In reading “Shitty First Drafts”, by Anne Lamont, I can say that I have wrote plenty of shitty first drafts in my day. It’s quite funny to think about since the adjective to describe them is a little harsh. I remember writing in high school, and re-reading it and saying, “Wow, I suck”. Up until the revision came and I had to write my second draft and it got a little better. They say third times a charm, right? That third time always made me feel like I could be an author someday.
I really liked how Lamont described the first draft as the “child’s draft”. First drafts are exactly that. I always through out all the information I could gather. Place it all onto the page so it’s there, format and guidelines will follow later. Then, I would move onto the actual writing portion, where I would try to make everything make sense. That’s called a second draft, but I know I can always do better than that! A third draft comes along and this is where I would place all my best work. All the information I gathered in chronological order, my references, and quotes. BOOM, all of this put together and now I have a paper that makes it seem like I really know what I am talking about.
Then, the submission came. My third draft would sit there for weeks on end, till the teacher gathered enough time to actually grade it. Finally, after three weeks from the submission date, I would get a grade. Although I would bust my behind to get everything done by that date, the grading would always make it seem like my best was never good enough to the teacher, but it was good enough to me. My shitty draft became perfect in my eyes and eventually that’s all I ever cared about.
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