Category: Process

After reading the article “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott, how she explains writing isn’t easy as it seems. The method she talks about is to write a first draft containing ideas and shape the ideas into one. I had been thinking about using next time when Im writing an essay. So writing is easy but coming up with an ideal story to write about and being interesting to be well developed to have patience. With your writing it might be stressful but just take time with it whether you make mistakes which you as a writer could learn from. 

My views on the writing process have changed since reading “shitty first drafts”. The reason my views have changed is because in high school, the teachers would always make it seem like  our first drafts have to be important. They don’t treat it as a learning process or as something that I can gain ideas from , instead they  call it lazy and look for the mistakes and redundant uninteresting  things. Now I realize that first drafts are a way for writers to figure out what direction they want to go in when it comes to progressing their story. Lamott’s writing process contrast to mine because she actually doesn’t take her first draft seriously , she sees it as a way to write whatever she wants because she knows no one is gonna be able to view it. In my first draft I try to write the best I can and then hand it to someone to see what I can improve on. I also don’t look back at my first draft and try to draw inspiration from it which is something that Lamott does.  The steps in her process that I don’t use is writing the draft as something that isn’t serious. I also don’t look back at my drafts and try to find something  interesting and add it into my new draft. The step I would consider adding into my new writing process is getting all my ideas out in the first draft and finding the main thing that looks interesting to me.

After reading “Shitty First Drafts,” my views haven’t really changed much. Lamott’s writing process is similar to my writing process. My first drafts are never perfect. I would usually brainstorm, write a first draft, write a second draft, and finally my third draft. The first draft is usually the main points of each paragraph. The second draft is where I input additional information, evidence, arguments, or discussion. The second draft is where more ideas and thoughts develop as well. The third draft is more like proofreading my writing. It’s helpful to go over it the third time in case I missed something and an idea wandered off. 

A process I would borrow is how Lamott would visit a restaurant several times before writing a review. I know a few people that run review pages for restaurants and they would review the restaurant after just one visit. Lamott takes time with the reviews and seems to be very detailed about it. The author would also take other people opinions and use quotes from friends.

I don’t think there is a step that I would consider using in my own writing. However, the process of food review is a great way of sharing a good review and it’s something I will pass on to my friends that write reviews on food and restaurants.