Reading Anne Lamot’s “Shitty First Drafts” spoke wonders to me and my own personal conflict with not only writing, but with many aspects of my life in fact. At first glance, understanding the idea that even great authors “feel like [they] are pulling teeth” when writing” provided of a sense of assurance that I was not the only one in this struggle of forming masterpieces of literature. However, this lesson of multiple drafts seemed very obvious to me; after all, this concept is something that has been taught to me from the beginning of my academic education. Therefore, the point Lamot is trying to emphasize is the “word vomit” part of making first drafts, something I tend to avoid and neglect. It is important to simply pour out ideas that come to mind when writing to create a foundation full of potential.
“Every artist has thousands of bad drawings in them and the only way to get rid of them is to draw them out.”
-Chuck Jones
Reflecting, I realized that doing many things require a series of shitty firsts before anything. When in art, thumbnail sketches are essential to help artist visualize the overall composition and color scheme of a piece. In cooking and developing recipes, multiple failed attempts are bound to happen. Life itself is full of shitty firsts that need to be done before any real success begins to show itself.
In the end, it is what is learned from each horrible first draft that propels us to do better the next time. The significance that comes from messy drafts is that each one is one step closer to the final product in mind.