When I was reading Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts,” I felt a type of comfort. For instance, I know that I’m not perfect at my writing and my writing can use guidance and annotations. So with this mindset I would sometimes talk myself down and compare myself to other writers. But, when I was reading this article I loved how Lamott mentions the authors who wrote great papers and stories and how they have to go through many drafts to finally create an amazing paper. The takeaway that I get from this is that nobody is perfect in writing but practicing and revising your work does.
In “Rethinking The Shitty First Draft” by George Dila, I was surprised to see how Dila’s first draft wasn’t a first draft. The way that Dila would revise and revise on his own until his first draft was close to perfect was interesting to read. I haven’t really come across anyone who would focus so much on the first draft to try to make it perfect. But, again everyone has their writing process which for Dila, his writing process was revising his first draft and making corrections as he goes along with his paper. At the beginning of George Dila’s article, I thought that Dila was a person who was smart to where his drafts were naturally close to perfect without even trying. But, once I started reading deeper into the article it’s all about his writing process and what works for him.
Renee Long’s “Why I Reject the Idea of Shitty First Draft (And What I Do Instead)” speaks on how “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott doesn’t help her in her writing. She states that it just makes her feel worse about herself which isn’t the best emotion to feel when you’re writing a paper. Long also expresses that calling your work “sh*tty” even if it’s your first draft will least motivate you to do the paper. As I was reading Long’s article, I was leaning more toward Renee’s opinion because of how much I relate to her statement. For example, when writing a paper no matter how big or small it is I need to feel confident and good at what I am writing. I need to set a positive mindset to produce good work. If I’m just calling my work “sh*tty” it is not going to motivate me at all. Overall, these three articles are great for figuring out your identity and what works for you when you are writing. Not everyone is going to agree with these authors but I know that there are going to be people who strongly agree with one author more than the other.
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