"Shitty Rough Drafts" Reading Response
I loved “Shitty First Drafts.” This article really spoke to me. Last year, at the beginning of the year in AP English, I had trouble writing my essays because I didn’t write rough drafts. The thought of having a full essay written that was nowhere near perfect was a very uncomfortable thought for me. Students in my high school tended to shame other students who were not academically perfect and this caused me a lot of stress. Even if no one else were going to ever read my rough drafts, I was ashamed of them. After the first semester, I decided I needed to suck it up and start writing my shitty rough drafts. I would write without any consideration for form or accuracy. I found that it helped me to just put words on the page. After I started writing with this process, my essays improved so much.
One of my favorite quotes, attributed to Hemingway, is “write drunk, edit sober.” I think the meaning of that quote is to let your emotions free while writing and to worry about structure later. This is also the strategy that Anne Lamott describes, which is why I love her article so much.
For any form of writing, shitty rough drafts are important. I think though that artistic forms of writing like poetry need shitty rough drafts much more than technical writing does. In some cases, the raw, unedited version of a piece is the best version. This applies for other forms of art as well. Paintings are beautiful when they are perfected without a line out of place, but when the underdrawings show through, a whole new work is created.
I think a major problem our society has, reflected in the social expectations of my high school, is that we accept nothing but perfection. I appreciate that Anne Lamott owns her imperfections.
First of all, good for you for breaking away from some of that pressure and stress and doing what was best for you. I also had some teachers who would look down on me if my first draft was not up to their expectations, but isn't that what they're for? They are suppose to be rough around the edges. The Hemingway quote also works perfectly with Anne Lamott's writing. She wants you to evoke any true feelings or ideas that you can later come back to and extend on. We all have great ideas in our minds, it's just the matter of finding them.
ReplyDeleteI really agreed with what you had to say. I had very similar feelings in high school about being ashamed of our rough drafts and not wanting anybody to see them. I love the quote you put along with this. It really expresses to just let your words run free and not worry about everything being perfect at first just effectively get out all you have to say.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand you. I came from a high school where everyone was so smart and everything was perfect on the first try. It makes it hard to even think about writing a bad first draft since people made it seem that it had to be perfect even on the first try. I still have not broken away from it now but this article has definitely made me more motivated to work on writing multiple drafts. I really loved the Hemingway quote and I see the truth to it.
ReplyDeleteHi Stefanie
ReplyDeleteIt's awesome to learn that you overcame you fear and embarrassment of your first drafts. Concerning creative writing vs. technical writing, both need a first draft, but for different reasons. Creative writing benefits from first drafts in terms of creativity outburst, whereas technical writing's first draft helps the writer to see on the paper what they want to include, their arguments, evidence, and so forth.