Reading the title to Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts,” I thought that it sounded like a valid idea. I figured that it was going to be about how everyone has to write first drafts and the draft is never going to be good enough. Lamott touched on this topic, but she also went in a whole different direction. She goes on about just writing the thoughts that come to her head when she is unsure of where to start for her first draft. She says that “the first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out…” Apparently, this is how many famous writers do their first draft. They write several pages of ideas hoping that they strike gold and get a good idea. However, this a foreign concept to me; when I need to come up with ideas I talk it out. Then, for my first draft I write it as if it is my final draft. I cannot say that I understand her way of writing. Why would anyone waste their time writing pages of gibberish? Or, maybe try writing bullet points of ideas and thoughts. Now, I can be down with that.
But, I really agree more with Dila’s view on the matter. Ultimately, it depends on the person; whatever is most comfortable. However, that is not the only thing I agree with her on. In Dila’s article, “Rethinking The Shitty First Drafts,” she writes about her method of writing. As she puts it, when I write, I am “obsessively revising as I go along.” I constantly read and re-read what I have down on my paper to make sure that it is good and to figure out how I want to move on. After reading Long’s “I Reject the Idea of Shitty First Drafts,” I feel better than I did reading about shitty first drafts because the first point that Long makes is why would anyone think of their writing in that way. And I completely agree, I mean when I was reading Lamott’s paper, I was thinking about how I love all of my writing. But, Long also revises the idea that Lamott has to something more positive. She says to think about writing as if it is a plant that needs time to grow. This is also true, because no matter how many drafts, some papers will only get better with time.
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