"Shitty First Drafts"

Anne Lamont’s essay is essentially a response to an assumption made by many writers, and especially new writers. This assumption is that when a talented writer sits down to write, they simply start cranking out their work in its developed form straight onto the page. Why this is such a prevalent misconception isn’t entirely certain, but nonetheless it exists. Lamont firmly believes the actual process of all writing to begin with the titular shitty first draft. She asserts that even established writers must simply get out any and all thoughts onto the page; things that most likely won’t be used in the end. You are to write anything and everything even if it accumulates into several pages. Through this, the writer gains a sort of foundation that can be refined and particularly effective or desirably “bits” can be removed. Lamont beautifully illustrates this point:

“There may be something in the very last line of the very last paragraph on page six that you love … but there was no way to get to this without first getting through the first five and a half pages.”

Wikipedia’s history function comes to the rescue once again in our learning. The early entries into the article history are, in many ways, the shitty first drafts of any article. They show the early stages and even the first stage. In many ways, the earlier stages of a wiki article could be likened to a shitty first draft as many users will pass through and edit and revise as time goes by.