"Shitty First Drafts" by Lamott

In "Shitty First Drafts", the author gives her own personal experiences to describe what it's like to write a first draft regardless of whether you are a recognized writer or not. She explains how people that aren't frequent writers get this idea that every day writers can just start writing a new essay or book and it will be a work of art. In fact, she says that is the complete opposite of what occurs to writers like herself. Recognized writers also have to endure things such as writer's block or terrible first rough drafts. However, the best thing to do is to just simply start writing because most likely it will be an awful or "shitty" first draft but when you finish and write your second draft you can select and edit what you want to keep for your next draft. Lamott says to write what's on your mind in your first draft because as long as nobody sees the initial draft than that's acceptable. Incorporating what's on your mind is essential because while the writing might be informal or awful when you edit you might see something that you admire and you may end up sampling from the first draft and building off of what you sampled from. Taking a break in between each draft is necessary so that you can reflect and think about what parts you don't like or find unnecessary.