Anne Lamott's Essay 'Shitty First Drafts'

As I began to read in week one Unteaching the Five Paragraph Essay by Marie Foley, I was reminded of the importance of how writing lends to reading, which in turn infers absorbing the content. Writing is essential to not only education but in connecting through this form of communication as well. Appropriately, this was addressed again by John Dewy in Democracy and Education in 1916. I found it interesting that this subject matter written about so long ago is still prevalent today.

How do you allow God to take control of your life and entrust that everything will be okay? This was the type of question author Anne Lamott (2006) baffled with in these next few chapters. Lamott (2006) shares her personal life story of entrusting God in her book Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith. This paper will provide a summary of chapters two thru four, combined with a personal reflection, and conclude with a few desired questions that ideally could be answered by Lamott.

Writing a first draft is like giving a speech for the first time. The first time you write a piece of work or give a speech there always is lots of error. The part of “Shitty First Drafts” that I liked the most was when Lamott states that the first

Intro:I never find a way where I can easily start writing with no problem. I am either too distracted, too bored, or trying too hard to focus that I actually don’t get anything done. Forcing myself to sit down and focus doesn’t give me a great start, it worsens my mind because I’m feeling more pressured.I know that writers struggle at first and once they start there is no stopping them. I wait for that to happen to me, but I find myself stuck. I didn’t how to start writing because I kept over thinking that whatever I had thought already was wrong.Thesis:For me, the best author that provided me with the most valuable information was Anne Lamott’s “Getting Started” because she gave me ways of how I can begin to write when I have zero ideas as to what to write, how and where to write it. This chapter served as a guideline for whenever I find myself struggling with writing. I even looked back at it with this assignment because I was feeling insecure as to what I was writing.

Anne Lamott 's essay, “Shitty First Drafts” explains to its readers that all writers, even the best, can have “shitty first drafts.” The essay presents the proper writing process from the first draft to the final piece of work. Her essay is intended to encourage writers who are in need of direction when it comes to writing and to teach inexperienced writers ways to become more successful in writing. Anne Lamott uses her personal experiences to build credibility, figurative language to engage the reader and provides the reader with logical steps for the writing process.

Annie Lamontt, author of Bird by Bird, offers a glimpse into a world many writers can relate to. In the chapter called “Shitty First Drafts”, she utilizes the writers she associates with as evidence to support that the writing process does not begin with an immaculate first draft (Lamont, 1994). This is the “fantasy of the uninitiated” (Lamont, 1994, p. 1). Strangers to the writing process may not understand that writing isn’t simply “writing”—it is a process. The uninitiated, in this case, are non-writers. Furthermore, she considers this a fantasy because it is not the reality shared between herself and the writers she knows (Lamont, 1994). This distinction is vital to the credibility of “Shitty First Drafts”, as it absolves her from being accused of being too hyperbolic.

In the article “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lemott she discusses how every writer has difficulty putting their ideas on paper because writing should be seen as a process that even the best and famous writers follow. She also talks about how even the best writers don’t just come with ideas and just begin writing on paper and make it as their final draft. Lemott also points out the importance of being able to just write down every thought into the first draft regardless of the structure of the draft and how it makes it easier to start the second draft. After writing the second draft it makes the final draft a review of punctuation and grammar corrections. As a food reviewer she struggled putting her ideas together because she would start doubting

In “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott, she discusses how a writer’s first drafts are usually not perfect (para. 1). It is just a start-draft, just to get the writer going. The first step in this process is to write down anything you can think of at the moment or write out the details for your paper. Personally, I have always struggled with not just the first paragraph, but the first sentence. Like many students and writers, we all have difficulty starting with an interesting, attention-grabbing statement. Lamott states that writers who just sit back and watch as ther books are being published is just a fantasy (para. 1). There is a somewhat trial-and-error phase to writing papers. “The right words and sentences just do not come pouring out

