"Shitty First Drafts"

In the article “Shitty First Drafts” Anne Lamott uses humor and sarcasm to try to get us to reconsider the assumption that a writer’s first draft is supposed to be a wholesome piece of writing that should make sense and only need a few edits. She claims that the first draft of a piece of writing should be a childish explosion of whatever you want it to be. The first draft should be shitty.

            I think this assumption (of perfect first drafts) is so prevalent because in middle school and high school we were always told to have a “first draft” prepared for class. We couldn’t have “Well, so what Mr. Poopy Pants?” in this draft that our peers would be reviewing. I think because of the way schools ask you to turn in drafts a little at a time that many people assume the first draft should be complete and make complete sense.

            Lamott thinks that the first draft should be just getting something down on paper. The second draft should be fixing that up and the third draft should be making sure everything is as perfect as it can be. I think Lamott is trying to make the point that no one reads the first draft and you end up fixing it so its not worth getting so stressed out about. Everyone has shitty first drafts.

            Wikipedia allows us access to shitty first drafts because many pages on Wikiepedia are up there with only a few sentences on a topic and they are just waiting for our edits. Other people’s shitty first drafts need us to “fix them up” and to make them into final drafts. This is beneficial because to get other peoples input about your writing can help you become a better writer over time.