There is one way and one way only to begin a writing piece if you are a good writer, at least according to Anne Lamott in her article “Shitty First Drafts”. Lamott claims that writing a shitty first draft is crucial to getting everything you have to say out on paper, and then revisions can be made later on. However, I disagree with Lamott. I think it’s a rash statement to say that all good writers have one way of going about their writing process. I understand where Lamott is coming from in this article, and I do believe that writing a shitty first draft is the only way she can start a writing piece. However, I think that she is quick to make an assumption about all other writers.
Although I am not a professional writer, I would still consider myself a writer, as I am a student. As such, I believe that I am qualified to disagree with Lamott and state that not every writer needs to write a shitty first draft to produce quality work. I, for one, don’t even have a consistent writing process. Sometimes I want to spit all my ideas out on paper as quickly as possible, and then I go in later on to tweak it and make it sound better. Sometimes, though, I want to write something great from the start, and I don’t think that a shitty first draft would be beneficial.
George Dila mentions similar ideas in his article “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft”. Dila seems to think that shitty first drafts do not work for him, but he later suggests that whatever process works for you is the best one to use. I completely agree, as I don’t think there is one method that every single writer should use to write.
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