Many may believe that reading a book about religion would be challenging to accomplish for someone who is not religious. But those people have never read Anne Lamott’s, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith. If one were to ask non-religious college students to read a book by a random author about spirituality and “Finding God” through conversion, they would most likely roll their eyes and bear through it. In Lamott’s series of essays, one does not have to “suffer through the readings” because her writing style is one of a kind. She has strategically chosen every word because she is aware of how important her spiritual experiences are to so many people, religious or not. Her story is one of great strength, power, and faith and if it was not for her superb writing skills, that message would not get across as clearly as it does. “I took a long

Imagine how it feels to be stuck in a tiny, miniscule room for almost two years, not able to make a sound or movement and if heard by someone,death or concentration camp is the destination? The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett is about a small family which consists of Anne, Margot, Mr. Frank, and Mrs. Frank who were in a shock of fear, and went into hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Over the course of the story other characters join the family into hiding such as Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan, and their son Peter. During the time of hiding, Anne kept a diary to write down all her thoughts, fears, and feelings and was later known to be the most important piece of literature from the times of the Holocaust. The story takes you through their everyday lives of hiding in the annex which also includes arguing and times of happiness. The most important thing that the Franks and Van Daans went through was a time of fear. No matter how much happiness came through in their lives they always had fear jumbled up inside their heads.

I am thinking about my action plan as a writer have I improved, have I met the goals I set out to achieve on my first day of class, and what have I learned in this class? I will go over my time in this class and review the various topics I mentioned above and more. Looking back over my time in this class I will critique and praise myself. How I felt about writing when I first started this class compared to how I feel now, I would have to say I am more comfortable with writing. In this essay I will review how I have improved as a writer, my greatest challenges, and how has my writing changed from how it was at the start of class to now.

Bruce Ballenger’s article titled “The Importance of Writing Badly” takes a rather peculiar approach to addressing the issue of effective writing. The author eccentrically argues for the importance of ‘bad writing’ by describing different reasons to support his arguments. He argues that it is normal to apportion blames without understanding the root causes of poor writing skills. The author quotes different people who have expressed concerns about poor writing among students including his doctor. He proceeds by explaining why he would encourage his students not to concentrate on their poor writing experiences. He explains this by using a personal anecdote. The author gives an example of his eighth-grade teacher, Mrs. O’Neil. He explains that his English teacher was very keen on grammar. Her error-free culture would see the Ballenger receive ‘awkward’ comments each time he submitted his assignment for marking. The author further observes that everyone went

The first thing that came to mind was definitely you’re class, where I grew to be a confident writer. In my class we read about the importance of “shitty first drafts” which I think helped take the pressure off writing an amazing paper from the get go. I learned how to write for the genre and tried to hone in on my audience for the paper. Once I had my first draft finished there was a peer review in class, which is helpful because not only do you get feedback from them, but you also get to read their papers, which can give you ideas on what you could do better. After that, I took their feedback, revised, and then turned it into my professor to get more feedback. Once I got my professor’s feedback, I then could revise as many times as I wanted. You are probably thinking this sounds a lot like what I did for your class. I realized once again after having your class, that revising my papers makes them much stronger. I was able to improve on the way I wrote for this genre through exploding the moment and setting the scene for my audience, which made it stand out more. I also had to do a revision memo and write about what I changed and why. I found this to be especially impactful because I was able to truly see how even small revisions positively affected my

In “Shitty First Drafts,” Anne Lamott expresses the need for “really, really shitty first drafts” (3). Lamott furthers her thesis by using a past writing experience as a food critic and her wanting for a pristine first draft (5) and how she eventually goes back to “writing without reining [her]self in” (6). This helps us see that all writers, even the “People’s Author,” needs to write crappily before getting a New York Times Bestseller, which they give out to everyone. However, if your draft is “healthy” (Lamott 10); the possibility of something missing, a thesis for example, you’re screwing yourself over. As more and more people have focused on that one sentence that makes or breaks the paper, the basic idea of writing is lost: the thought,