Reading Lamott's "Shitty First Drafts" actually made me far more excited to begin the actual process of writing this essay than I had previously been. While I would actually define myself as someone who, in the grand scheme of people, enjoys writing essays, the moment of sitting down at a blank screen and actually beginning the work is always by far the most daunting part. It is as if you feel like you must open the entire paper cleverly with a witty summary of exactly where you want your argument or angle to be headed. However, Lamott's concept of "the child's draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and you can shape it later" (pg 22) really resonated with me. Why do I put all of this worry into a body of work the nobody is going to see but myself?! Where is all of the pressure that I feel actually coming from? If the hardest part is starting a draft, I am determined to begin this one by just writing what is on my mind about my comparative thesis and then naturally working my way into the body paragraphs. After reading this, I am definitely not going to give anything a second look until I have gotten out a full, probably shitty, draft.
I totally agree with you, the worst part of a paper is opening the word document and seeing that blank page. I wrote part of my blog post about how I hate seeing that 'nothing' state and just need to get something down even if it comes out sounding like a five-year old wrote it. Lamott encourages this technique of starting to write by just starting to move your fingers and get some sort of idea down.
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