Post 2: Shitty First Drafts

When it comes to writing, the process of creating the product is more important than the end result itself. An author cannot compose anything worthwhile without going through a few blows to their confidence first. In this excerpt from Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, she discusses the significance of a "shitty first draft." This is the initial rough draft of your project in which you jot down all thoughts that pop in while disregarding any strict rules or structure. Although it seems like - and does - lead to a disorganized jumble of word vomit, it kickstarts the journey to a satisfactory piece of writing that will eventually come to a work of art you never thought could be achieved.

From a personal standpoint, I could not agree more with every word of advice Lamott provides. Writing has never been my forte and yet this approach almost always guides me to success. Nothing intimidates me more than a blank page and a deadline. While I could solve a million calculus problems without a drip of sweat, an essay brings me to a dark place of worry and stress that usually follows some kind of crisis or tragedy (my writing is pretty tragic, anyway). That being said, spewing gibberish onto a Word document gets the brain gears grinding and the ideas flowing. After that, the editing is a far less formidable task. Although the final piece is always unrecognizable from the original "shitty first draft," I could've never gotten there without it.