What do good writers do?

Readings:

Shitty First Drafts – Lamott

Strong Writing and Writers Don’t Need Revision – Giovanelli

These readings discuss the importance of drafting and revising all types of writing and emphasize that it is okay to have hundreds of drafts if needed. One idea from Giovanelli that stood out to me was, “revision is as bound to writing as breathing is to living” (106); suggesting that writing is not viable without revision truly tells how important it is. Lamott focuses on not limiting yourself as a writer by thinking everything has to be perfect on the first try, because almost all good writing starts from terrible first drafts.

An example given by Giovanelli stood out to me. She stated that revision is, “the heavy lifting of working through why I’m writing, who I’m writing for, and how I structure writing logically and effectively” (104). At first, you should write whatever comes to mind, just throw all of your ideas onto the paper. Then, revision takes place, where you better organized these ideas to fit the message and audience. For example, if someone is moving into a new house, they typically will get everything inside before unpacking. Everything sort of goes where it is supposed to, but is still in the boxes. The person moving may have an idea of how she wants everything to go, but she can’t stop with each box to unpack it exactly how she wants it. That would take way too much time, and would be annoying for anyone helping. The mover would get everything inside, then start reorganizing to her plan. But sometimes it doesn’t stick to her plan. She might come up with a new plan along the way that flows better than the original. Had she unpacked each box as she brought it in, she would have to start reorganizing everything again to fit the new plan. Just like moving, writing isn’t a step-by-step, no-going-back, process. You can always change as you go and shouldn’t limit yourself to the first idea.

These readings were very interesting. As a writer, I have struggled with the idea of making things perfect on the first try. I also consider myself to be a perfectionist, which often gets in the way of my creativity. The idea that your first draft is supposed to be bad is new to me, and has made me think differently about the idea of “perfection”. I have held the idea that things will get done fastest if you do them right the first time. It was while reading Lamott that I had a realization. If you are so focused on making the first draft as good as it will get, you will waste time writing and rewriting and changing and tweaking and scratching an entire piece, just to end up with nothing written after hours of work. Lamott emphasizes that It is better to have a lot of shitty writing than no good writing. So instead of spending hours writing to only end up with a third of what you need, you could spend those hours writing about whatever pops into your head, end up with more than you need, come back later and find what works, and start from there. I believe that one of the keys to being a good writer is knowing how to turn shitty writing into good writing.