Now, everyone has been there. That moment where a person looks at a blank page and thinks of absolutely nothing–or absolutely everything with no organization. It’s either one of them or both, and sometimes when there is a person who just dives in, they’re bound to meet a bad first draft. Which Anne Lamott refers to in her work “Shitty First Drafts”, where she goes through her process of creating reviews and stories.
I can’t say that I’m the same with this process. When referring to the first drafts, she essentially is saying to let the inner child take the wheel. Have an idea in mind, get a piece of paper–or anything to write on–and go for it. It could be absolutely terrible and not make a lick of sense, but that is what the second and third draft are for.
Writers don’t know what they’ve done until they’ve done it, so when they look back on it the next time, it’s a little bit of a humbling experience. In the second draft they fix it up a little bit, make it make a little more sense and see if anything they wrote can become something important and needed in their writing. Once they finish that, they get to the third draft, which is just to make sure that the step before actually worked the way it should’ve. No loose threads or crowded teeth–just one paper that flows easy together and works like a charm.
Here is the fun part about it though, that person is going to mess up that first draft no matter what. They’re going to get lost and stressed and want to quit, but it’s just a part of the process that makes the draft that much better. Want to know why? Because no one is going to see it. That first draft will be deleted and changed so quickly that no one will even blink at it before it’s brand new, and that’s the beauty of it. It’s important to take time and care into writing and a person’s-self. Losing marbles with writing will never lead anywhere good.
However, most people do not believe in ‘shitty’ first drafts. One of these people being George Dila, who was, quite frankly, offended by the term and made a whole response to Lamott about it. And, I’m kind of with him on this. In his response titled “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft”, Dila admits he is a perfectionist in a way with his writing. His own ‘first draft’ has to be re-written and reviewed over 100 times before it’s even considered a full thing.
He also goes as far as interpreting the ‘pour it out’ statement from Lamott’s idea of a first draft to building a house–which I thought was incredibly hilarious and petty. Here is where I agree. When I write something, I am constantly deleting paragraph after paragraph because I hate how one word sounds or how one action plays out. I am super nit-picky and hard on myself, but it satisfies me when I finally finish (even if I still hate it) as it does for Dila. His motto is ‘write the way that works for you’, and I think that is super important, and so does someone else.
Christopher Morales in his perspective piece “Diversify Your Outlines’ ‘, he believes that teachers should let students choose whatever writing structure works best for them. Most teachers believe in process over product or vice versa, but the real problem is how we get to the product. Outlines are tedious but they work for many people. They help organize thoughts and ideas, as well as figuring out the flow of their piece.
The problem is, formal structure sometimes stresses them out, which is why I referred to it as tedious, because I am one of those students. Morales believes that outlines are important- but not always the only tool in the box. There is actually no certain tool at all, it really is just something that has to be figured out. One of his professors used Storyboarding in place of outlining which gave them a sense of freedom and a more imaginative state of mind.
Imagination can only get someone so far in writing, and sometimes, people are fresh out. Michaela Ramirezs’ perspective refers to writer’s block in her piece “Writer’s Block is Easily Preventable”. It’s a familiar feeling to be stuck, as I mentioned before, when looking at a blank piece of paper. It’s like it’s taunting because once someone looked at it all of their ideas just flew out of their head. It makes them want to close their laptop and do it later–which perfectly defines procrastination / writers block.
There are a few ways to work around that though: ignoring the rubric, sleeping on it, and or distracting oneself. The first one may seem a little important to do, but that’s where people get stuck. They think of all the ways they can be perfect while writing, so they are only focused on the rules instead of the actual paper. One thing to do is skim the rubric and don’t think twice about it after, just write. Of course if someone happens to be terrible at skimming then they shouldn’t do that but I digress.
Sleeping on it is basically what it sounds like. Take the time to lay down and rest and wake up with an open mind and new perspective–it actually works super well. It doesn’t work well when it’s due that night and a super long nap takes place and there is rushing involved, but hey, that works for some people too. The last thing is actually a little more activity based. For about 15 minutes, if under a lot of stress, listening to music / going on a walk / dancing really gets the mind active and heart calm because it’s doing something familiar. Doing what is best for them is the most important thing they can do.
And that’s what is so amazing about writing. The fact that there are so many ways to accomplish something based around a personal preference is beautiful and super inclusive to the community. Even though sometimes teachers are annoying about writing–it’s fun to just be a writer sometimes. I’ve certainly learned a lot about how to write–but I am still going to be nit-picky because that’s the only way I know how, okay bye!
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