Shitty First Drafts By Anne Lamott Essay Example

pertinent to writing her article. Taking notes this way, I believe made Anne a more successful writer.

She would use her notes, written and mental, to develop her first draft. Anne recant memories as a developing writer and does so with humor discussing the lessons she learned and the processes with which she learned these lessons. She uses her humor to show that all writers write shitty first drafts. She writes very informally, as though she were your big sister trying to make you feel better that your first draft looks like a toddlers art project. Her writing this way inspires a feeling within the reader of comfort and realization that we are all human and don’t start out perfect.

She writes not only from a knowledge base of how it has been but how it will be, connecting the reader with the knowledge that writing is a process. Anne writes to a younger reading audience, a more developing writer, student-based. She puts herself in the perspective of an audience member. By describing her trials about writing restaurant reviews shows the reader that any writer out there, (but one, she mentions), even the most celebrated writers, must go through a process of writing, jotting down lists and sentences of incomplete thoughts, unorganized facts and opinions, which she compares to a child tromping all over the place.

Anne walks us through her personal thought processes when writing. With this, Anne shows her readers her perspective, she explains how she draws a blank or experiences blocks too and how she gets around those. Anne depicts to her readers to be similar to the idealistic

dreamer she once was with the sole passion for being published. Throughout her essay, the reader begins to feel that professional writers are not as perfect as they seem. Most would think that professional writers are intimidating by writing down an astonishing the first draft.

This piece proves that everyone has a bad first draft, and stresses not to give up on writing after one horribly bad draft. As a student reading her essay I find this information to be a relief. There aren't many people who can say they don't wonder and worry about how well their writing turned out. With Anne expressing that most writers will start out with little worth in their works and that many of them have the same worries we suffer, we are allowed to breath a sigh of relief; we aren't the only ones that stress over the development of our writing.

Lamott uses a rhetorical sort of pathos in order to appeal to the reader. She does this by bringing readers' opinions directly into the essay. She writes, "First there's the vinegar-lipped Reader lady…And then the emaciated German male…and there are your parents…and there's William Burroughs" who all criticize her work (Lamott 72). By using these satirized characters, it connects the reader as they feel that Lamott is thinking of them while writing. Lamott also uses pathos to capture the reader's feelings and emotions.

She allows the reader to feel as if they are not alone, and that she can relate. Also she uses cursing, to make it more informal and allows the reader relate more. She finds it difficult to write a first

draft, and knows many others feel the same way, too. Pronoun usage is important in analyzing the rhetorical persuasiveness of "Shitty First Drafts. " A notable moment is when Lamott writes, "They do not type a few stiff warm-up sentences and then find themselves bounding along like huskies across the snow" (70). Automatically, Lamott uses "they" instead of I to get he direct connection with her audience. If she would have written "they," perhaps Lamott wouldn't have come across as warm and affable as she does. The word "they" gives us, her readers, the sense that she is with us (not just writing about her own isolated case)—with all normal writers who do not sit down and write like Shakespeare on a first try. She is truly just trying to explain how it is not bad, in fact it's good, to make a "shitty first draft. " Too often people get caught up by thinking that just because your writing it down it's permanent.

She stresses that you can change anything about your paper and even if you get one good sentence out of a six page draft it was a success. Lamott tells the reader that the first draft can be compare to a child scribbling on paper;there isn't necessarily good quality to it. She is very informal in her writing which also helps the audience to relate. She starts a paragraph with the word "but" and uses curse words. (72) This casual approach keeps the reader interested and reveals the author's voice. Lamott projects herself as an honest writer.

She is not afraid to say it how it is or even

talk about her own battles with "quieting the inner voices. " This quality draws readers to the piece. Her audience can then comprehend that she isn't just inventing topics, but she is being authentic and trying to relate. Not only is her honesty in the paper something that almost everyone can identify with, it also shows how genuine she is toward her readers. Lamott states exactly what is on her mind, and in many cases it is ridiculous, but she writes without any concern of judgment.

She even uses this strange style when describing a tactic to the reader. Lamott suggests that one should "isolate one of the voices and imagine the person speaking as a mouse" (73). The creativity that her ideas and writing contain make it that much more entertaining. Her writing style is also unconventional which gives it an edgy appeal. The uniqueness allows every reader to obtain their own perspective from the piece, rather than be confined to one linear idea provided by an author.

This aspect as a whole, makes both a work and an author all around more enjoyable and interesting. The best part about Lamott was that she calls it as she sees it, which I love to see in a writer. She is totally honest with the reader. She makes it so informal that no topic is taboo, even poking fun at other authors! Lamott knows what people want to read, and "Shitty First Drafts" is it. It is even better that she tells the readers that every single writer has a problem with first drafts and it just not the "inexperienced" writers, it's everyone !