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TEH NED By the numbers: 19 days of typewriting + 1 day handwriting, 59K words, 14 sporadic weeks of when-I-can evening transcriptions, one page at a time. Now the hard part: #amediting #nanowrimo #typewriterbrigade #roughdraft #shittyfirstdrafts #givemestrength #rewrite

#givemestrength #amediting #rewrite #roughdraft #nanowrimo #typewriterbrigade #shittyfirstdrafts

Author Statement

I’d like to relate my work to “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott. It engrains the fact that writing is a process and there are steps to take in order to produce your best work possible. All good writers have less than desirable first drafts. You can’t expect perfection the first time as that’s unreasonable and unrealistic. I remember writing the first draft for each of the three essays in this portfolio and thinking I did a pretty good job. Lamott gave real and honest insight to what goes into writing great works. Although you can’t see my first drafts, they’re a perfect example of Lamott’s main idea in her writing. My essays are a drastic change from their original form. Having written and put them through peer review, they never came out anywhere close to their original structure. You can’t just sit down and start writing the perfect novel. The first few sentences may give you that hardest time of your life. There are things in the first draft that may never make it to the final draft. Some things become irrelevant and some things need to be elaborated on. “Shitty First Drafts” compliments my attitude towards writing completely. Lamott argues that the frustration of first drafts is necessary and we need to accept that we’ll be writing two or three of them. It opened my perspective of the time and process writing needs to go through in order to become its best. Although my writing only had one draft then the final draft after peer review, it only makes sense that if I had continued to make drafts and have them reviewed, my essays would be that much better. My portfolio compliments this article because they were all shitty first drafts at some point. I would even argue that a few of my works are still in the “shitty” stage. My view of writing is less tense than it was before. I was so stressed about my writing looking good off the bat and embarrassed at the thought of peer reviews. I’ve come to realize that I need to stop comparing myself because everyone goes through the same thing. No one is really writing award winning novels on the first try. There’s always a process that a writer needs to go through. No one’s process is the same, no one has the same set of skills, but everyone has at least one shitty first draft.

#shittyfirstdrafts

Every school day, our classroom has a journal topic. As a way of practicing what I preach, I write an entry myself. Writing is a daily practice and it’s usefulness to sling some words onto the page. This practice beats results over time. Sometimes, the topics can seem, at first glance, to be kind of weak. Such was today’s: “What do you plan to get your mother for Mother’s Day?” Well, as the old saw goes, “there are no stupid questions.” Invariably, these questions are always launching pads for interesting (to me, at least) areas of exploration. Today, a practical element emerged as well: a draft of a gift to my mother. #shittyfirstdrafts #thankyouannelotte #writeeveryfukinday

#shittyfirstdrafts #writeeveryfukinday #thankyouannelotte

Writing

Completely honest, I do not have a specific writing process. Usually, I start with taking bullet notes over the topic and try to form specific thoughts or ideas to focus on in the paper. Then, I just try to let my words flow in hopes of creating a paper. When learning how to write a “good” paper throughout my grade school years I was often given a thick outline packet with words like “introduction, thesis, body, main points, conclusion” in hopes that I could fill in each of the pieces to create the perfect paper. Personally, I believe that method takes the creativity out of the writing process because students direct all their focus into finding the right sentences to fit into each of the spaces instead of free writing and stating how they really feel.

Additionally, in all aspects of life I am a procrastinator. Probably my worst quality because I always find myself cramming for everything at the last second no matter how much I put in my planners, calendars, and reminders to get me to complete specific tasks. I feel like especially for writing, I need to focus on planning ahead even if it is just forming ideas of the topic on paper that I can add into the paper later because I often feel that I forgot to include different points after I turn in a paper. I have known that just doing pieces of the paper at a time will benefit me in the long run rather than pulling it all together at the last minute, which I could take that advice for all aspects of life but honestly at the end of the day I probably will still procrastinate.

#eng1510 #blogpost3 #shittyfirstdrafts

Shitty First Drafts

The "Shitty First Draft" by Anne Lamott is an article which speaks for itself within its title. Anne Lamott talks about how one's first draft should be and how it feels to write your first draft.

Anne Lamott writes that your first draft should be shitty. She refers to the first draft as "the child's draft". Where you just write without thinking and just write whatever comes to mind. Also, that your first draft no one will ever see it (just like no one will ever see this blog post "Shitty First Draft"). Anne Lamott also says that some of your best writing can come from your first draft. Your best writing can come from your first draft because your first draft is mainly just letting your thoughts poor out and come out how you first thought of them. Your best writing can be found in your first draft because you let your thoughts run free and you are not restricting yourself by guidelines or the formalities or trying to make it perfect. Your very first draft should never be perfect (most of the times) and they should usually come out badly. Trying to make your first draft perfect prevents you from releasing your possible very best writing and can stress you out.

Another thing Anne Lamott speaks about in "Shitty First Drafts" is how it feels to write a first draft. She reflects on the time she wrote food reviews for "California" magazine. She says she would usually take two days to write her review but still manage to stress out writing her first drafts. Anne Lamott says she would panic and just think about how other people would view her first draft. Her first drafts would usually be way to long than expected and go too far into detail and she even acknowledges that her writing was "terrible," but that is how a first draft should be.

Your first draft is usually never seen by anyone else but yourself. Your first draft usually will not be perfect because your first draft is usually a "Shitty First Draft."

#shittyfirstdrafts #firstblogpost

Hello, hello, everyone! I know it's been a while since I updated Instagram. I'm hoping to be better about this in the future. I have still been making videos on my YT channel (link in bio) and two new videos are going up today since I had to miss last Friday. Already live is my video about #shittyfirstdrafts and my #review / #discussion of #13reasonswhy will be up in a few hours. Hopefully I'll be back to updating Insta more often. Talk to you guys soon! 💜 💜 💜 #youtube #amwriting #amrevising #amreading #nonowords #amediting #triggerwarning #mentalhealth #booktube #writertube #authortube #writerlife #youtubelife #collegelife #collegewriters #teenwriters #yawriter #imback