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.
