John Martinez's Shitty First Drafts Response
Reading this article reminds me heavily of my time in my creative writing class in high school, discussing the writing process with other writers in the class. Writing shitty first drafts was quite common in that class, especially when it came to the big assignments, such as writing a play. I remember seeing the class rip apart my shitty first draft, heavily criticizing its lack of flow and action. While not quite the same thing as what the author is talking about, it's very similar. I find myself agreeing quite a bit with Anne Lamott on what she is discussing. When it comes to writing, the first draft is almost always shitty and all over the place. Its very rare the first draft comes out even halfway decent in any capacity, though it can happen. Often times when writing I find myself frustrated, trying to get the first words down on a draft, stopping too often to try and make it perfect, which often sabotages my own effort. It's a difficult thing to work and write through. Other times I would distract myself from writing, just to get away from it for a while, similar to what Anne describes in the fifth paragraph. I also found myself agreeing with Anne on other, more mundane things in the article, such as her disdain for the one writer who writes elegant first drafts. I personally knew someone like that, and it was frustrating beyond belief to see their perfect first drafts, written so easily while mine looked awful. I can certainly see where that sentiment comes from. One thing I did take note of in the article was a fairly heavy amount of the author mentioning her faith. She often mentions God in this article, with references in the first, second, and last paragraphs, which we can infer from her being faithful. Ironically, in first two paragraphs, she wishes ill will on the writers who break the rule of shitty first drafts. This is not a very kind thing for someone who believes in God. Overall, I felt the article was pretty good, I related quite a bit to it from my past experiences in writing. Seeing an article talk about shitty first drafts reminds me of my own personal writing and how much more needs to get done on it.
things to rain down on a person like this.
things to rain down on a person like this.
It's interesting to think about this article in relation to something like a play. The last writings I have done have been papers for classes rather than fully creative material, and I can now totally see where writing multiple drafts for something like that would be absolutely necessary, to develop themes and characters and such. I think it would be a lot easier for me to accept the process of writing a bad first draft if I had such experience as you had, because it is pretty hard for me to break the mold of my habits at this point. I also appreciated the ironic humor of the religious commentary.
ReplyDeleteHi John
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the passage in which the author mentions other writers who also write shitty first drafts - except for one that everyone hates - is super relatable and an important "flesh-and-bone" perspective to the audience.