After reading Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” (est. time: 15 minutes), take a minute to compare and contrast your own first draft (and the experience of writing it) with Lamott’s descriptions. What did you notice? Did anything surprise you about this short essay? Did anything offend you?

After reading Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” I can compare myself to her very much. When I go to write a first draft for something, I always get writers block. I always struggle to start the essay. Once I find something to talk about, I usually just word vomit everywhere. At least I can say that I put something down for a first draft. I always jump around and make paragraphs incomplete or never actually write about then topic I am supposed to be writing about. I am shocked at how to the point I got in some of the paragraphs. It’s like I made some good claims and had strong opinions. Nothing about her article offended me.

For my revision process, I am planning on taking things step by step. I will first fix any of the punctuation mistakes I had made, since those will generally be the easiest to approach. Next I will look in to areas where wordplay, sentences, or misused vocabulary are and make them more clear to the reader. I will lastly look at things to include or major paragraphs that need to be turned around. Those generally will take the most brain power to I try and get the easy stuff done first so its not a hassle at the end. My biggest challenge is probably going to be the areas where I may need to add more context. I generally have a hard time getting started and getting information down on paper. Should challenges become to hard for me I will advocate for myself and get help, either from a friend or from a professor.