final product, as Lamott stands for. Instead, I typically brainstorm ideas for my papers days before actually beginning the draft-writing process to form my opinions, consider different perspectives, and decide the claims I ultimately want to make throughout my paper and occasionally writing down blurbs that I come up with in a note to ensure that I remember them when I begin writing. By writing an organized and intentional first draft, I feel that I am getting the difficult part out of the way early rather than needing to go back multiple times after I finish to make revisions. Although all of my papers need at least some edits before the final draft is completed, I feel that I work best knowing that my first draft was made with a quality that I am proud of and would feel confident submitting or sharing with others to read.
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