The essay “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott is basically about the normal stage that any writer goes through before he or she finishes his or her writing piece. In the essay, Lamott said that possibly the hardest part of the writing process is figuring out how to begin making the first draft. In addition, she also noted that the first drafts are always poorly written as the writer’s ideas and thoughts are still vague and incoherent.However, Lamott emphasized that the first draft, no matter how terribly written it is, almost always leads to succeeding drafts which are better than the previous ones after countless editing and revising.
Furthermore, according to Lamott, this is a normal process that all writers, even the best ones, go through before they are finally able to create a masterpiece. For Lamott, the first draft basically lays the foundation which the writer will continuously refine until it reaches near perfection.Personally, I believe that the essay basically speaks the truth about the writing process itself. I was really able to relate to the article as I always have a hard time figuring out where and how to begin writing the first draft of my piece.
And when I do finish writing my first draft, I realize that almost everything about it is wrong. I find out that the draft has improper punctuations, misplaced sentences, and most of all, incoherent ideas, which is why I believe that the title “Shitty First Drafts” is appropriate for Lamott’s essay.I completely agree with her statements about the difficulty of the writing process since there are also other factors to consider such as lack of inspiration or motivation and scarcity of ideas to write about. Furthermore, Lamott’s essay basically gives me comfort in knowing the fact that all writers, even the greatest ones, began writing their best-selling books or novels the same way I do- with a “shitty first draft” The essay basically motivated me to continue writing and refining my skills no matter how “shitty” my writing pieces are.
